Policy Advisor, Portfolio Coordination Secretariat, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Victoria (pronouns: she/her|elle) is currently a Policy Advisor at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, supporting the Portfolio Coordination Secretariat, with over 20 years of experience as a federal public servant. Before rising to her current role, she was a Policy Analyst engaged in developing and implementing Canada’s first-ever Food Policy and Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council. Victoria has taken on various roles within government over her career: research program support at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), regulatory scientist conducting human health risk assessments and dietary exposure evaluations at Health Canada for agricultural pesticides, natural health products and foods (food additives, contaminants, processing aids, supplemented and novel foods). Pausing her day job to pursue a MA in Human Geography at McGill University, Victoria found the perfect integration of science, policy and justice studying the livelihood impacts of agricultural biotechnology among upland ethnic minorities in rural northern Vietnam. Victoria has a BSc. in Biology from the University of Ottawa, and a post-graduate Certificate in Food Security from Ryerson University.