Maureen O’Neil is serving her second term as president of the International Development Research Centre. She was appointed by the Government of Canada in 1997. O’Neil is a member of the International Board of Governors of the Centre for International Governance Innovation and of the Policy Advisory Group of the UK Department for International Development, and chair of the Hemispheric Advisory Board of the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas.
O’Neil has also been interim president of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, president of The North-South Institute, and deputy minister of Citizenship in the Ontario provincial government. A staunch advocate of women’s and human rights, she has represented Canada on the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and on Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development committees. She has been a member of the Institute for Women, Law and Development, and the UN Research Institute for Social Development.
O’Neil has honorary doctorates of law from Carleton University and Wilfrid Laurier University. In 1986 she recieved the A.D. Dunton Alumni Award of Distinction from Carleton’s Alumni Association.
