Professor Jennifer Bond is Founder and Managing Director of the University of Ottawa Refugee Hub. She is also Chair of the Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative; and a Board Member and Refugee Fund Advisor with Airbnb.org. She holds degrees in law, literature, and business and has been called to the Bars of Ontario and British Columbia. She completed her graduate work at the Yale Law School as a John Peters Humphrey Fellow in International Human Rights Law and clerked at the Alberta Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada.
In 2015/16, Professor Bond served on a full-time basis as Special Advisor to Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship on Canada’s “Operation Syrian Refugee”, a project which engaged over two million Canadians and brought over 40,000 refugees to Canada in under four months. She has since supported the design of refugee protection pathways and community sponsorship programs in over 15 countries.
Professor Bond has also provided strategic advice to Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR); completed research projects for the Commonwealth Secretariat and the International Women’s Rights Project; and made submissions before the Supreme Court of Canada. She previously managed a grass-roots NGO supporting at-risk youth; worked as a strategic analyst at a leading consulting agency; practiced law at a major Canadian firm; and served with the UNHCR in Damascus, Syria. She has provided expert commentary for over 50 national and international media stories, and delivered workshops and presentations in over 20 countries.
Professor Bond has been awarded the International Commission of Jurist’s Tarnopolsky Award and appointed to the Order of Ontario in recognition of her national and international contributions to refugee protection.