Rachel Wernick

Fellow

Rachel Wernick retired from the federal public service in May 2023 after a distinguished career as an executive in policy and program design that culminated in her role as Senior Assistant Deputy Minister of Skills and Employment at Employment and Social Development Canada.

Rachel is one of Canada’s leading practitioners in social and employment policy having gained experience in a variety of executive roles at Canadian Heritage, the Privy Council Office, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Public Works and Government Services. Rachel’s passion for policy excellence resulted in her appointment as Co-Champion of the Clerk’s Policy Community initiative; a role she held for five years.

Rachel’s expertise includes workforce development, skills innovation, the future of work, skills and employment for marginalized populations and gender and diversity analysis. Rachel is a strong proponent of the benefit of user-driven design and has a proven ability to lead multi-partner collaboration to take something from policy idea or challenge through to actionable options for implementation.

Rachel is the Program Director for the newly revamped Policy Leadership Program (PLP), which is tailored to meet the evolving needs of public service policy executives early in their leadership development.  The PLP is delivered through a partnership between the Public Policy Forum and Telfer Executive Programs at the University of Ottawa.

Rachel joined PPF as a Fellow in October, 2023.

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