Rachel Wernick
Fellow
Rachel Wernick is a retired federal public servant and the program director for the Policy Leadership Program (PLP), a learning program delivered by PPF and Telfer Executive Programs at the University of Ottawa — meant to meet the evolving needs of public service policy executives early in their leadership development.
She is one of Canada’s leading practitioners in social and employment policy, drawing on a distinguished career as an executive in policy and program design. Her expertise includes workforce development, skills innovation, the future of work, skills and employment for marginalized populations and gender and diversity analysis.
A strong proponent of the benefit of user-driven design, she has a proven ability to lead multi-partner collaboration to take something from policy idea or challenge through to actionable options for implementation.
Rachel’s career spans a range of experiences in the federal government, including executive roles at Canadian Heritage, the Privy Council Office, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Public Works and Government Services. Before retiring in 2023, she was senior assistant deputy minister of skills and employment at Employment and Social Development Canada. Her passion for policy excellence resulted in her appointment as co-champion of the Clerk of the Privy Council’s Policy Community initiative in 2017, a role she held for five years.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and history from McGill University and a graduate diploma in international development and cooperation from the University of Ottawa.
Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn.
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Inez Jabalpurwala, President and CEO of the Public Policy Forum
By bringing together established leaders and emerging voices, our work produces resilient, practical policy ideas that serve all Canadians.
