bout de papier, Vol. 32, No. 1 (2022), p. 26
AMBCANADA (THE CANADIAN AMBASSADORS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION) AND PAFSO are extremely proud of the Deborah Chatsis Indigenous Scholarship in International Affairs at Carleton University. Originally an initiative of AMBCANADA in 2020 PAFSO gave its support and full endorsement of the scholarship late last year. Thanks to the generosity of the members of both associations the funding for the scholarship has reached a level at which we expect it will be self-sustaining in the years to come at a value of $2,000 annually.
We were even more delighted on December 29, 2021, when the Governor General announced that Deborah was being named a member of the Order of Canada “for her leadership as the first woman of a First Nation to serve as Ambassador of Canada, and for her advocacy of human rights around the globe.” A career foreign service officer and executive Deborah was born in Chilliwack, British Columbia and grew up in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, as a member of the Ahtahkakoop First Nation.
A graduate of the University of Saskatchewan with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering followed by a Bachelor of Laws, Deborah subsequently earned a Master of Laws degree from the University of Ottawa with a specialization in international law. To top this off she earned a master’s degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University which she attended as a Fulbright Scholar.
Highlights of her career in the Foreign Service included serving as Ambassador of Canada to Vietnam, Director of South Asia Relations at the Department, and as Ambassador of Canada to Guatemala and High Commissioner to Belize. Deborah also served as a senior advisor to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and worked at the Privy Council on Indigenous issues.
The first recipient of the Scholarship is Sage Shelton, who is a student in the M.A. programme at the Norman Peterson School of International Affairs. Before enrolling at Carleton Sage completed her BA at the University of Winnipeg in 2020, with a focus on English literature and human rights. In her MA program she is focussing her studies in the health, displacement and humanitarian policy stream with a particular concentration on research on refugee policy and forced displacement. Sage is a member of the School’s equity, diversity and inclusion committee and is actively involved in promoting equity, diversity and inclusion for Indigenous and other marginalized communities.
Colleagues and friends who would like to add their contribution by reaching out to futurefunder carleton ca/ giving-fund/ambcanada-pafso-deborah-chatsisindigenous-scholarship-in-international-affairs.
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 32, No. 1 (2022), p. 26. Read the rest of this issue →
