About

Dr. Gaëlle Rivard Piché is the Executive Director of the Conference of the Defence Associations and the CDA Institute. She holds a PhD in International Affairs from Carleton University and has over a decade of experience in Canada’s defence and security community, combining strategic leadership, operational expertise, and academic research.

Previously, she served as a strategic analyst at Defence Research and Development Canada, working closely with the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Special Operations Forces Command, and NORAD. She is an affiliated expert with the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats and was a Fulbright Fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Dr. Rivard Piché’s research focuses on Arctic security and defence, hybrid threats, deterrence, and Latin American and Caribbean security. Her work has been published in leading academic and policy journals, and she has co-authored two books on Arctic security, including the Newport Manual on Arctic Security. She also contributes to professional military and security education as a lecturer at the Canadian Forces College and as a training consultant with the RCMP. A strong advocate for diversity and inclusion, she has held leadership roles with Women in International Security–Canada and the Defense Women’s Advisory Organization.

About

Dr. Regan is a Professor of Biology and Acting Associate Dean Research in the Faculty of Arts and Science. Her research is focused on Plant Biotechnology, especially in forest and agricultural crops. As Associate Dean Research, her role involves strategic leadership in overseeing research programs, advising on research initiatives and partnerships, ensuring quality assurance and fostering multidisciplinary collaborations that align with the University’s strategic research goals.

About

Dr. David Perry is the President and CEO of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, host of the institute’s Defence Deconstructed Podcast and a co-director of the Triple Helix MINDs Collaborate Network. He is the author of multiple publications related to defence budgeting, transformation and procurement and a columnist for the Canadian Naval Review. He received his PhD in political science from Carleton University where his dissertation examined the link between defence budgeting and defence procurement. He is a research fellow of the Centre for the Study of Security and Development at Dalhousie University and was previously the Senior Security and Defence Analyst of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute and Deputy Director of Dalhousie University’s Centre for Foreign Policy Studies.  Embassy Magazine and The Hill Times has named him one of the "Top 100 Influencing Canadian Foreign Policy.”

About

Veronica Kitchen is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo and the Balsillie School of International Affairs, where she researches national security and teaches in the field of International Relations. She serves on the Balsillie School Board. Previously, she was co-director of the Canadian Network for Terrorism, Security, and Society (TSAS) and serves on the executive of its successor, the Canadian Network for the Study of Security, Extremism and Society (CANSES) where she is co-lead of the working group on early career researchers. She has published extensively on gender and national security, heroism and global politics, IR pedagogy, mega-event security, Canadian-American security relations, and transatlantic security relations.

About

Dr. Catherine Viens is a political scientist specializing in resource governance, environmental and social dimensions of extractivism, security studies, and gender analysis. Her research examines how large-scale projects shape local governance, security, and community resistance, drawing on fieldwork in India, South Africa, and Canada.

She holds a PhD in Political Science from the Université du Québec à Montréal (2023, distinction) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship (2023-2025) at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec.

At the CIDP, her work focuses on conflict prevention, risk analysis, and the security governance dimensions of natural resource projects, in collaboration with Stéfanie von Hlatky and Andrew Grant, as well as on updating the Conflict Prevention Tool (CPT) through a gender lens.

She also serves as Director of the Risk and Security Management Program at the Canadian Research Institute on Humanitarian Crisis and Action (OCCAH). She provides expertise to governments and NGOs on development, gender, humanitarian action, and security. She also offers media commentary on India’s domestic and foreign policy and is the Quebec director for the feminist NGO Fundación Lüvo.

Research Interests

Recent Publications

Online