Elissa Golberg

Ms. Elissa Golberg was appointed Canadian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, and the Conference on Disarmament in August 2011. Ms. Golberg has been with the Canadian diplomatic service since 1996 working on a range of peace and security issues. From April 2009 to August 2011, she was the Director-General for the Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT), a whole-of-government platform responsible for providing policy leadership on conflict prevention, humanitarian affairs, peacekeeping and peacebuilding issues, supplying people and program resources to enable timely and effective Canadian stabilization and reconstruction efforts in specific contexts, coordinating Canada’s response to natural disasters abroad, and managing the $146 million Global Peace and Security Fund. From February 2008 to January 2009, Ms. Golberg served as the Representative of Canada in Kandahar, the senior Canadian civilian envoy in southern Afghanistan, leading a multi-agency team responsible for delivering on Canada’s governance and development objectives. Prior to that assignment, from October 2008 to January 2009, Ms. Golberg was the Executive Director of the Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan (“the Manley Panel”) at the Privy Council Office. Ms. Golberg has had a variety of other responsibilities with the Department of Foreign Affairs, including serving as the Senior Director of the Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force, and Director of the Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Response Division. Ms. Golberg has participated in the management of Canadian Government responses to several conflicts including Libya, Afghanistan, Sudan and Lebanon, and has played a leading role in Canada’s response to major natural disasters, including as the Co-coordinator of the Government of Canada’s 2011 Japan and 2010 Haiti Earthquake Task Forces. Ms. Golberg holds a Master’s degree in International Relations (1997), and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and History (1995). She is a recipient of the NATO ISAF General Service medal, the Queen’s Jubilee Medal, the Public Service Award of Excellence, 3 Ministers’ Awards for Foreign Policy Excellence, and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010. She has published several articles on humanitarian and fragile state related matters.