Jessica Ferne

Jessica currently serves as Director, Global Health Impact, with CanWaCH (Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health). In this role, Jessica leads CanWaCH’s strategic efforts to strengthen Canadian monitoring and evaluation processes, capacity, and collaborations, in order to drive evidence-driven programming and decision-making, with the ultimate aim of improving the health and lives of women, children, and youth.

Prior to CanWaCH, Jessica served as Director of Programs for a Canadian-based humanitarian organisation, where she led an extensive global portfolio of emergency response and development programs. A passionate health rights advocate, Jessica has also worked in diverse senior program management, technical expert, research, and evaluation capacities in Canada and abroad, with a particular focus on humanitarian action, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and youth engagement. Her work has taken her to multiple countries across South Asia, the Middle East, Eastern and Southern Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Americas.

Jessica currently serves as President on the Board of Directors for the Ontario Council for International Cooperation, an international development and education network working globally for social justice. She holds a Master of Public Health degree from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (University of Toronto), as well as a Bachelor degree in Philosophy (University of Ottawa). She has completed post-graduate certificates in Advanced International Project Management (University of Toronto), International Policy Analysis & Strategic Planning (Carleton University), and Humanitarian Response (Harvard University).

Jessica is currently based in Ottawa, and speaks both English and French.