Dr. Désirée Marielle McGraw is a senior research fellow at the CISDL. She has worked as a consultant, researcher, reporter and spokesperson in the field international relations on issues ranging from peace and security to environment and sustainable development. She has published and lectured extensively in the areas of globalization, governance and democratizing global decision-making processes – particularly as they relate to environmental and economic issues such as biotechnology, climate change and trade.  Ms. McGraw currently lectures in development studies at McGill University. She is also a Director of the G8 Research Group based at the University of Toronto’s Munk Center for International Studies. In addition, Ms. McGraw is a Senior Strategist with the Global Governance Group and works in association with Stratos, an Ottawa-based consulting firm specializing in “strategies to sustainability.” As a consultant on international negotiations and communications, she has advised a range of clients in business, government and media as well as non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations, including Canada’s Departments of Environment and Foreign Affairs, the Canadian International Development Agency, the UN Environment Program, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the NAFTA Commission for Environmental Cooperation. The recipient of some twenty national and international awards and scholarships, Désirée pursued graduate studies in International Relations as a Commonwealth Scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Ms. McGraw is an active member of several national and international associations, including the International Studies Association, the International Federation of University Women, the Academic Council of the United Nations System, the UN Association of Canada, and the Canadian Institute for International Affairs. She sits on the Board and Scholarship Committee of the London Goodenough Association of Canada. Ms. McGraw first became involved in international organizations at age 18 when she was appointed by the Governor General of Canada to serve as a youth advisor to the Canadian Delegation to the UN’s Third Special Session on Disarmament. Since that time, she has served on a number of national delegations, including to the UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992) and to the Conference of Parties to the Biodiversity Convention (2000). Following her appointment by UN Under-Secretary-General Maurice Strong to serve as one of two World Youth Ambassadors to the 1992 Earth Summit, she spent four years working as a UN rapporteur/reporter (1993-1997). A dual citizen of Canada and the United States as well as a former resident of the United Kingdom, Ms. McGraw has been involved in politics and election campaigns in all three countries.