Lieutenant-General Chris Whitecross enrolled in the Canadian Forces in 1982, joining the Canadian Military Engineers. Successive postings have taken her from Germany to almost every province in Canada, notably to undertake a range of staff duties such as those of Director of Infrastructure and Environment Corporate Services for the Assistant Deputy Minister (Infrastructure and Environment); Joint Engineer, Canada Command; and Chief of Staff for Assistant Deputy Minister (Infrastructure and Environment) among others. Lieutenant-General Whitecross has also performed the duties of G1/G4 for the Force Engineers of the United Nations Protection Force (Yugoslavia) while deployed to the Former Republic of Yugoslavia; Wing Construction Engineering Officer, and Canadian Armed Forces Chief Military Engineer at National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa, among many others.

Lieutenant-General Whitecross has a Bachelor in Chemical Engineering from Queen's University and a Masters in Defence Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada. She is also a graduate of the Advanced Military Studies Course and the Command and Staff Course. She has received numerous awards including being named as one of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women of 2011 and then again in 2016. In 2018, the Canadian Prime Minister appointed her as a member of the G7 Gender Council during Canada’s G7 Presidency. In February 2015, Lieutenant-General Whitecross was appointed Commander of the Canadian Forces Strategic Response Team on Sexual Misconduct, and assumed the duties as Commander, Military Personnel Command in June 2015 upon promotion to Lieutenant- General. In November 2016, Lieutenant-General Whitecross was appointed Commandant of the NATO Defense College in Rome, Italy. She retired in December 2020. In retirement, Lieutenant-General Whitecross is committed to help develop and mentor future Canadian and Military leaders. She was appointed the first Senior Mentor for the Athena Network of the Royal Military College of Canada.

OCdt Chelsea Stephen is a 4th year student at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) studying BA (Honours) English, Culture, and Communication with a History Minor. During her studies, she has developed a particular interest in gender dynamics and diversity with a specific focus on the relationship between these things and their impact on the military environment. Both OCdt Stephen's degree and military training have faced the impacts of COVID-19 over the last two years and she is eager to share her personal experiences and insight with you.

Rachel Babins currently works in incident response (cybersecurity) at a major Canadian telecommunications company, and previously held positions in threat intelligence. In 2021, she co-founded Emerging Leaders in Canadian Security (ELCS), an organization focused on resourcing, connecting, and unifying Canada's next generation of security practitioners; ultimately working to build a more diverse, skilled, and secure Canada.

In 2019, Rachel received her MA in Russian Studies, where she wrote her thesis on Russian ICS-tailored malware targeting critical infrastructure in Ukraine, the US and Canada. She also did a second thesis looking at Russian disinformation targeting NATO's Enhanced Forward Presence mission in the Baltics. In the past, Rachel worked at NATO's Operational headquarters in the Netherlands and at the Canadian government's Nuclear Energy Division, where she got to dig more deeply into security-related issues. On the side, she is currently working as a deputy team lead for a cybersecurity-related project with the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence which will launch in June 2022.

Dr. Chowdhury is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. The focus of his research has been to explain why most states in the world have developed as 'weak states' that is, unable to monopolize violence or provide public goods to the satisfaction of their people, yet states persist as the central organizational unit of world politics. This argument is developed in his book titled The Myth of International Order (Oxford University Press, 2018), which won prizes from the American Political Science Association and the European Consortium for Political Research.

Maria Victoria “Mavic” Cabrera Balleza is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders. She is one of the two civil society initiators of the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund. She is also one of the founding members of its Global Funding Board. Ms. Cabrera-Balleza is also a Board Member of the Generation Equality Compact on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action representing GNWP and the Beijing +25 Civil Society Coalition on Women, Peace and Security and Youth, Peace and Security.

Ms. Cabrera-Balleza initiated the Philippine National Action Plan on the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. She has provided technical support in 1325 national action planning in different countries including Guatemala, Japan and South Sudan; and facilitated costing and budgeting workshops of 1325 national action plans in Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon, and Nepal.

She co-authored the books From Best Practice to Standard Practice: A toolkit on the Localization of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women and Peace and Security and Costing and Financing 1325; and edited the 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 editions of Women Count: Civil Society Monitoring Report on Security Council Resolution 1325. She leads the civil society advocacy on the use of CEDAW General Recommendation 30 on women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations as a complementary accountability mechanism to the WPS resolutions. In 2014, Ms. Cabrera-Balleza led the establishment of the Young Women Leaders for Peace (YWL), a network of young women in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, South Sudan, and Ukraine, who are leading peacebuilding efforts in local communities.

Currently a freelance security and defence reporter, Elisabeth covers all topics related to military deals, international security, and procurement in the Middle East and North Africa region as well as Canada and Europe. At 25, she has been published several times internationally in two languages including for the Globe and Mail, Shephard Media, the Aspen Institute, and other media networks. During the pandemic, she relocated to Italy where she now lives full-time and joined the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) working as an Events and Conference Assistant in charge of Italy’s largest international conference Rome Mediterranean Dialogues. She is also a Research Fellow at the Italian research centre TheSquare where most of her work has focused on drones and European defense. She completed her Master’s degree in Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St-Andrews in Scotland. Her full publications portfolio can be found here.

Mary Pierre-Wade is a member of the WIIS-Canada Board, Foreign Service Officer at Global Affairs Canada, and the Chief of Staff to the Ambassador for Women, Peace, and Security.

She has worked on international security and human rights for most of her career and is dedicated to promoting an inclusive approach to security. She has served on Canada's delegations to NATO in Brussels, and the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Mary strongly believes in the importance of networks and mentoring for women as tools for exchange, collaboration, support and opening professional opportunities. She holds a Master of International Studies and Diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (UK). She was born in Japan and grew up in the beautiful lower mainland of BC. She is the mother of three young children, each born in different countries.