Karine Morin Takes Helm of Canada’s Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Karine Morin, whose experience in the policy world spans health and health research, the physical sciences and equity, diversity, and inclusion, has been named the new president and CEO of Canada’s Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. She replaces interim Chief Administrator Mike DeGagné, who lead the umbrella organization of Canadian academic associations since the departure of Gabriel Miller earlier this year.

The announcement of her new role came on June 15 and was effective immediately. According to a release, Morin “was unanimously chosen by the Board from a large pool of highly qualified candidates through a competitive selection process aimed at finding a leader who embodies the mission and values of the federation.”

The federation’s membership includes more than 160 scholarly associations and universities in the interest of promoting their joint interests and missions to improve society. The federation organizes the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Canada’s largest academic gathering, which is currently taking place at McGill University in Montreal.

Morin most recently spent five years as a director for policy and interagency affairs at Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, one of three entities that oversee the bulk of the nation’s research portfolio. While at NSERC, Morin led the tri-agency plan on equity, diversity, and inclusion, serving a key player in the agencies’ program, known as Dimensions, meant to advance equity action EDI across the research ecosystem.

Before that, she held a number of senior and executive roles at the nexus of ethics and health at Alberta Innovates, Genome Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (a second leg of the tri-agency). Early in her career, she had worked in policy in the United States, first as an ethics and health policy associate for the American College of Physicians and next a variety of positions, culminating in director of ethics policy, at the American Medical Association.

Morin holds civil and common law degrees from McGill University, and she completed a master’s degree in law at the University of Pennsylvania.