Lieutenant-General the Honourable Roméo A. Dallaire
O.C.,C.M.M.,G.O.Q.,M.S.C.,C.D., (Ret'd)

Appointed to the Senate of Canada in March of 2005, LGen. Dallaire served with the Canadian Forces for more than three decades before retiring as a Lieutenant-General. In 1993, he took command of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), a post in which he and his limited number of troops witnessed the killing of more than 800,000 Rwandans in a period of little more than three months. Since his retirement, Senator Dallaire has worked to bring an understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to the wider Canadian public. He served as a Special Advisor to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) on matters relating to war-affected children around the world and to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade on the non-proliferation of small arms.

He has been named Fellow of the Ryerson Polytechnic University and has received honorary doctorates from numerous Canadian universities. In 2002, LGen Dallaire was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 2005 was presented with the United Nations Association of Canada's Pearson Peace Medal. LGen Dallaire spent the 2004-2005 academic year as a Fellow at Harvard University's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy where he directed in-depth research into the problem of Child Soldiers.



Shelly Whitman, PhD
Director, Child Soldiers Initiative
Deputy Director, Centre for Foreign Policy Studies, Dalhousie University
Email: cfpsddir@dal.ca

Shelly took up the post of Deputy Director at the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies in August 2008. Prior to this she has had an academic career teaching in International Development Studies and Political Science at Dalhousie University, Saint Mary's University and the University of Botswana. Her research interests have been broadly focused on issues related to peace, development and human security. More specifically she has conducted research on small arms and light weapons in Southern Africa, gender and conflict, children and conflict, the international criminal court, the Great Lakes region and peace and reconciliation efforts in post-conflict societies.

From 2000-2002, Shelly worked as Head of Research on the inter-Congolese dialogue, under the direction of Former Botswana President, Sir Ketumile Masire. Previous to this post, she was a Research Consultant at UNICEF, NY and worked under the direction of Ambassador Stephen Lewis on the OAU Rwanda Genocide Report. Shelly recently introduced a new course on Children and Armed Conflict at Dalhousie University and took on the additional role of Director of the Child Soldiers Initiative in November 2009.



Tanya Zayed
Senior Project Officer
Email: tanya.zayed@dal.ca

Tanya Zayed recently completed a Master's degree in Conflict Studies at Saint Paul University in Ottawa. She also holds an undergraduate degree in Criminology from the University of Ottawa. Prior to joining the Child Soldiers Initiative, Tanya was very active in furthering the cause of many community and international organizations such as the Control Arms campaign, War Child, Gulu Walk and most recently Save the Children Colombia, among others. She has recently completed an internship with save the Children Canada in Bogota Colombia where she worked on the Rewrite the Future campaign for Education in Emergencies. Tanya has also worked in Cochabamba, Bolivia in various programs dealing with at-risk children and youth.