Lissa is Vice-President of Global Government Affairs at CIFAR. CIFAR is a Canadian-based global research organization, convening extraordinary minds to address the most important questions facing science and humanity. From quantum computing and artificial intelligence to innovation theory, the social determinants of health, and the microbiome, CIFAR focuses on high-risk, high-reward outcomes.Lissa has over twenty years of executive experience in the public and private sector, catalyzing international partnerships between industry, academia and government to drive global science, technology and innovation and build capacity in emerging technologies.

Passionate about open science, she is designated by the Organization of American States as an Americas Competitiveness Exchange Ambassador; was the Co-Chair of the Science Summit at the UN General Assembly in 2022, sits on the Board of Science Rendezvous and sat on the Board of the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies. Lissa regularly participates on international panels to speak on topics such as ‘Developing and deploying global talent in emerging technologies’; ‘Building university-industry-government interactions within a knowledge economy’ and ‘New models to accelerate knowledge transfer’.