Dr. Elizabeth (Betsy) McGregor (1947–2025) passed away on May 6. She was a long-time CAGIS supporter and donor, spent many years serving on the CAGIS Board of Directors, and provided mentorship to CAGIS leadership. She was also a Member of the Order of Canada in recognition of her decades of service, especially advancing youth, diversity, and women in leadership.

Dr. McGregor spent much of her early career working in international development with the United Nations (UN) and the Government of Canada, effecting change in many capacities. For example, as Director of Studies for the UN-CSTD “Gender Working Group”, she helped drive the Declaration of Intent tabled at the 1995 UN Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, and the book Missing Links with the International Development Research Centre. As Deputy Director of the Research Gender Institute within the Canadian Institute for Health Research, she worked on advancing gender equity in science and agriculture, women’s health research, and the protection of Indigenous knowledge systems. 

In 1987, Dr. McGregor, a veterinarian by training, founded the World Women’s Veterinary Association to tackle rural poverty, internationally, and “support women’s role in agriculture as pivotal to food security and environmental sustainability.” The association implemented grassroots projects around the world, contributed to international policy on mainstreaming gender in development work, and published four guidebooks on gender in development, in collaboration with partners from the World Council of Indigenous Peoples, the UN, and Canada’s international development agencies. Dr. McGregor’s advocacy for gender equity extended to science, technology, and the trades; she founded the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Women Leader’s Network and coordinated the science and technology stream. She also co-authored the inaugural chapter on Gender in Science for the 1996 UNESCO World Science Report.