Isabel Lloyd

Isabel Lloyd has spent a lifetime dedicated to public service, first as a leader and innovator in the government of British Columbia, and then across Southeast Asia for the Canadian International Development Agency. 

Lloyd was born and raised in Northern Ireland, immigrating as a young woman to Canada in 1958. She began her public service in 1967 co-ordinating Meals on Wheels programs in Winnipeg and then Vancouver, where she led the establishment of a citywide meal service.

She entered the B.C. civil service in 1973 in the Ministry of Human Resources, developed home support systems for the elderly and disabled, and the province's comprehensive long-term care program. In only five years with the provincial government, she was assistant deputy minister in the Ministry of Health.

In the 1980s Lloyd served as deputy minister of women's programs and youth services, deputy minister of advanced education, and acting deputy minister of labour. She changed gears in 1988 and worked on a woman's leadership and economic development project in Thailand, a project that launched Lloyd's 20-year career in international development.

After briefly re-entering the public service in B.C., Lloyd worked as CIDA's senior advisor to the governments of Thailand and Vietnam in governance, human rights and women's programs, and then became CIDA's director for the Southeast Asia Fund for human rights and democratic institutions.

Lloyd lives in Thailand and currently works with two of Canada's legal reform and human rights projects in Southeast Asia and Bangladesh, as well as being the chief technical advisor for the United Nations Development Fund for Women in East and Southeast Asia, a Canada-funded program.