Dr. Olivia Smith is the McConnell Visiting Scholar for 2022-2023. She was the 2021 O’Brien Fellow in Residence and Affiliate with the Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law held by Professor François Crépeau. She is also a consultant on labour migration and human trafficking and the Executive Director of the Caribbean Anti Human Trafficking Foundation, a member of the Working Group of Experts on Human Trafficking, Recruitment Agencies, Agents for The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, London, UK, and a Gender Rights Specialized Team member, Amnesty International (Canada).
Dr Smith has worked with several regional and international institutions including the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) as Project Lead on Trafficking in Persons (Barbados) and with The British Institute of International and Comparative Law Institute (BIICL) as National Consultant on Human Trafficking in Guyana. At CARICOM Secretariat she served as Deputy Programme Manager, Free Movement and Labour. She was a Political Specialist at the US Embassy, Barbados, the Human Resources Development Expert for the European Union Delegation to Barbados, a Lecturer at the University of the West Indies in migration studies and served for ten years as an Immigration Officer, Government of Barbados.
Dr. Smith holds a PhD in Political Science and a Master of Business Administration among other qualifications. She is a Past Fellow of the University of Oxford in forced migration.
Research Areas
Human Trafficking
In November 2022, Dr. Smith held the workshopÌýHuman Trafficking: What You Need To Know.
Prior Learning and Assessment (PLAR) Accelerating Skilled Foreign Workers Entry into Canada’s Labour Market
In February 2023, Dr. Smith invited government ministers to discuss the potential of Prior Learning and Assessment (PLAR) as a pathway to accelerate skilled foreign workers and refugees’ entry into Canada’s labour market to alleviate the existing labour market crisis.
Course offered:
Policy Case Study: Human TraffickingÌý
