Colleen Thouez is a globally recognised expert in the field of human mobility. She is currently senior fellow at the New School in New York, senior visiting fellow at SciencesPo Paris, faculty member at Bard College, and senior advisor at the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

Until 2021, she directed the Welcoming and Inclusive Cities Division at the largest global human rights philanthropy, Open Society Foundations (OSF), where she founded the Mayors Migration Council (MMC). Colleen also helped establish the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) Mayors Mechanism, and launched the Africa-Europe Mayors Dialogue on Growth and Solidarity. Previously, she worked for 17 years at the United Nations, as Head of UNITAR in New York, and thereafter as advisor to the late Sir Peter Sutherland, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration.

Colleen also co-founded Europe Prykhystok, a city-to-city initiative between Ukrainian, French, German, and Polish municipalities, offering short-term respite stays away from the war for over one thousand Ukrainian children since the Spring of 2022. Colleen chairs the Global Centre for Climate Mobility’s advisory board, and is a member of the alumnae council of the Henry J. Leir Institute at The Fletcher School. She has also held fellowships at Columbia University and Duke University focusing on the role of local leadership in shaping migration policies.

Born in Quebec Canada to immigrant parents, Colleen is the mother of three children. She received her Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and her Masters from McGill University. Her academic publications include “New power configurations: city mobilization and policy change” (2022) in Global Networks; and “Cities as emergent international actors in the field of migration” (2020), Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations.