Ivy Lerner Frank - GLOW ED Award Winner 2018

Ivy Lerner-Frank is a retired Foreign Service Officer and founder, Lerner/Frank Consultants.

In various leadership positions at Immigration Canada Ivy developed deep expertise in student related issues and needs. Between 2002 and 2006, Ivy was instrumental in creating and managing, “the Client Service Unit” in India, taking traditional High Commission visa processing to an all-time high level through the establishment of a well informed and high functioning team focused on timely responses. This unit became the benchmark for best practice across the then Citizenship and Immigration Canada network.

With this experience under her belt, Ivy shifted to China in 2006 where she became the Trade Commissioner, Education and Head, Info Centre in Beijing where she was a leader in the effort to promote Canada as a study destination with the Chinese Ministry of Education. She led the education promotion of Canada across all eight Government of Canada offices in China. For those of us who working in China during that time, Ivy was a constant source of information, support and encouragement.

In 2011, Ivy returned to India as a Trade Commissioner, Education, Science and Technology where she was the education promotion team leader for Government of Canada offices in India. Ivy, once again, advanced Canada’s reputation and deepened the bilateral relationships with relevant Indian ministries. Ivy also set the stage to bring Indian students to Canadian schools and university and visa versa and connected academic, graduate and research institutions for partnerships.

Although Ivy has now retired from her roles with government her work lives on. Ivy set in place the systems for dealing with potential students expeditiously as well as an enhanced reputation of Canadian institutions as locations of expertise in higher education suitable for partnerships and study destinations built with intercultural understanding.