Kathleen Sigurdson
Kathleen Sigurdson was born in Montreal, Quebec. Her mother, Marguerite, immigrated to Canada in 1955 from Alsace, France via England, where she had spent a year as a nanny. She met Kathleen’s father, John, a Canadian, on board the ship to Canada and they were married in 1957. Kathleen grew up in Montreal and completed two bachelors degrees, in linguistics and education, at the University of Ottawa. She tried teaching before entering federal public service. She was eventually transferred to Foreign Service, and was posted to India, Sri Lanka, The United States (Buffalo), Paris, Abu Dhabi and Moscow, while intermittently working in Canada as well. Her daughter accompanied her on several postings. Kathleen lives in Ottawa and retired in 2015, but still takes on short-term assignments overseas.