Kirsten Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Canada and the founding Director of the McGill Humanitarian Studies Initiative. She also teaches humanitarian studies at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative in Boston. She is a Steering Committee member of the Child Soldiers Initiative. Dr. Johnson’s research has focused on genocide, child combatants, sexual gender-based violence and conflict-related mental health and psychosocial support. As part of the North American Steering Committee for ELRHA (Enhanced Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance), she is working on developing the core competencies for humanitarian training, certification and professionalization.