Cheryl Heykoop

Dr. Cheryl Heykoop is a Research Associate with the International Institute for Child Rights and Development (IICRD), an Associate Faculty Member in the School of Humanitarian Studies and the School of Leadership Studies at Royal Roads University, and a Research Fellow with the ResilencebyDesign: Innovation Lab. For the last 13 years Cheryl has worked with young people affected by adversity in Uganda, Sierra Leone, Timor Leste, Thailand, and Brazil Canada, and the US to safely and meaningfully share their stories and insights of conflicts, disasters, and other issues that affect them. She has also worked with a range of organizations including UNICEF, Refugee Law Project, Plan International, Right to Play, governments, civil society, and academics to strengthen child and youth participation and protection efforts.

In 2008 Cheryl co-authored a research paper exploring young people’s engagement in the Sierra Leone Truth Commission. This experience informed her award winning doctoral research that used participatory approaches to explore the safe and meaningful engagement of young people in post conflict truth-telling in northern Uganda. Cheryl holds a Doctorate of Social Sciences from Royal Roads University, an MSc in Humanitarian Studies from Liverpool University, and BSc in Biomedical Sciences from Guelph University.