Martha Friendly is the founder and executive director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU), an independent childcare policy research institute. Martha has worked on childcare research for more than 40 years, collaborating with the community sector, advocates, researchers and policy makers. She has substantial expertise in childcare and family policy in Canada and internationally, publishing extensively in academic, technical and popular venues and authoring two books on childcare policy. Martha has been awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal and an honourary doctorate from Trent University, the 2021 Charles Taylor Prize for Excellence in Policy Research and was recently added to Women and Gender Equality’s (WAGE Canada) Women of Influence Gallery. She has been a member of many advisory groups such as the previous federal childcare minister’s Expert Panel on Early Learning and Child Care.