Bill Canny

Title: Director, Emergency Operations

Areas of Expertise: emergency response, disaster relief, disaster preparedness

Languages Spoken: English and French

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Biography

Bill Canny is the director of emergency operations at Catholic Relief Services. Working with a network based in Baltimore and overseas, he supervises a team that responds to disasters and helps communities to prepare for potential catastrophes.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Canny was CRS' country representative in Haiti where he was responsible for overseeing programs and Church partner relations in the poorest country in the hemisphere.

Mr. Canny rejoined CRS in Haiti in 2006 after a decade as a consultant for CRS and other organizations, and serving as secretary general of the International Catholic Migration Commission. His previous experience with CRS included posts in India, where he was regional director for South Asia, in Baltimore as deputy director of the Eurasia region and deputy director of the Africa region, and as country representative for Burkina Faso.

Mr. Canny began his career with CRS in Djibouti in 1983 as an assistant project manager coordinating emergency food and shelter for Ethiopian refugees.

Mr. Canny holds a B.S. degree in human services from the University of Scranton where he won a presidential scholarship and is on the university's Wall of Fame as a member of Scranton's NCAA basketball championship team in 1976. He holds a master's degree in public health from the University of Pittsburgh. Mr. Canny was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Scranton in 2007 in recognition of 25 years of humanitarian service.