Laura Tamblyn Watts is a lawyer, advocate and researcher. Her work focuses on law, aging, accessibility, law reform, governance and knowledge mobilization. In 2018 she joined CARP (Canadian Association of Retired Persons) as its Chief Public Policy Officer. Laura also teaches at the University of Toronto, where she is a fellow of the Institute for Lifecourse and Aging. Laura oversees CARP’s research portfolio and is actively involved with a number of National Centres of Excellence and a wide variety of current research initiatives. She helped to co-found Canada’s second low income seniors’ legal services centre, SeniorsFirst BC, located in Vancouver. From 2004 – 2017 held positions at the Canadian Centre for Elder Law / BC Law Institute, including as its long-time National Director. She is a past Chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s National Elder Law section, where she sits as a current Executive member and is an Executive member of the Ontario Bar Association Elder Law Section.
Laura is a Board member of the National Initiative for Care of the Elderly (NICE) network and facilitates the section on law and aging issues. She is a Board member of the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) and a member of the Investment Funds Institute of Canada’s (IFIC) committee on Seniors and Vulnerable Investors (IFIC). She is one of two Canadian representatives on the North American Securities Administrators Association (NAASA) committee on Vulnerable Investors and a continuing member of the Ontario Securities Commission’s Taskforce on Seniors.
Laura received her honours degree in Political Science from Queen’s University and her law degree from the University of Victoria. She was called to the BC Bar in 1999.