Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah is the Client Director on PAA’s Arts, Culture & Not-for-Profit team. She brings a blend of policy and advocacy leadership alongside deep, long-standing connection to Canada’s arts ecology, by helping clients develop credible government engagement strategies that are grounded in real sector realities and organizational priorities.

Debbie comes to this work as an advocate for equity-deserving artists, with more than 20 years of involvement across disciplines through grassroots initiatives, volunteering and festival work, contracted performance, and participation in arts funding and selection processes. She has contributed directly to public arts funding through the City of Ottawa’s Arts and Culture Fund, supporting equity, diversity, and inclusion discussions and grant selection work, and has designed and delivered practical grant-writing workshops to help artists access municipal, provincial, and federal opportunities. Her arts-sector engagement also includes professional development programming with Arts Ottawa (formerly the Ottawa Arts Council), grassroots festival leadership as the host of UPROAR, and sustained governance and government relations support with the Ottawa International Writers Festival.

Before joining PAA, Debbie was Co-Director of Policy and Advocacy at Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights and previously served as Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Gender & Sexual Diversity (CCGSD). Across senior leadership roles in the not-for-profit sector, she has led organizational strategy, strengthened partnerships, supported public-facing education and advocacy initiatives, and appeared before Parliamentary House and Senate standing committees. She has also held policy and advocacy roles spanning both the non-profit and public sectors, including experience with Oxfam Canada and Global Affairs Canada.

Debbie holds a master’s degree in international Affairs (International Development Policy) from Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and completed the Regional Arts Program in Dramatic Arts at St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School in Brampton.