Kathleen Shearer is the Executive Director of COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories), an international association with members and partners from around the world. COAR brings together individual repositories and repository networks in order to build capacity, align policies and practices, and act as a global voice for the repository community. COAR is also advancing significant innovation in the repository ecosystem through the COAR Notify Initiative, which supports the linking of related content across different services/platforms. Shearer is based in Montreal, Canada and participates in numerous other organizations to advance open science around the world, including RDA. She is the author of numerous publications and delivered many presentations at international events. Shearer is also a Research Associate with the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and has been instrumental in many of CARL’s activities related to open science, including the launch of a national research data management network in Canada, formerly called Portage.