Lynn Zimmer

Lynn Zimmer recently retired from her 35-year position as Executive Director of  YWCA  Peterborough Haliburton, a multi-service women’s equality-seeking organization that provides a continuum of services for women and children who have experienced violence and abuse.

She began her career as a women’s page reporter for the Peterborough Examiner in 1969.  After trying law school for a year, Zimmer was a volunteer with a women’s feminist organizing centre.  Motivated by distress calls from women seeking escape from abusive marriages, she became one of the founders and first staff of Interval House, Toronto, Canada’s first shelter for women and children fleeing abuse and violence.  She has been engaged in the work of preventing violence against women for over 47 years.  Zimmer has also been Board Member and first woman Board Chair of the Peterborough Community Police Service.  She served as a member of the federal Advisory Council on the Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence.

Zimmer was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada (2019) for her contributions to protecting victims of violence and for her advocacy of women’s rights.
She is a graduate of University of Montreal- Loyola College (B.A.,  Communication Arts, 1969) and University of McGill (M.M. 2002).