The Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Senior Advisor, Citizen Engagement
2003 - maintenant
2003 – Present The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR),
Canada’s lead federal funding agency for health research, Ottawa
2007- Senior Advisor, Citizen Engagement, Partnerships and Citizen Engagement Branch, CIHR
Lead the development and the implementation of CIHR’s Citizen Engagement Framework (2008), training programs and resources for both internal and external audiences.
Advise senior management within CIHR’s Institutes and corporate branches on integrating citizen engagement in core activities such as collaborative research methodologies, decision-making committees and strategic planning exercises.
Act as a convenor for a community of practice with Health Portfolio counterparts to identify common goals that will align our efforts in citizen engagement.
Provide advice and deliver presentations to CIHR’s 13 Institutes and branches on partnerships and citizen engagement.
Oversaw contract services and budgets for a number of activities such as: Program Evaluation of the Small Health Organizations Partnership Program, the development of the Citizen Engagement Training Program and several editing contracts for resource publications.
Responsible for the nomination and adjudication process for CIHR’s Annual Partnership Award which offers a research grant to recognize innovative cross-sectoral partnerships that promote excellence between organizations bringing health research communities together.
2003 - 2007 Team Lead, Governance Membership Services, Corporate Secretary and Governance Unit, Corporate Affairs, CIHR
Supported Governing Council’s Nominating Committee, the Institutes and the Chairs of the Institute Advisory Board (IAB) for the engagement of volunteer members in governance roles. This comprises over 250 credentialed volunteers as well as approximately 300 applications per year for the various governing bodies which support the strategic planning and decision-making of Governing Council committees and of CIHR’s Institutes.
Lead the consultations, both internally with CIHR’s senior management and externally to identify excellent candidates from academia, public sector organizations, voluntary organizations, research institutes, associations and special interest groups for the engagement of volunteers to create the best possible representation on the thirteen IAB’s and on the Standing Committees. This includes extensive consultation with CIHR’s Partnerships branch for increased representation of members from national/provincial /local health charities, non-governmental organizations, Public Health Agency of Canada, Health Canada and with the industry sector.
Developed the web-based application module for CIHR volunteer positions linked to the corporate database for managing applications. This tool has now been adopted by two other initiatives within CIHR.
1995 – 2003 The King’s Daughters Dinner Wagon, Ottawa (funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health), Manager of Volunteer Services for the region’s largest Meals on Wheels provider.
Managed a volunteer population of 640 community and corporate volunteers involved with service delivery, fund raising activities and administrative support services.
Developed partnerships with organizations from the private, public and community sectors in order to offer tailored volunteer positions and to foster fundraising collaborations.
Responsibilities included: managing budgets, marketing, recruitment, selection, screening, orientation, supervision, support, retention and recognition of the volunteer staff in both service delivery, fundraising and administrative roles. Advised leadership on policy and program development, procedures manual as well as orientation practices.
Designed and implemented evaluation programs and volunteer satisfaction surveys to evaluate overall quality of program.
1993 - 1995 The Good Companions Seniors’ Centre, Ottawa
Director of Volunteer Services for multi-service centre serving older adults in the community.
Managed the recruitment and placement of volunte
