2019-2020 was a year of transition for our organization, marked by the launch of a new 2020-2025 strategic framework aimed at consolidating the international CECI network, looking to mobilize key actors of change in the world to promote sustainable solutions to reduce poverty and strengthen equality and inclusion. It is also in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic that we have concluded our Uniterra program, subsequently launching a new 7-year voluntary cooperation program. The event was an opportunity to celebrate the resilience of our teams who, spread across three continents, were able to quickly adapt to this difficult context. The assembly also unanimously accepted the changes made to CECI’s general regulations, aligning the transformation of our organization with our vision of an international CECI, allowing for each national entity to become autonomous and responsible for its own programming while following the standards of excellence of the whole network.
CECI’s Board of Directors has also been renewed, with several directors completing their mandates and giving way to six new members elected by the assembly. It is with pleasure and pride that we welcome these committed people. They will be overseeing the sound governance of our organization and the achievement of our mission to fight poverty, exclusion and inequalities.
It is with great pleasure that we welcome them!
Founder and Managing Director of Concertation Montréal since 2015, Marie-Claire Dumas has held several management positions at the City of Montreal and was responsible for the implementation of the Leave for Change program (corporate component of the Uniterra program) with the City in 2004. She shares CECI’s values of social justice and inclusion and has worked hard for women’s equality in the workplace.
An independent consultant and entrepreneur working in change management and communications, Chloé Gaudet has more than 20 years of experience in communication, mobilization, change management and organizational development. She is involved on a voluntary basis in various cause linked to the fight against poverty and to social justice.
Julie Médam is an advisor in partnership development and knowledge mobilization support at UQAM. She supports university professors in establishing research collaborations with multiple partners. She was also the director of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair in Strategic Studies, a trainer for the Québec Without Borders program and an analyst at Rights & Democracy.
Originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sylvie-Marianne Rhugenda is a research development advisor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Université Laval. She supports researchers and coordinates research outreach activities. She has carried out studies on the practical application of the gender-specific approach and the gender-based comparative analysis.
Originally from Tunisia, Inès Chaâlala is the Director of Knowledge and Partnerships at Philanthropic Foundations Canada and a representative of the Réseau Québécois Femmes en Environnement. She has more than 10 years of experience in international organizations, including the FAO, working in the fields of sustainable development with an emphasis on governance and innovative policies and mechanisms for environmental finance.
Carl Éric Guertin is the Executive Director of the Économusée Network for Sustainable and Ecological Tourism. He started his career as a forest engineer as a cooperation volunteer in Mali over 25 years ago. This stay in Africa shaped the rest of his career. He made his organization an associate member of CECI and cemented his commitment by developing the first Economuseum in Haiti.
The motivation and varied skills of these newly elected members on our Board of Directors will be important assets on our journey to achieving our objectives and realizing our mission. They come to consolidate a very committed Board of Directors composed of fifteen members, including four who were re-elected for a second (Isabelle Parizeau and Ghislain Rivard) or third term (Danielle Lamy and Jacqueline Villemure) and five members who continue their current mandates (Catherine Douville, Maria de Koninck, Bruno Lavoie, Yves Savard and Fatoumata Touré). Danielle Lamy and Fatoumata Touré keep their respective responsibilities as Chairwoman and Treasurer of CECI. Bruno Lavoie becomes Executive Vice-Chair and Catherine Douville, Vice-Chair Community Life.
To find out more about the new Board of Directors, visit our website.
We also take this opportunity to warmly thank the outgoing members for their commitment and for their important contributions over the past few years: Michelle Bussières, Jean-François Michaud, Sœur Sylvia Dupuis, Yves Alavo and Louise Otis. Each of them undoubtedly left their mark and helped make CECI what it is today.
