Training and Facilitation

I am a skilled facilitator with experience leading complex multi-stakeholder processes and groups. I facilitated the founding meetings of the Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization (November 2016), and the Global PKU association (July 2017), a five-day  gathering that brought together representatives from 15 patient organizations in Europe and the Americas. Between March and June 2020, I collaborated with CATIE to develop and host a webinar series on COVID-19, HIV and sexuality. You can view the recording of the first webinar, held on April 16, 2020, here (in French only).

I have MC’d a range of events, including the Quebec provincial final of the Canadian Parents for French Concours d’art oratoire (2019) and the Town Hall on Drug Pricing, held prior to the 2018 federal elections in Ottawa. I hosted the first two Drug Pricing Policy Summits in November 2016 and 2017, two-day patient education events held in Toronto and co-hosted by the Canadian Cancer Survivor Network, the Ontario Schizophrenia Society and the Save your Skin Foundation. Through panel presentations and facilitated group discussions, we explored how patient and communities can become more actively involved in shaping how medication is priced and accessed in Canada.

As a part-time instructor at the University of Ottawa and the University of Calgary, and as a community educator, I have delivered over 200 trainings, classes and workshops. I have worked with women’s groups, youth groups, patient groups, frontline service providers, students and researchers to offer engaging learning activities on a range of topics, from participatory evaluation, to using SurveyMonkey for data collection, to communicating more effectively with your health-care provider.

I enjoy exploring arts-based approaches in event and group facilitation. In 2015, while I worked as a Regional Health Education Coordinator for the organization CATIE, I offered two-day workshops on group facilitation skills to community-based organizations in Montreal and Francophone groups in Ontario. Through group-building activities and games, participants worked to identify and share best and creative practices in support group facilitation and educational workshop delivery. 

I have facilitated the work of regional and national committees using online platforms, teleconferences and in-person meetings and I have organized over 40 national, regional and local events and meetings. In this context, my responsibilities have included identifying and building partnerships with key stakeholders; facilitating the work of planning committees; developing funding proposals; liaising with participants, speakers, volunteers and funders; and overseeing communications and event or meeting logistics.