Board of Directors

Geneviève Cyr is a doctoral candidate in Public Health (specialization in health systems, organizations and policies) at the Université de Montréal. She holds a master’s degree in health services administration from the École de santé publique de l’Université de Montréal (ESPUM) and is a member of the Ordre des administrateurs agréés du Québec. Her research focuses on the management of innovation in healthcare organizations and on better understanding the role of patients and their families in the development of innovation in a living laboratory context. She is passionate about solving complex problems that require interdisciplinary collaboration and wants to push the limits of the health system to improve the accessibility of mental health care for all.

Rose Lyndsay Daudier is the Executive Director of Youth Fusion (in Canada and France) and Robotique FIRST Québec, two charitable organizations whose mission is to contribute to the academic perseverance, employability and civic engagement of young people. She works to maximize collaborations that will increase the social impact on the territory. As a committed entrepreneur, she aims to establish links between initiatives and multiply their impact. She brings together entrepreneurs, citizens, academics, technology experts, and any relevant actor or community to remove the barriers between an idea, its impact and its implementation.

Denis Fournier completed his doctorate in medicine at Université Laval and has devoted his entire career in family medicine since 1988 exclusively to the care of the elderly population suffering from a loss of autonomy in the beautiful provincial capital, Quebec City. His experience incited him to invest himself even more in the mental health cause and more specifically these days to open  a discussion over the importance of creating psychologically safe workspaces and more people-oriented work environments in order to battle the professional burnout epidemic in our modern societies.

A retired professor and president and founder of several community organizations in Québec, Karen Hetherington is Executive Director of OPTION MILIEU, a mental health planning and training enterprise. For a number of years, she has been a senior consultant with the World Health Organization (WHO) and is President of the Canadian Mental Health Association – National.

Jean-Guy Gauthier has been working in the field of employee benefits and risk management for over 35 years. He graduated from Laval University in Actuarial Science and is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and a Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP). He has worked for several actuarial consulting firms and national life insurance companies in a variety of roles, including the implementation and management of private health insurance plans, employee assistance programs and preventive health programs. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Quebec Human Resources Professionals Association and the Functional Gastrointestinal Disease Association. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Collège Jean-Eudes.

Marianne Poliquin is a lawyer specializing in labour law and civil and commercial litigation with Robinson Sheppard Shapiro LLP. She is trained in industrial relations and is a member of the Certified Human Resources Professional. Because of her personal background in mental health, she understands the need to increase accessibility to public health services and wants to help reduce the systemic stigma and discrimination faced by people with mental health problems or illnesses through increased public awareness.

Georgia Vrakas is an Associate Professor in the Psychoeducation Department at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (Centre universitaire de Québec). She holds a doctorate in community psychology from Université du Québec à Montréal and did postdoctoral work at the Institut national de santé publique du Québec in population mental health. She is a member of the Ordre des psychologues du Québec and the Ordre des psychoéducateurs et psychoéducatrices du Québec. Her research focuses on positive mental health (well-being), mental illness, mental health among Indigenous people, and suicide prevention. On the clinical front, Dr. Vrakas works with teens and adults who are living with common, persistent mental disorders.

Martin Wiedenhoff is Director at a global consulting firm, where he helps Fortune 500 clients design their pricing, marketing, and sales strategy. He has 25 years of experience in technology and marketing. Martin has lived in five countries and speaks five languages. He has worked for a range of companies, including BDC, IKEA, CGI, TELUS and Videotron.