On July 1, 2004 Jocelyne Lalonde took over as general manager of the national secretariat of the Consortium national de formation en santé (CNFS), a partnership between post-secondary institutions and health-care establishments.
The nomination was announced by Gilles Patry and Yvon Fontaine, rectors of the universities of Ottawa and Moncton, two of CNFS's major partners.
Lalonde succeeds Pierre Gaudet, who headed the national secretariat during CNFS's first year of operation. She brings with her a strong management experience, not only in the field of education, but also in health and social services. She was involved in the start-up of RIFSSSO (an umbrella organization of French-language health and social service professionals in Ontario) from 1990 to 1994. As well, she contributed to the establishment of French Language Health Services Network of Eastern Ontario, and took over its general management from 1998 to 2002. Since then, she has acted as a consultant for francophones in minority situations.
The CNFS brings together 10 post-secondary francophone and bilingual establishments, which offer health programs in French to minority francophone Canadians. Last February, Health Canada announced a contribution of $25 million for the second phase of the consortium.
