At the November 22, 2023 Hamilton AM Club meeting, a second new member, JoAnne Chalifour gave her Classification Talk.
JoAnne is a natural for Rotary, with both her father and brother in Rotary. In 2022-2023 her brother Martin was President of his club and recently her father celebrated 50 years in Rotary! Joanne grew up in a Rotary world and fondly remembers international exchange students staying with them and helping her improve her English skills. In 1994 JoAnne moved from Montreal to Toronto.
JoAnne has spent 20 years managing health and social service programs and her interest in developing leadership skills let to a Master's degree in Leadership and Organizational Development, graduating in 2022. Key skills developed included how to plan, structure and operate in the health and social services world with a focus on caring for people. leading staff and managing resources.
JoAnne felt that she had found her niche - starting new programs from scratch, identifying needs, searching for resources, planning, implementing and evaluating. She organized many events and pilot projects. This led nicely to a second career as a self-employed consultant in 2018, providing services in both English and French. She has worked with provincial and territory governments, Ministries of Health and health planning entities as they struggled to provide quality services in both official languages.
Some of her other specialties are Quality Improvement, Research and Program Evaluation. She has produced a series of podcasts in French for "Dementia Dialogue" and has developed content for online programs.
Joining Rotary not only takes JoAnne back to some of her fond childhood memories but also fulfils a need to give back to her community. She has contributed to non-profit boards in the past but Rotary membership provides a new opportunity to give back. With eight local Rotary Clubs in the Hamilton area, the Hamilton AM Club is honoured to have her join our membership. Bienvenue JoAnne!
