CERIC welcomes Manitoba’s Meghan Lavallee as new board chair

CERIC is pleased to announce Meghan Lavallee as the new Chair of its Board of Directors for a two-year term. Lavallee, also the incoming Executive Director of Apprenticeship Manitoba, will lead the Board in delivering on CERIC’s mission to advance career development in Canada. A national charitable organization, CERIC has two strategic mandates: promoting career development as a priority for the public good, and building career development knowledge, mindsets and competencies.  

For the past six years, Lavallee has worked with the Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology, most recently as the Director of Career and Student Engagement. She believes that we all have a role within the educational ecosystem to create successful career pathways and equitable access to further education, training and/or employment for all. Her passion for experiential learning and student success started as a student and staff member in the post-secondary sector. From there, she turned her love of student development to leadership roles with Career Trek, a not-for-profit that creates opportunities to catapult young Manitobans to career and education success.  

Reflecting a cross-section of diverse career development leaders from across Canada, the full 2024/2025 CERIC Board of Directors includes:  

• Meghan Lavallee, Executive Director, Apprenticeship Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB (Chair) 

• Keka DasGupta, Precision Marketing Group Inc, Toronto, ON (Vice-chair)   

• Candy Ho, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, BC (Past Chair)   

• Sue Watts, Employment + Education Centre (EEC), Brockville, ON (Secretary/Treasurer)   

• Tony Botelho, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC   

• Dinuka Gunaratne, Northeastern University, Vancouver, BC  

• Darlene Hnatchuk, McGill University, Montreal, QC   

• Holly Linkert, Eastwood Collegiate Institute Waterloo Region District School Board, Kitchener, ON 

• Magdalena Mot, Capilano University, North Vancouver, BC 

• André Raymond, Laval University, Quebec City, QC 

• Valérie Roy, AXTRA, l’Alliance des centres-conseils en emploi, Montreal, QC 

• Donald G. Lawson, The Counselling Foundation of Canada, Toronto, ON (Honorary Director – Ex-officio)   

• Riz Ibrahim, The Counselling Foundation of Canada, Toronto, ON (Executive Officer – Ex-officio)   

Members of CERIC’s three Advisory Committees – Practical & Academic Research; Content & Learning; and Advocacy & Community Engagement – have also been appointed by the Board for the next year. Members of these committees play an important role in shaping CERIC’s projects, programs and publications.  

CERIC is a charitable organization that advances education, research and advocacy in career counselling and development, in order to increase the economic and social well-being of people in Canada. We fund projects to develop innovative resources that build the knowledge and skills of diverse career and employment professionals. CERIC also annually hosts Cannexus, Canada’s largest bilingual career development conference, publishes the country’s only peer-reviewed journal, Canadian Journal of Career Development, and runs the CareerWise / OrientAction websites, providing the top career development news and views.