Board of Administration

Executive Committee

Pierre Genest

President

Pierre Genest holds a Bachelor’s degree in Administration and a Certificate in Human Resources Management from the Université du Québec in Trois-Rivières. He has extensive experience in the associative and municipal fields. In fact, he was the General Manager of SIDAC Centre-Ville Trois-Rivières (1987-1990), General Manager for the cities of Ville-Marie in Témiscamingue (1993-1998), Beaupré (1998-2002), Trois-Pistoles (2002-2009) and Nicolet (2009-2020). While working in Trois-Pistoles, Mr. Genest held the functions of General Manager and court clerk concurrently for the Régie Intermunicipale des Infrastructures portuaires of Trois-Pistoles and des Escoumins. Throughout his career, Mr Genest has taken a great interest in occupational health and workplace safety. He is part of the Association paritaire pour la santé et la sécurité du travail, municipal affairs sectors APSAM from 2007 to 2020. He also sits on several other boards of administration, such as the Association des directeurs généraux des municipalités du Québec (2012 to 2015), of the Domaine des Trois-Pistoles (2004 to 2009), and of the Corporation du motel industriel des Trois-Pistoles (2003 à 2009) as well as the Salle Augustin Chénier of Ville-Marie (1994 to 1998). Mr. Genest has been living with chronic pain for several years now. He has been diagnosed with ankylosing spondyloarthritis in 2015, then low back pain caused by multi-level discopathy, as well as fibromyalgia in early 2020. He chose to join the AQDC’s board of administration in the winter of 2021 in an effort to contribute to the association’s mission. He hopes that people like himself, who live with physical limitations caused by chronic pain, may receive the care and the support they need to play an active role in society. He also would like chronic pain to be recognized as a disease just like so many other easily diagnosed diseases.

Vincent Raymond

Président ex-officio

Having successfully graduated with a medical degree, Vincent Raymond then completed a doctorate degree in physiology-endocrinology at Université Laval. He teaches molecular medicine at this same university and continues his research work in human genetics and neuroscience at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Québec. He lives with chronic low back pain for the past 10 years, a condition he has been managing with opioids, daily physical exercise and several other tools acquired through AQDC’s support groups. Vincent is currently advocating to have chronic pain recognized as a disease in its own right and to have his treatment include the reasonable use of opioids. He has also been a member of the AQDC board of administration since June 2013.

Alice Wagenaar – Tison

Vice-president

Alice studied physical activity sciences and then pursued a
Master’ degree in human kinetics sciences. She is
currently a PhD candidate in biomedical sciences and intends to graduate in 2022.
Her doctoral research focuses on cognition and pain.

She is also interested by knowledge translation and science popularization,
which have led her to teach
neurosciences courses at UQTR.
Alice also hosts one of the AQDC’s support groups as she strives to
break down all taboos associated with chronic pain.

Linda Marie Blais
Vice-President

Linda Marie completed a Certificate in Small Group Facilitation from the Université du Québec as well as a Certificate in Human Sexuality. She has also studied fashion at the Châtelaine School of Sewing.

She is a dynamic and creative woman and has extensive experience with a great number of organizations. For quite a few years now, Linda Marie has been living with chronic pain caused by overusing her body and leading her to use a motorized wheelchair, a vehicle she has become a pro in maneuvering.

She became involved with the AQDC’s activities in 2010, where she hosts and moderates support groups in the Quebec City area. Since the start of the pandemic, she has been facilitating support groups through an online platform. She also tended to booths as part of the Chronic Pain Awareness Week in Quebec to help raise awareness of our association and its services.

Linda Marie was thrilled to join the AQDC and its team.

Katie St-Jacques
Secretary

Helping people is one of her priorities in life. Which is why she decided to go back to school and complete a college degree in Special Care Counselling in 2011.

Katie St-Jacques has been working at Des Chênes School Board helping students increase their autonomy, knowledge, learning, and improve their self-confidence.

In 2015, after a bicycle accident, she developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). Since then, she has been looking for ways to improve her life with pain and evolve alongside it.

Katie joined the AQDC as a participating member in 2018, then as a facilitator in 2021, and in 2022, she became part of the board of administration. Her goal is to help others discover the services offered by the association, to fight isolation and create a feeling of belonging for people living with pain.

Administrators

Hélène Beaudry
Administrator

Hélène Beaudry is a pain researcher since 2006 and is currently the Executive Director of the Quebec Pain Research Network (QPRN). Dr. Beaudry pursued her training as a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University and McGill University where she developed an expertise on opioid pharmacology and optogenetics. In 2019, she was appointed an Adjunct Professor at Université de Montréal. As the QPRN Executive Director, she is involved in gathering teams of Quebec researchers to increase the cohesion and complementarity of actions. She works to create a strong network with academic, private, and patient association partners, both in Quebec and on the Canadian and international levels, to catalyze collaborations. Her active role in strengthening research capacity led to an improvement in the integration of knowledge into practices and policies, and a research optimization.

Manon Choinière

Administrator

Dr. Manon Choinière is a researcher at the Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal and an associate professor in the Anesthesiology Department of the Faculty of Medicine at the Université de Montréal. Trained as a psychologist, she continued her doctoral and post-doctoral education in the field of pain at McGill University. Her work on evaluative, epidemiological and clinical research focuses on the assessment and treatment of acute and chronic pain among various patient populations. Throughout the years, she has gained a considerable reputation and has been a guest speaker at several conferences both at the national and international levels. Her research work has been published in well-known scientific journals and she continues to receive grants from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and Fonds de recherche en santé du Québec. She is a founding member of the Quebec Pain Research Network and is responsible for the Quebec Pain Registry, which provides multidisciplinary pain clinics with a research infrastructure. She also manages an extensive pain research and knowledge translation program, the ACCORD (Application Concertée des Connaissances et Ressources en Douleur).

Francine St-Hilaire

Administrator

Francine St-Hilaire has been a university professor for 23 years. She holds a Bachelor and a Master degree in education and obtained a Doctorate in the same field. At 61 years old, she has been living with chronic pain for a little over nine years now. She developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome after undergoing several surgeries to restore her wrist and thumb joints’ mobility, which had been deformed by severe arthritis. To counter the neuropathic pain’s evolution, she underwent treatments provided by Dr. Yves Veillette at the Rosemont-Maisonneuve Pain Clinic. In fact, she was able to continue working and enjoy a certain quality of life thanks to opioid medication. When her chronic pain specialist asked her to get involved with the AQDC in 2007, she immediately accepted. There is much to do to fight the prejudices associated with the use of such medications, to break the isolation of people living with chronic pain and the lack of understanding they are so frequently confronted with, because chronic pain is not always visible at first glance to the uninitiated.

Dre Aline Boulanger
Administrator

Dr. Aline Boulanger completed her medical training at Université Laval, in Quebec City, and went on to specialize in anesthesia at Université de Montréal with a fellowship in chronic pain treatment at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She also has a Master’s degree in Public Health from Harvard University in Boston. She is the director of the pain clinic at CHUM as well as the pain clinic at the Hôpital Sacré-Cœur de Montréal. She is also vice-president of a sectorial table, president of a working table and medical officer for the Centre d’expertise pour le traitement de la douleur chronique du RUISSS of the Université de Montréal. She is a founding member and vice president of the Association québécoise de la douleur chronique and was president of the Quebec Pain Society. Dr. Boulanger is Clinical Associate Professor for the Department of Anesthesia at the Université de Montréal.

Karine Dorval

She became a member of the association in 2020 and has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Working as an administrative assistant, she chose to put her skills and experience to good use by becoming involved in an association that is important to her.

She tried several different approaches throughout the years to relieve her pain and spoke with other people suffering like her. Her current priority is to spread awareness of the consequences of living in pain on a daily basis by taking part in the association’s various virtual meetings.

Her greatest wish as a mother of three young men is to pursue her involvement in having chronic pain recognized by medical professionals, with the goal of advancing research and raising awareness about the services provided by the association.

So many people experience periods of great pain on their own and her wish is for everyone to have access to quality care and adequate psychological support during these often too frequent periods of suffering.

The AQDC has been a source of determination and motivation as she evolved within the association and she wants to pursue her involvement in this amazing organization and help others living with chronic pain.

Julie Aspiros

Administrator

Julie received support from CHUM’s angels. Through her various experiences within the hospital sector, she has been moved by the stories of other patients and was able to gain a greater understanding of the issues at hand.

Working in event planning, audiovisual and art fields, creativity runs in her blood. She is a recent graduate of HEC in project management.

She then joined the AQDC to help the association reach a larger audience and greater public recognition and improve its service offering.

Géhane Greis

Administrator

Dr. Géhane Greis graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Cairo, Egypt in 1995. She completed her residency in anesthesia and intensive care in 2000. She then pursued her doctoral studies in the field of pain management, which she completed in 2003. She has since worked as a pain specialist. As soon as she arrived in Montréal, she joined Dr. Aline Boulanger’s team at pain clinic of the CHUM and the pain clinic at the Hôpital Sacré-Coeur in Montreal. Dr. Greis has been a member of the AQDC’s board of administrators since 2015. She has been a guest speaker and an active member of several other non-profit organizations and in fact has been named Volunteer of the Year in 2013 and 2016 by the Quebec National Assembly. She is passionate about her work and contributes for the benefit of society and most particularly to improve the lives of people living with pain.

Yolande Major

Administrator

Yolande Major has been an AQDC member since spring 2020. I found the AQDC and the help-line online. It was the beginning of the pandemic, and everything was shut down. I’ve been living with low back pain for 10 months after a fall on the ice, which led to a degenerative disc disease diagnosis. Acute pain reappeared in May 2020 due to poorly adjusted orthoses. I no longer had access to any pain treatment. We were all confined! Fortunately, the AQDC support line was available!

I joined the association right then and there. It was the first light at the end of the tunnel of my chronic pain. Most importantly, the kind attention I’ve received on the other side of the phone brought me out of my isolation, too often associated, as we know, with invisible silent pain. I then volunteered on a CRCHUS research project on low back pain. Since September 2001, I’ve been part of the CRCHUS Strategic Patient Partner Committee. My career path includes several years in the field of education as a remedial teacher and preschool education consultant in the Estrie region. I’m still working part-time. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Specialized Education and Orthopedagogy. I also obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Theology, Ethics and Philosophie from the Université de Sherbrooke. The latter training, which I pursued out of personal interest in the early ‘90s led me to work for a dozen years with women’s rights and social justice community organizations.

In the spirit of ‘giving back’, I am pleased to join the Board of Administration. I hope to make a meaningful contribution to the organization’s mission. As a new team member, my priorities will be to listen to our member’s needs and consolidate services in line with AQDC’s mission.

Management

Lyne Major

General Manager

With a Bachelor’s in the History of Art completed in 1995 and a College diploma in Office Management, Lyne Major has been working at Services Pelletier, Gosselin (SPG) since 1997. She first started as a receptionist within the organization and was quickly promoted to Junior Association Manager in the fall of 1998. Throughout the years, she developed her management skills and knowledge in her chosen field as well as in event planning, all this while exploring new avenues to ensure the evolution of her SPG client-organizations. She has been working with the AQDC since 2005. In fact, she helped a client association become accredited by the Standards Canada Council (SCC) and has a keen interest in eco-responsible events. In 2008, she became the Executive Assistant of SPG and then in May 2010, she is appointed General Manager. Since May of 2013, she has been the co-owner of SPG and its CEO. Her key motivation is customer satisfaction. Lyne continues to manage associations and ensures the company’s ongoing development and growth.

Founding Members

From left to right, seated: Dr. Aline Boulanger, Jacques Laliberté, Irène Couture. Second row: Louise O’Donnell, Marcelle Vézina Cadoret, Line Brochu Third row: Dr. Manon Choinière, Yves Beauchamp, Lucie Moisan, Jean-Claude Lamouche, France Boulianne.