I had the pleasure and the privilege for a few years to be part of a team managed by Lise Girard while she worked for the Department of Health (New Brunswick). The project, which brought together partners from each of the 4 Atlantic provinces, consisted in establishing the foundations of a healthcare delivery model based on an interprofessional collaboration approach (develop training modules, recruit and train trainers, offer training sessions). I realized from the start that the experience was going to be as pleasant as it was stimulating. Lise has an immense knowledge and know-how, and her interpersonal skills are exceptional. She is a visionary who also has a great ability to realize her visions. I highly recommend the services of Lise and her organization for any service related to her area of expertise that you and / or your organization may require.

Lise’s leadership emanate first and foremost from her personality. Lise is an energetic, passionate, sensitive, thoughtful and warm women that gains rapidly the trust of people and she accomplishes great things! Working alongside with her, has brought me, naturally, to want to follow her and be like her!

As a Senior Director; Lise executes her functions while displaying balance and richness of the heart, head and spirit; I have rarely nor ever met anyone like her in any workplace. She knew exactly how to lead me and exploit the potential that I was able to offer during that period of my life. During the three years that I worked under her direction, I did not feel only like an employee but like a complete and important person. A person that could meet challenges, enrich her life and achieve beautiful successes.

Lise also distinguishes herself by her global vision that she has of the human beings. She masters numerous expertise, knowledge and practices that she uses to guide the people under her supervision (Nursing Sciences and health care, spirituality, holistic health approaches, psychology, management and many more).

Still today, key words or sentences from Lise resonate in me and guide me. I also repeat them for the benefit of the individuals that I am supervising. “There is only one way to eat and elephant: one bit at a time!”, “Listen to your instinct. It is an important form of intelligence!”, “We frequently think, wrongly, that it is the responsibility of the employees to adjust themselves to their supervisor. On the contrary, as a good leader and manager, it is your duty to know the profile of each of your employees and to adapt your leadership & supervision style so you can help them develop their skills and give the best of themselves!”

Still today, when I face challenges or when I experience moments of doubts; Lise is still an important figure that I reattach myself to; like a landmark, to find myself, keep my vision and make clear and authentic decisions.

It is my pleasure to write this recommendation for Lise Girard. I worked alongside Lise for 4 years when I was in the position of Withdrawal Management Counsellor at Montfort Renaissance (MRI). Lise, as Senior Director of Mental Health and Addiction Services, was always extremely encouraging to me throughout my time working with her. Her dedication to developing and expanding the funding available for programming and services at MRI resulted in countless new opportunities for both her staff as well as clients. Lise’s support and investment in my professional development was indispensable in helping me to grow to where I am now in my social work career. I am excited for Lise as she embarks on this next meaningful phase of her career.
To conclude, I do not hesitate to offer my testimonial for Lise as a dedicated and supportive leader and mentor.

Lise Girard is an incredibly organized and results oriented leader. I had the pleasure of working with her on different competency based management projects. She was able to facilitate and reconcile diverse points of views to create higher quality solutions. Her focus and her passion enabled our team to achieve some very ambitious goals and build solid partnerships throughout the process. I would highly recommend Lise as she is a transformational leader and she leads with compassion and integrity; she is a model and a mentor for her teams and she also ensures projects are executed on time and on budget.

I wouldn't be where I am today, both personally and professionally, if it wasn't for the universe introducing me to Lise.

When I was a student years ago, and in her role as Executive Director at the agency we were both at then, Lise became my first-ever, and life-changing mentor.

I hadn't met someone before who offered me the thoughtfulness and compassion she did. She pushed me out of my comfort zone, gave me honest feedback and precious pieces of advice which I still think of today during challenging times.

I will be forever grateful to have had Lise in my life.