Networking Organization Appoints Two Directors to Share Leadership
Canadian Arthritis Network puts successful partnership model into practice
April 22, 2008, Toronto, ON – The Canadian Arthritis Network (CAN) has a ten-year history of successfully facilitating and supporting networking, partnerships and collaborations within the arthritis research community in Canada. When it was time to appoint a new Scientific Director to lead the organization forward, the Network took its operating model to heart and chose a dynamic duo to share leadership responsibilities. Effective April 14, 2008, Drs. Claire Bombardier and Monique Gignac are appointed co-Scientific Directors.
“With a membership of more than 170 world-class scientists and rheumatologists to choose from, CAN was in the position of having too many good candidates for the top position,” explains Dr. Robin Armstrong, Chair of the Canadian Arthritis Network’s Board of Directors. “The Board eagerly jumped at the opportunity to have two excellent leaders provide counsel and strategic direction.”
Professor Bombardier is the Canada Research Chair in knowledge Transfer for Musculoskeletal Care, the Pfizer Chair in Rheumatology and the Rheumatology Division Director for the University of Toronto. She is also a senior scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute in Canada and at the Institute for Work and Health. Dr Bombardier was the founding director of the clinical epidemiology program at the University of Toronto.
“The Canadian Arthritis Network has had a significant impact on arthritis research in Canada and internationally, and I look forward to leading the organization with Dr. Gignac as we carry out the Network’s vision of a ‘world free of arthritis’,” says Dr. Claire Bombardier, co-Scientific Director, Canadian Arthritis Network.
Dr. Gignac is a Senior Scientist with the Division of Outcomes and Population Health and a research investigator with the Arthritis Community Research and Evaluation Unit at the Toronto Western Research Institute (TWRI). She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto and an Adjunct Scientist with the Institute for Work and Health.
Dr. Monique Gignac was a founding member of CAN and, along with Dr. Bombardier, has been an active volunteer on CAN committees. “I’ve had the pleasure of watching how the organization has successfully brought together diverse groups who have the same goal of improving the lives of people with arthritis,” says Dr. Gignac, co-Scientific Director, Canadian Arthritis Network. “I’m excited to have this opportunity to contribute in a more meaningful capacity to the inner workings and strategic development of the organization.”
About the Canadian Arthritis Network
The Canadian Arthritis Network (CAN) (www.arthritisnetwork.ca)
is a not-for-profit organization, funded by the Government
of Canada’s Networks of Centres of Excellence ( www.nce.gc.ca
), to support arthritis research and
development and to facilitate the commercialization of its
Network Investigators’ discoveries. CAN is the single point
of contact that links 179 leading Canadian arthritis
researchers and clinicians, 45 Canadian academic
institutions, The Arthritis Society, pharmaceutical and
biotechnology companies, and government.
-30-
For more information, please contact:
Stacey Johnson
Director of Communications
416-586-4685 Toronto (office)
October 10-14, please call 416-712-4448 (cell)
sjohnson@arthritisnetwork.ca
Return To Top |
