U of M nominee selected for Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference

The U of M’s Christine Cyr has been selected to attend the prestigious 2015 Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference, after a lengthy selection process. The conference will be held in various locations across Canada for two weeks this upcoming May.

Christine Cyr.

Cyr, who was recently hired as director of the Aboriginal Student Centre, has been employed with the university for over 14 years and is well regarded within the community.

In the words of her nominator, Deborah Young, “her current role is instrumental in providing First Nations, Metis and Inuit students with culturally relevant support in the area of Indigenous student services. Christine is helping to enhance a more welcoming environment for both students and the broader university through student advising and coordinating the culturally relevant teachings by traditional knowledge holders and Elders.”

Human Resources coordinated the search for a candidate, seeking nominations university-wide to compete for entry into the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference. The selection committee focused primarily on the qualities of innovation and creativity in leadership, which is also the main theme of the conference this year.

Cyr’s application and interview stood out for the U of M selection committee, it noted, not only because of her innovation and creativity within the workplace in dealing with conflict, finding new solutions to tired problems, and her dedication to Aboriginal philanthropic efforts across Canada — but also because of her honest, self-aware presence, her intuition, passion and humanity.

The committee also noted that Cyr is “a talented, inspirational and dedicated leader”; “She emulates all of the traditionally held First Nations values, and makes the Seven Principles by which one’s life should be guided, a main source of her leadership inspiration. Christine is passionate about people, and strives to treat everyone she meets with the utmost respect and dignity they deserve. To hear her speak is inspiring, and her presence in the room triggers both a calming and motivation reaction in others. Congratulations, Christine, you have made us all very proud.”

As the Governor General’s Leadership Conference attendees make their way across Canada, the selection committee is enthusiastically waiting for the rest of the country to realize what a talented, inspirational and dedicated leader we have found in Christine here at the University of Manitoba.

The Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference is a highly profiled, competitive program that runs bi-annually and takes place over two weeks in the spring.

– Melissa Grapentine