Associate Professor; Director Social Innovation Research Group (SIRG); Director, Manulife Centre for Community Health Research (MCCHR); Gendered Violence Faculty Colleague, WLU (2015–2017)
Dr. Lafrenière received her PhD from the University of McGill’s School of Social Work in 2005. She is the founding director of the Social Innovation Research Group (SIRG) which is a research and training incubator comprised of a multidisciplinary group of researchers and community practitioners dedicated to university-community collaboration. In 2013, Dr. Lafrenière was appointed as the Director of the Manulife Centre for Community Health Research, which is an endowed research centre dedicated to exploring community health at a local and global level.
The guiding philosophy behind Dr. Lafrenière’s work is her belief that public intellectuals should be of service to the communities in which they operate. She currently is an associate professor in the Faculty of Social work where she teaches courses in transformational social work practice and community interventions. Dr. Lafreniere mentors undergraduate, Master’s, PhD and post-doctoral fellows in the “art and science” of community-based research and development. For the past 12 years she has been a member of the Women and Gender Studies Coordinating Committee where she also teaches courses in social justice and leadership.
