Culture in the regions

Passionate about education, skills development, and culture, I have devoted 33 years to supporting students, teachers, and administrators throughout their educational journeys. I hold a bachelor’s degree in arts education and a graduate diploma in educational administration. For 28 years, I worked at the Centre de services scolaire de l’Estuaire, where I held various positions, including teacher, pedagogical advisor, assistant principal, and principal of Polyvalente des Baies.

These experiences allowed me to develop strong expertise in school leadership, pedagogical support, and project management. I now continue this mission as a training advisor at Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR), at its Baie-Comeau campus. In this role, I actively contribute to the development of the university’s academic offerings and to the establishment of the new campus, ensuring that programs and services meet the realities and needs of the community.

In a volunteer capacity, I serve as President of the Musée de l’église Sainte-Amélie de Baie-Comeau, an artistic and heritage gem of the Côte-Nord region. I work to enhance the visibility of this unique site by strengthening its cultural and community mission, organizing inclusive activities, and building partnerships. My involvement includes fundraising, cultural mediation, and the creation of experiences that make this heritage accessible to the public.

Firmly convinced that education and culture are powerful drivers of transformation, I am committed to a human-centered approach rooted in my community. Working for and with my region is a great source of pride, and I devote all my energy to it.

I have worked as a cultural manager for more than 30 years in theatre, television, variety and radio, before joining the museum sector in 2019 as the 8th Executive Director of the Musée de la Gaspésie. At Radio Gaspésie, where I served as General Manager, the team grew from 12 to 16 full-time employees and revenues increased by 25%. The station received several awards, including Community Station of the Year in 2015 and the Social Economy Enterprise prize in 2017. I was personally honoured with the Prix Résonnance for my contribution to the community radio network.

In Montréal, I was the right-hand man of producer Guy Latraverse, with whom I produced television programs for the Francofolies de Montréal, the Grand Rire de Québec, various series and documentaries, as well as around thirty plays and major cultural events, including Montréal’s 350th anniversary celebrations. I headed Théâtre Il va sans dire from 1998 to 2003 alongside its founder and artistic director Dominic Champagne, creator of the Beatles LOVE show for Cirque du Soleil.

I hold a diploma in Arts and Media Technology (television) from Jonquière and began my career as assistant director, then director, at TVA Trois-Rivières, before pursuing management training at HEC Montréal and studies in politics and philosophy at Université de Montréal. I have served on several boards of directors and have mentored many professionals in radio, television and theatre.

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Mathieu Lagacé has been working for nearly three decades in cultural, community, and artistic development in Québec. A recognized leader known for his vision, ability to bring stakeholders together, and strategic mindset, he has served since 2025 as Executive Director of Culture Lanaudière, where he oversees the organization’s strategic direction, government relations, and the promotion of the region’s cultural vitality. His work focuses on strengthening connections between artists, institutions, municipalities, and citizens, while also fostering cultural tourism and regional vitality.

Prior to joining Culture Lanaudière, he spent five years as Director of the Department of Culture and Recreation for the City of Notre-Dame-des-Prairies. There, he developed an ambitious cultural program, oversaw an exhibition centre and a performance venue, established artist residencies in the performing arts, and led major infrastructure projects. From 2008 to 2019, in L’Assomption, he managed the Culture and Community Division, notably coordinating the City’s 300th anniversary celebrations, mobilizing over 200 volunteers and supporting some fifty community-led projects.

Holder of a bachelor’s degree in Leisure Sciences from Concordia University, Mathieu Lagacé also has extensive experience in cultural mediation, event production, and governance. Passionate about history, contemporary art, and community development, he has long been involved in various regional and school-based organizations. His career reflects a sustained commitment to creating environments where culture serves as a key driver of social cohesion, identity, and sustainable development.

Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, Ph.D., is a full professor at Téluq University (University of Quebec), holder of the Research Chair on Socio-Organizational Issues of the Knowledge Society (Téluq), and held a Canada Research Chair from 2002 to 2016. She is the director of ARUC on age and social times management. She has published hundreds of articles mainly based on research on work-family balance, work organization, telework, communities of practice, coworking, innovation, and labor market transformations.

She has been a visiting professor at many universities internationally, notably in France, Belgium, and Vietnam, and received the Fellow distinction, an honorary title from the Order of Chartered Human Resources Advisors (OCRHA) in 2015; she was appointed a member of the Cercle d’Excellence of the University of Quebec in 2021 and of the Royal Society of Canada in 2022. She has also published textbooks on innovation management, labor economics, sociology of work, work-family balance, and human resource management. She has published in various journals including: Personnel Review, International Journal of Human Resource Management, New Technology, Work and Employment, International Journal of Technology Management, Cities, Canadian Journal of Urban Research, Applied Research on Quality of Life, Review of Social Economy, Employees Responsibilities and Rights Journal, Social Indicators Research, Journal of Work Innovations, Canadian Journal of Communication, Canadian Journal of Regional Science. She is often invited to comment on current issues related to work, employment, and remote work in various media outlets, including CBC and Radio-Canada.

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Frédéric Laurin is Professor of Economics at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and a member of the Research Institute on SMEs (Institut de recherche sur les PME, INRPME). His research includes work on regional economic development, regional entrepreneurship, SME internationalisation and the distribution of wines and alcohols in Quebec.

As a researcher, he also worked with such institutions as Caisse de dépôts et de placements, Investissement-Québec and Canada Economic Development (DEC-CED). He is one of the founders of GROUPÉ –Mauricie-Rive-Sud, a group of business leaders of the Mauricie region that aims to encourage the region’s economic development.

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Hamed Motaghi is an Associate Professor of Business Technology Management at the Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO). He also serves as Managing Director of the International Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (IEKH) at McGill University and as Chair of the Business Technology Management Governing Council. He is an active founding member of the Centre for Media and Society at HEC Montréal. Professor Motaghi is a co-applicant researcher and member of the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche et d’innovation en cybersécurité et société (CIRICS). He is also a co-applicant researcher with the Culture in the Regions Axis of the Chair in Creative Economy and Well-Being (CREAT), and a member of the Institut multidisciplinaire en cybersécurité et cyber-resilience (IMC²). Prior to joining UQO, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University.

He holds a PhD with distinction from a joint doctoral program administered by the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where his dissertation examined the relationship between creativity and information technology. He also earned a master’s degree from Université Paris-Dauphine and an engineering degree from Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France. In addition, he has held adjunct faculty positions at UQAM, TÉLUQ, the Royal Military College of Canada, McGill University, HEC Montréal, and Lawrence Technological University in Michigan, USA. In his academic career, Professor Motaghi has extensive hands-on experience in distance, hybrid, and on-campus education. He has designed and delivered courses in both English and French in Canada, the United States, and Malaysia, and has supervised MBA, MSc, and PhD students. His research interests focus on information systems management, innovation and creativity, creative and cultural industries, IT-driven transformation, disruptive technologies, and the role of technology in entrepreneurship and the internationalization of firms.

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Jean-Charles Andrieu de Lévis is a professor of comics studies at the Université du Québec en Outaouais, within the École des Arts et Cultures. After completing a master’s thesis on abstract comics, he focused during his doctoral research on the stylistic evolution of comics in France and the United States throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Combining cultural and aesthetic approaches, his current work mainly examines contemporary comics in which artists explore new forms of expression.

Julie Rijpens is a professor at the School of Management at the Université du Québec à Montréal (ESG UQAM). She has been teaching and conducting research in social economy, social and collective enterprise management, and social innovation for nearly 20 years. After obtaining a PhD in Management Sciences from the University of Liège (Belgium) in 2014, she joined McGill University for a postdoctoral fellowship in social innovation.

Her research interests include the economic and governance models of the social economy and nonprofit sector, the contributions of the social economy to the circular economy, the contribution of alliances between arts and research to realizing the potential of social innovation, and the impact assessment in cultural organisations. Her research has been published in several edited books and journals. Julie Rijpens is also involved in knowledge mobilization and transfer activities with practitioners, notably through her participation in collaborative research projects. She is a member of the research team in management of social and collective enterprises (GESC), an associate member of the Centre for Research on Social Innovations (CRISES, Social and Collective Organizations axis), a member of the Research Network in Social and Solidarity Economy (RRESS), a member of the Quebec Circular Economy Research Network (RRECQ) and an associate researcher at the Centre for Social Economy of the University of Liège (Belgium).

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Laurent Dambre-Sauvage is a Professor of Territorial Studies and Regional Development at the Université du Québec à Rimouski. His work lies at the intersection of cultural geography, sociology of culture, and territorial studies. He examines the relationships between cultural practices, heritage, and the transformation of living environments, with particular attention to rural, coastal, and peripheral regions. His research program focuses on the contribution of the arts, culture, and heritage to territorial vitality, the construction of socio-territorial identities, the strengthening of place attachment, and the emergence of new forms of local governance. Using qualitative and participatory approaches, he studies processes of cultural coordination, cultural commons, and the role of local actors in the making of territories and contemporary ways of inhabiting them.

His fieldwork is conducted primarily in Eastern Quebec and the Maritime provinces, where he investigates cultural vitality in rural communities, maritime heritage, and cultural dynamics linked to local economies. His research offers a spatial reading of contemporary territorial transformations, attentive to the material, experiential, and political dimensions of culture. He is the author of several books exploring culture as a territorial resource, including “Cultural Commons: Reinventing Living Environments in the Saint-Michel Neighbourhood” (with Juan-Luis Klein and Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay) and “Heritage and Local Development” (with Myriam Joannette), published by Presses de l’Université du Québec.

Holding a PhD in Art Studies and Practices from the Université du Québec à Montréal (2024), Marie-Hélène Leblanc has been Director and Curator of Galerie UQO since 2015 and has served as an Associate Professor at the École des arts et cultures (UQO) since 2025.

Her curatorial practice has led her to produce approximately forty projects presented in various institutions across Quebec, Canada, and Europe. In recent years, she has received the Université du Québec Innovation in Management Award (2025), as well as the Excellence Award (2025) and the Emerging Leader Award (2018) from the Société des musées du Québec.

Mélanie Boucher is a researcher specializing in museology and art history, currently a full professor in both disciplines at the Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO). She is co-founder of the CIÉCO Research and Inquiry Group. In this capacity, she directs the research work of Axis 3 (the expanded collection) of the New Uses of Collections in Art Museums Partnership (SSHRC 2021-2028). At the same time, Mélanie Boucher holds the position of principal researcher with the Équipe Art et musée (FRQSC 2022-2026), a group of researchers, visual artists and exhibition designers from three Quebec universities. Her current research focuses on performative practices and their musealization, as well as on modes of exhibition and presentation induced by contemporary art. In 2023, she co-edited with M. Fraser and J. Lamoureux the book “Réinventer la collection : l’art et le musée au temps de l’évènementiel” (PUQ).

Valérie Yobé, Ph.D., is a full professor at the School of Arts and Cultures (ÉdAC) at the University of Quebec in Outaouais (UQO). In 2014, she founded tribu grafik, a non-profit organization bringing together projects with social and cultural objectives. From 2016 to 2019, she was director of the School of Arts and Cultures (ÉdAC) at the University of Quebec in Outaouais. Her most recent research-creation projects focus on a series of residencies in elementary and secondary school settings, with the objective of implementing socially-oriented graphic design practice within arts education.

Since 2021, she has been a board member of the Social Design Platform. In 2022, she co-published the first book in a series, *Le kit graphique : graphisme citoyen à l’école primaire* (The Graphic Kit: Citizen Graphic Design in Elementary School). That same year, it received the Social Good Design Award in the education category from the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (RGD). Since 2024, she has been a member of CREAT, the Research Chair in Creative Economy and Well-being – Culture in Regions axis, and since 2025, an associate member of CRISES, the Centre for Research on Social Innovation – Territories and Living Environments axis. In 2025, she published *Aborder la santé mentale autrement en milieu scolaire : coconstruire au-delà des clichés* (Approaching Mental Health Differently in Schools: Co-constructing Beyond Clichés), a collaborative research project in partnership with the Diament Chair, a strategic research chair at UQAM in design for digital mental health.

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