Marie has worked with children and families in a variety of capacities for over 30 years. For the first 12 years of her career, she worked as a social worker in traditional child welfare services in the areas of Family Service, Children in Care, Foster Parents etc. In 1990 she moved into the family support filed initially coordinating a family literacy program called the Parent Child Home Program. In 1995 Marie became the coordinator of the Elspeth Reid Family Resource Centre in Brandon Manitoba and was in that position for 14 years. During that time period, she also began working on a number of community partnerships and programs involving family issues.

Marie has a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Manitoba and in recent years has taken training in the areas of parenting, family support, family literacy, community development and newcomer families.

Marie’s current position is as the Family and Community Development Supervisor for Child & Family Services of Western Manitoba. She oversees seven different community program areas including the resource centre, day care, preschool enrichment, volunteer program and newly developed family enhancement program. Marie also represents CFS Western on a number of community and provincial committees. She has been involved in the Coalition process with Healthy Child Manitoba through the Brandon Healthy Families Team and the Healthy Child Manitoba Council of Coalitions and Provincial Advisory Committee. Marie is the chair of the Milestones Preschool Wellness Fair Committee which is a community event held each spring in Brandon.

Marie is the parent of two young adult daughters, one who has just started her career as a physiotherapist and the other is studying in the field of nutrition. She enjoys spending time with her daughters, travelling, reading, decorating and is very involved with her community.