“My first encounter with the NDG Community Council was as a participant in a choir contest of the NDG Arts and Letters Festival. I was 12 at West Hill High School” In 1973, as a graduate nurse and mother of three preschoolers, I became actively involved in the follow-up to the first Conference on the Quality of Life in NDG. I concentrated on the issues raised by seniors while others focused on day care, womens’s issues, tenants rights, youth. recreation, urban planning, CLSC development, pollution and recycling I served a term as president from 1975-1977 during which time we saw the Council as a resource to all the action groups and provided an open forum for local residents on a monthly basis.
I accepted a second term as president in 2001-2003 with three challenges: to shepherd the very successful Food Depot from a project of the NDG Community Council to an independent NGO with Charitable status with its own Board and staff; to re-energize the campaign to save Benny Farm for affordable housing and to organize another Quality of life Conference. I have been involved at a pan- Canadian level with the Canadian Council on Social Development and the Canadian Association for Adult Education – both organizations deeply committed to social development and community organizing, I have celebrated the success of citizen action in NDG all over the country.
The NDG Community Council has always been my touchstone to reality; at the community level where real people live real issues and know how to make things happen.

Bachelor degree in applied science and diploma in Engeneering , Master degree in applied science and a PHD in mechanics Professor of engineering and department head, Ecole Polytechnique, Faculty of Engineering, University of Montreal , retired in 2000.
Member of several committees: E.G. Canadian Society for Mechanic engineering; Research Council natural science and engineering; Advisory Committee on Nuclear Safety, Membre, Conseil d'administration/member on the Board of Directors : Collège Marie-de-France; Le Manoir Notre-Dame-de-Grâce ; la Coalition Villa-Maria (dossier du Précieux-Sang); du Conseil Communautaire NDG, Dépôt alimentaire NDG; l’Association AU RENDEZ-VOUS DES CULTURES (trésorier). Président, Association des parents, École Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Membre du Comité consultatif du Projet d'Engagement Communautaire (PEC) de Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.
Participant au programme de mentorat piloté par l’Association AU RENDEZ-VOUS DES CULTURES en tant que mentor pour des ingénieurs récemment arrivés au Québec. Membre du Comité « Honors and Awards » de la Société canadienne des ingénieurs séniors .

Gail moved to NDG in 1972 because of its child-friendly YMCA. As a Mom and Tots volunteer she participated in a YMCA Women’s Day conference in 1974 where she was recruited by Anne Usher to join the NDG Action Committee of the Community Council to work on health issues in NDG
That began many years of advocating for a CLSC in the community which became reality in 1986. Gail was its president from 1986-1992. As such she was on a joint committee with the YMCA and the NDG Community Council to plan the NDG 2000 Quality of life conference in 1992.
She was a member of the NDG 2000 Support Committee that implemented the follow-up of the conference and was its representative on the Board of the Council.
In 2001, she left the Board after 10 years only to return in 2003. She was President from 2004-2007. Since then she has remained active on the NDG 2020 and the Round Table committee and continued to be involved in food security issues in NDG.