Simone Hélène Hanchet

Director of Communications and Program
Jeanne Sauvé Foundation
Sauvé Scholars Foundation

As Director of Communications and Program for the Sauvé Scholars Foundation, Simone is responsible for the Foundation's official communications, for managing the Scholar selection process, and for facilitating community partnerships. She also enjoys supporting the Sauvé Scholars in their respective projects and learning from their remarkable and diverse life experiences.

Simone brings to her role at the Foundation ten years of experience in the field of environmental conservation. Her varied roles have taken her to many remote and beautiful parts of Canada and the world, where she has worked with communities on river conservation, marine species monitoring and protection, landscape preservation, environmental education, and eco-tourism. She continues to work on a part-time basis for QLF, an environmental NGO, as Director of the organization's Canadian Headquarters in Montreal.

With an undergraduate degree from the McGill School of Environment and a Masters in Public Policy from Concordia University, Simone's academic interests lie in developing models of education that foster a shift towards ecologically and socially responsible living. A long-time educator of children, teens, and young adults, Simone has always found opportunities to apply her academic background in practical ways.

Simone is closely involved with Tubahumurize, an association serving Rwandan women victims of violence. In 2009, she lived and worked at the Tubahumurize Centre in Kigali. Today, in addition to fundraising for this group,Simone is helping the association's Director to write her life story and hopes to find a publisher for this extraordinary memoire soon.

Simone is a also yoga instructor trained in the Bali Method,which emphasizes stress reduction as well as core strength and flexibility. She has led yoga classes for people of all ages and in all states of health, and loves this role because it invariably makes people feel happier and healthier.

In her spare time, Simone is a free-lance editor, cross-country skier, hiker, and amateur (possibly graceless) ballerina. She is also a co-founder of the Bottled Cities Project, a nascent alternative tourism initiative that allows people to ''bottle'' and then share their secret experiences of cities.