Maylinda Bernard-Hovington, Community Conservation Planner
Maylinda graduated from the University of Ottawa with a Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition Sciences. She worked as a registered dietitian for eight years before completing a Master’s degree in Environmental and Global Health from the Université de Montréal. She has professional experience in public health, with a background that spans academic, community, clinical, and corporate settings. She is deeply passionate about community-based initiatives and social justice issues, including environmental health, food security, systemic racism, ableism, and health equity. She embraces feminism and believes that the well-being and freedom of all is essential to our own.
Born in Québec, Maylinda lived most of her life in Ontario, where she learned to speak English fluently. With her mother being Haitian and her father French Canadian, her mixed heritage has been a defining factor in her ongoing quest for identity and self-discovery. She believes in the power of joy, community and knowing one’s history as a means of resistance against systems of oppression. Maylinda is kind, curious, empathetic, optimistic, and creative. She seeks to make the world a better place by being authentic, humble, intentional and by empowering those she encounters.