Hello from the new ED

I’m Julie Veinot, the new Executive Director here at the Sexual Health Centre. In fact, I’m pumped to say that. (It was also exciting to create my email signature and change the phone message.)

As you may know, our previous ED, Jean Ketterling, left at the end of June, and we’ve been closed ever since. I applied for the position, crossed my fingers, and the rest is history.

I’m not a new face at the Centre. I used to sit on the Board, including as the Vice-Chair, which sounds very important but simply involved some volunteering and attending our awesome Board Meetings (yes, Board Meetings about sexual health are far more interesting than your run-of-the-mill monthly meetings!)

I left the Board in 2012 to help out at the Centre temporarily and finish off a cyberbullying grant. Needless to say, I’m delighted to be back at the Centre, relearning old things and gaining more knowledge about delivering sexual health education on the South Shore.

My background is in education and non-profits. I graduated from Acadia University with a Masters of English and a Bachelor of Education in Secondary Studies. Many of the courses I took revolved around the histories of women, sexuality, and medicine, as well as queer and feminist theory.

My work history includes the South Shore Regional School Board, as well as another great non-profit organization, Second Story Women’s Centre, where I was a summer administrative assistant and more recently, co-facilitated the Girl Talk program.

In fact, working as a summer student with Second Story, back when the Sexual Health Centre occupied a corner office, was my first introduction to Planned Parenthood Lunenburg County, which eventually became Sexual Health Centre Lunenburg County.  It was my job to answer calls and refill the free condom basket on the stairs.

Feel free to stop by our office and meet me. There’s lots of great resources here (including me) as well as free condoms and lube. (P.S. There’s also a basket of free condoms at the bottom of the stairs, in case you can’t travel our steep staircase or wish to remain anonymous.)

Of course, you need no excuse to drop in. You can browse the many pamphlets we have or the awesome titles in our borrowing library.

See you soon. We’re open from 8:30 to 4:00 Mondays to Thursdays.