Director

Dr. Alain Pavilanis was born in France and raised in Montreal. He was educated at Princeton University (USA) and McGill University. He began his career as a full-service rural family doctor in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Over almost a decade, he gained a deep understanding of the needs of the rural communities.
He was then made an Assistant Professor in the department of Paediatrics of  McGill University. In that role, he was appointed Director of the Adolescent and Youth Medicine Service. He developed outpatient and inpatient services for adolescents and young people. He developed community outreach programmes, notably the  Pigeon Park Project. This was a service outreach of young people in the Cabot Square area, including a sizeable population of  Indigenous Canadians.
He was subsequently appointed Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at the Université de Montréal. Based at Notre Dame Hospital, he concentrated on undergraduate medical education. In particular, he worked on the development of the new problem-based learning curriculum.

He spent the last twenty-five years as an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at McGill. In that role, he was Chief of the Department of Family Medicine at St Mary's Hospital and Director of the Family Medicine Centre, the largest training site for family medicine residents in Canada. His focus was on the development of maternal-child services. He also served in many roles at the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Most importantly, he served as its President from 2004 to 2005. He also served as President of the Quebec College of Family Physicians from 1991 to 1992. He has maintained a role in the international development of family medicine, specifically in Lithuania (Kaunas) and China (Shenzhen).