20 Years and 20 Stories | Nancy Quattrocchi

“If I had the chance to give a younger self some advice, I would say that you should explore all your talents and interests and discover what motivates you. When I was growing up, you took practical courses that could land you a job. I always wonder what would have happened if I had been allowed to discover my creative side.”

My career journey was quite varied. After graduating from Cornell University with a Bachelor’s degree in Government, I took some time off from university and just worked for a year to put money aside to go back to school. Although I had a full scholarship to Cornell, my expenses were paid by my parents. I wanted to go back to graduate school, and was considering law school, but I wanted to pay for it on my own. So, I took positions at the university, working for various departments. This is where I first discovered human resources, or personnel, as it was called back then. I really enjoyed it, had an amazing mentor and realized that I did not want to go to law school. Instead, I spoke to my faculty advisor and decided to follow the Masters’ program in Public Administration. From here, I worked in various positions trying to discover what I really wanted to do. I met my husband in 1990 and we got married in 1991. At this point, he was well-established in Montreal and I was still in school. So, it made sense that I would move from the U.S. to Canada instead of him moving to the U.S. My first position after finally receiving my permanent residency status was in Montreal as a Network Administrator. I was responsible for the entire operations of a network that spanned across Canada. Here is where I learned all sides of a business from finance, human resources, information technology, etc. and had to learn how to speak French at a predominantly French-speaking university. Since then, I have worked in various positions, all positions reporting to the President or CEO, where I was responsible for the operations of the organization.

I am currently at the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement and as I reflect back on my career, one of the most challenging aspects was finding the balance between work and life. The organization was going through some incredible changes and faced major challenges. The workload became quite intense at times and working exorbitant hours was seen as the norm for a while. Keeping an eye on the long-term goals of the organization and recognizing that this was a short blip on the foundation’s radar were paramount to my success and to my sanity. I emerged from this turbulence with renewed energy and re-doubled commitment to my colleagues and to the impact of the foundation on evidence-informed decision-making in the health sector.

I was very fortunate to take the Certificate in HR Law program as well as the Certificate in Advanced HR Law program at Osgoode led by David Thomas, Stuart Rudner and Natalie MacDonald. I was so nervous on that first day surrounded by other professionals who had been working in various levels of organizations. However, I remember that in both cases, I truly enjoyed the experience. I was able to put my practical knowledge to work as we discussed case studies in HR law and we shared our own experiences with day-to-day HR challenges. It was great sitting down with Stuart and Natalie at lunch discussing real issues with them and having the benefit of learning from them. It was definitely an excellent way to validate one’s own knowledge in HR law. The residency program itself was excellent and it provided a wonderful way for busy professionals to take time away from their schedules for 4-5 days and use this time in an applied manner. Peer-to-peer learning is by far the best way for professionals to learn.