Chair MWBC
Minister of Health and Wellness
Carmen Carriere is the elected Chairperson for the Métis Women of BC (MWBC) and holds the portfolios for Women and Gender Equity and the Ministry of Health and Wellness. Carmen is a proud Michif woman whose roots run deep in the Red River, where her father and grandparents were born. Some of her family names are Carriere, Hamelin, Parenteau, Vandal, Larence, St. Germain, McGillvray and the unnamed Cree and Anishinaabe women that populate her family tree.
Prior to being elected, Carmen was a secondary Social Studies and English teacher and an advocate for pediatric heart transplantation and children living with disability. Carmen was previously the elected Region 2 Women’s representative and a board member who served on the Surrey Delta Métis Association and the Vancouver Sea to Sky Métis Association. Carmen also sat on the Indigenous Feedback and Accountability Committee for the Fraser Health Authority and on the Indigenous Education Advisory Committee for the Vancouver School Board.
Carmen has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Bachelor of Education, both from the University of British Columbia. Carmen completed the Indigenous Women in Community Leadership program through the Coady Institute at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish Nova Scotia – a program that she now serves as a mentor for. Carmen enjoys writing non-fiction, reading, walking and spending time with her family. Carmen’s biggest and most proud accomplishment, however, is the raising of her four amazing children who are so proud to be Métis.