Military Orders to Medication Orders: Joe Dagenais' Unexpected Career Journey

After graduating from the Royal Military College in 1993 with a degree in chemical engineering, Joe Dagenais began a career that looked very different from where he would ultimately land. Commissioned as a Marine Engineering Officer in the Canadian Navy, he trained in England and spent six years overseeing marine engineering operations. But the role turned out to be less about hands-on engineering and more about managing. “It really wasn’t the engineering I wanted to do,” he recalls. 

While he valued the experience, he missed the technical problem-solving that had drawn him to engineering in the first place. Around that time, he connected with another engineer who had transitioned into pharmacy and spoke passionately about the profession. Those conversations struck a chord. He had long been interested in health care and had even originally considered medical school. However, balancing family life with the demands of a medical career, especially within the military, felt daunting. Pharmacy offered a meaningful alternative: a chance to work directly in patient care while maintaining a more sustainable family balance. 

He applied to the University of Saskatchewan, secured military funding, and graduated in 2007.  

From then until 2017, he served as a military pharmacist, with postings in Ottawa and Halifax and a deployment to Afghanistan. Along the way, he discovered that engineering and pharmacy shared more in common than he expected; both fields rely on logic, methodical thinking, and risk assessment. 

His engineering background, particularly in chemical engineering, proved very relevant in understanding medications and complex systems. 

In May 2017, Joe left the military and eventually made his way to QCH as Director of Pharmacy. Today, he oversees pharmacy services with the same approach that once guided him in the military. Reflecting on his path, he notes that the transition was less of a departure than it may appear: “It’s very similar between engineering and pharmacy,” he says. “A lot of it is just the process of how you approach and logically look at things and assess risk.”