The “Learning Education Advisory Group” (LEAG) is a key part of HealthCareCAN and CHA Learning’s member engagement strategy. Comprised of vice-presidents/senior-directors of ‘People’ (human resources) and those with leadership roles in learning and leadership development, LEAG provides a valuable and important voice for members to influence and direct the strategic priorities for CHA Learning.
Since its inception, LEAG has also become an important and valued networking opportunity for these executives to discuss emerging policy and operational issues and needs related to learning/organizational development within their organizations and regions, to obtain peer support and advice, and to share leading practices with one another.
LEAG is not a committee of the Board and acts exclusively in an advisory capacity to HealthCareCAN staff who rely on this advice and insight to guide our operations and future planning and strategy so that CHA Learning and HealthCareCAN can best serve our members and the greater health system.
LEAG issues as call for nominations to our members in the fall of each year.
HealthCareCAN and CHA Learning are truly indebted and thankful to this phenomenal and deeply engaged and dedicated group of volunteers who make up LEAG — they support CHA Learning and our continued mission to empower health professionals with the knowledge, skills, and relationships to lead health system improvement.
Terms of Reference (ToR) can be found here. For more information, or to express interest in joining LEAG, please contact Dale Schierbeck (VP, Learning & Development).
Group Members
Amanda Björn Co-Chair, LEAG (Thunder Bay)
About
Amanda Björn
Executive Vice President, People, Culture and Strategy
Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre
Amanda is a Business Coaching Advantage Certified Coach, and a Registered Corporate Coach. Her focus is on personal transformation, leadership development, and organizational development. She works to link leadership and strategy to genuine self-discovery and self-development and is focused on creating organizations where personal transformation is valued and seen as a strategic advantage.
Dale Schierbeck Co-Chair, LEAG (CHA Learning)
About
Dale Schierbeck
Vice-President, Learning & Development (CHA Learning)
HealthCareCAN
613-241-8005 Ext 228
dschierbeck@healthcarecan.ca
Dale is a senior health leader with a passion for continuous learning and is a “Certified Training and Development Professional” (CTDP) with over 25 years of experience in learning and development. In his role, he provides strategic and executive leadership to CHA Learning, HealthCareCAN’s innovative, online professional development division.
Under his leadership, he has spearheaded the renewal and transformation of CHA Learning and made significant investments in the development of online education, including many new, highly-successful programs: Change Leadership, Management Essentials, Health Information Management, and People-Centred Care Leadership, Quality Improvement, Patient Safety and numerous others. His vision for CHA Learning is empowering health professionals with the knowledge, skills and relationships to lead health system improvement … today and in the future.
Before joining HealthCareCAN in 2011, Dale spent eight years at the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) where he was instrumental in the development of CIHI’s online education model. In addition, his career has included work with both Bow Valley College and Norquest College in Alberta. He’s lived and worked in four of Canada’s provinces and territories, including the Northwest Territories where he had a unique opportunity to lead the development of organizational training programs in Canada’s first diamond mine. Dale is also no stranger to international work: he has lived in China and Poland where he held university lecturing positions in both countries.
James Low
Director, People Services & Culture
Yukon Hospitals
Over the last 15 years, James Low’s work in marketing, communications and human resources has been focused on enhancing the public health-care sector. He is currently the Director, People Services & Culture for the Yukon Hospital Corporation based in Whitehorse. In this role, he oversees strategic human resources, labour relations, ability management, organizational development, corporate communications and volunteer services for the territory’s three acute care hospitals.
James’s experience includes spearheading the development of the organization’s strategic plan as well as successfully implementing the hospitals’ volunteer program and communications strategy. He also supports several significant priorities and change initiatives, including the implementation of a cultural transformation/information system project, introduction of the first MRI service in Canada’s North, construction of a multimillion-dollar expansion to Whitehorse General Hospital, and transformation of the organization’s HR/people team.
As advocate for and leader in building a strong health system at the local and national level, James serves as chair of Yukon hospitals’ Ethics Committee, on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Nurses’ Association, and on CHA Learning’s Learning Education Advisory Group. He previously served on the Board of Directors of the Yukon Registered Nurses Association and Volunteer Bénévoles Yukon.
He holds a BA in Media and Information Studies as well as a master’s degree in Journalism from Western University in London, Ontario.
Mandy Lowe (UHN – Ontario)
About
Mandy Lowe
Senior Director of Clinical Education, University Health Network (UHN)
Strategic Advisor, Centre for Interprofessional Education, University of Toronto
Mandy Lowe BSc(OT), MSc, OT Reg. (Ont.) is the Senior Director of Clinical Education at the University Health Network, Strategic Advisor of the Centre for Interprofessional Education, University of Toronto and holds a status appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Mandy is passionate about teaching and learning, particularly educational development, education scholarship and leadership. As a leader, she thrives in work at the intersections of professions, teams, departments, organizations and systems. Mandy’s work has advanced educational development and interprofessional education/care locally to internationally. She is the former Director and current faculty member of the University of Toronto’s ehpicTM (educating health professionals in interprofessional care) program, a widely recognized Centre for Interprofessional Education faculty and professional development certificate program that attracts faculty, researchers, leaders, administrators and others from across Canada and around the globe. She is also a faculty member of the Collaborative Change LeadershipTM program (Centre for Interprofessional Education, University of Toronto) and leads a variety of efforts to advance learning about leadership broadly including healthcare professionals and students.
Peter Youell (Royal Ottawa)
About
Peter Youell
Director Learning & Development and Telemedicine Programs
Royal Ottawa Health Care Group
Peter leads the team of education and training specialists for the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group.
He joined The Royal in 1984 as a manager of Education Technology and Media production, leveraging his first career as a TV and Radio News reporter, anchor, and production manager; pushing The Royal toward being the first to take communications into the digital age in the late 80’s. In the mid-nineties he concocted the notion of clients meeting their healthcare specialists over live video while the new world-wide-web was still in diapers. Today he is recognized as one of Telemedicine’s pioneers in Canada.
His team’s efforts have been profiled internationally and have generated approximately two million dollars in combined philanthropy (BELL Canada and RBC) and event revenues during his 15-year tenure as Director of Learning and Telemedicine. He is a certified LEADS facilitator and workplace conflict specialist. To wrap up this self-proclaimed Forrest Gump inspired career, he practices Stand-up Comedy in clubs around Ottawa.
Joni Kent (Baycrest – Ontario)
About
Joni Kent
Executive Vice President, Corporate Services & Chief Human Resources Officer
Baycrest
Tanya Tynski (Health PEI)
About
Tanya Tynski
Executive Director, Human Resources & Pharmacare
Health PEI
As Executive Director of Human Resources and Pharmacare for Health PEI, Tanya brings a ‘people first’ approach to her portfolio. With over 27 years of public services with the Government of Prince Edward Island, she has held various leadership roles, gaining extensive experience and understanding in all areas of human resource management both at the operational and strategic levels.
In her current role, Tanya’s key areas of responsibilities include all human resource management, learning and development, payroll, workplace health and safety, supporting the Board of Directors, and pharmacare.
As a leader, Tanya welcomes challenges and, through creative innovation, is an enthusiastic problem solver. She is an advocate for change, continuously seeking opportunities for improved service delivery using evidence-based methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma. As a values driven executive, she is committed to diversity, inclusion and the development of ‘people’ as a key resource to Health PEI.
Tanya has dedicated her time to learning and development not only through her professional portfolio, but also as a distance instructor with the New Brunswick Community College and also as a lifelong student. Currently, Tanya is completing her Masters Certificate in Values-Based Leadership through Royal Roads University.
Yabome Gilpin-Jackson (Fraser Health – BC)
About
Yabome Gilpin-Jackson, PhD, MBA, MA, CEC
Executive Director, Leadership & Organization Development
Fraser Health (BC)
Sandra Carlton (Kingston) Member At-Large
About
Sandra Carlton
Joint Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer
Providence Care and Kingston Health Sciences Centre
(includes Providence Care, Kingston General Hospital site and Hotel Dieu Hospital site)
Mike Northcott (Saskatchewan Health Authority)
About
Mike Northcott is Saskatchewan Health Authority’s Chief Human Resources Officer. Mike and his team are responsible for all human resource operations and professionals to ensure that the organization attracts, develops and retains the best health care professionals for the province of Saskatchewan.
Mike joined the former Saskatoon Health Region in 2007 and played a key role in the strategic direction of the region’s human resource functions. Throughout his career in human resources, Mike has served in various leadership positions in health care in Saskatchewan and Alberta, most recently as the Director of Human Resources for the former Saskatoon Health Region. Mike holds a Masters of Human Resources Management from the University of Regina. He also has a Bachelor of Science Kinesiology Degree and a Bachelor of Commerce, both from the University of Saskatchewan.
Mike is passionate about leadership and is a graduate of the Saskatchewan Leadership Program, the Queens Leadership Program and is a certified Lean Leader. He believes that the most important job a leader has is developing more leaders. He has served as the co-chair of the Joint Health Human Resources Committee, as a member of the Health Labour Relations Counsel and a member of the Provincial Health Authority Transition Team.
Steve Ashton (IWK Health Centre)
About
Steve Ashton is the Vice-President, People & Organization Development at the IWK Health Centre, an academic health centre serving women, children, and youth in Atlantic Canada.
Prior to the IWK, Steve held senior HR leadership roles with Bell Aliant, where he and his team developed the five-year Learning Strategy, as well as Leadership Development & Succession programs. He was previously a Partner with Knightsbridge Robertson Surrette working in executive search and career transition.
Steve graduated from Dalhousie University with a BSc (Hons) in Psychology as well as an MBA; he completed Harvard University’s program on Leading Change and Organizational Renewal in 2006.
He currently teaches human resources in Dalhousie’s Masters of Health Administration Program and sits on the Boards of the Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia, and Nova Scotia Health Employees’ Pension Plan. He is also a past Chair of the Chartered Professionals in Human Resources (Nova Scotia) and Discovery Centre, reflecting his lifelong interest in professional development and youth education and innovation.
Elaine Watson (Covenant Health)
About
Elaine Watson joined Covenant Health as Chief Human Resources Officer in October, 2019. Elaine is passionate about creating a healthy and inclusive environment for teams to do their best work for those we serve. Over the last 25 years, she has held leadership roles in Alberta, Ontario and Scotland that have positioned her to positively influence the Covenant Family’s ability to deliver on our strategic goals and objectives through our people. Her expectations of accountability and high standards of excellence and ethical conduct are assets to ensuring our people and culture strategy is executed.
Combined with her Master of Arts in Leadership from Royal Roads University in British Columbia, post graduate diploma in Personnel Management and having spent the vast majority of her career in healthcare, Elaine brings experience from a broad range of human resource specialties, grounded in a values-based, results oriented style of leadership. Her most recent role as Executive Director, HR Business Partnerships (Zone Operations) for Alberta Health Services has awarded her a reputation as an authentic, honest and trusted partner within the industry.
As a member of Covenant’s executive team, Elaine leads strategic human resources planning, workforce analytics, organizational effectiveness, talent management, learning and development, HR business services, HR client partnerships, talent acquisition, total compensation, labour relations, occupational health, safety and wellness. Additionally, Elaine provides strong ambassadorship, representing the voice of our teams and advocating for truly excellent care and wellbeing of our people and communities.
Learning Education Advisory Group (LEAG)
About 
