Throughout the second edition of Bringing Leadership to Life in Health, we have attempted to directly address this theme, through the work of Dr. Ivy Bourgeault as well as by profiling the efforts of many prominent formal and informal women leaders.

Dr. Ivy Bourgeault has dedicated her career to addressing the challenge associated with transitioning to diverse leadership in health care. Ivy is a Research Chair in Gender, Diversity and the Professions at the University of Ottawa. She leads the Canadian Health Workforce Network and the Empowering Women Leaders in Health initiative. Dr. Bourgeault has garnered an international reputation for her research on the health workforce, particularly from a gender lens. Ivy has also been active in addressing the challenge of Indigenous Health Leadership in Canada and abroad.

Ivy and her team—Yvonne James and Jamie Lundine—in partnership with the Canadian Health Leadership Network and the Canadian College of Health Leaders, have done significant work in the past few years creating a Toolkit for Women in health care leadership. We support the work she and her team are undertaking. Ivy and her team also work closely with Dr. Karen Lawford, from Queen’s University, on issues of diversity and inclusion as it relates to Indigenous women. Dr. Ivy Bourgeault is also leading the charge to revitalize the International Health Workforce Collaborative. The IWHWC an informal group of health economists, representatives of medical organizations and government officials from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada who agreed there would be value in organizing an international invitational conference to discuss physician workforce issues. Here is a link to their most recent conference proceedings (https://www.hhr-rhs.ca/images/IHWC_2019_Conference_Program-_FINAL.pdf)

Click here to see the many studies, approaches, and services Ivy’s team is promoting within Canada and abroad.

Dr. Ivy Bourgeault and her Health Leadership Team

We also invited a chapter on Indigenous Leadership, authored by Dr. Alika Lafontaine, Caroline Lidstone-Jones, and Karen Lawford, Ph.D., each a member of a different Indigenous community in Canada (link here to their chapter); and profiled the DESTINED project, led by Dr. Elizabeth Hartney, at Royal Roads University.