Community of Practice

Identify workforce sustainability strategies including clinician engagement in supply chain teams and leadership decision making tables during emergencies. Create measurement tools and frameworks to inform workforce sustainability initiatives.

Identify priorities and strategy to strengthen data standards and interoperable supply chain digital infrastructure that is accessible and connects across jurisdictions.

Examine leadership and policy frameworks to advance and support supply chain resilience, cooperation and transparency across jurisdictional borders, teams, and agencies.

Co-design multi-jurisdiction models that support domestic supplier networks to advance economic recovery, build transparency of health system demands and needs, and create manufacturing capacity to meet needs and offer surge in capacity when required.

Examine innovative approaches to mitigate and/or reduce the environmental impact of medical supplies (e.g. masks, gloves) on landfills. Design strategies to strengthen supply chain security for Canadian healthcare, social systems and essential workplaces.

Citizen volunteers will be assigned to each workgroup, representing diverse citizen perspectives and populations, to the work of the community of practice. Citizens will also convene as a workgroup to share learnings, experiences, and align on strategies to ensure the citizen perspective meaningfully contributes as a partner in advancing supply chain resilience for the benefit of all Canadians.

Dr. Kathleen MacMillan

Past Director and Professor, School of Nursing at Dalhousie University
Workforce Sustainability Workgroup Leader

Dr. Kathleen MacMillan is a graduate of the Toronto East General Hospital School of Nursing (diploma) and the University of Toronto (BSc, 1980; MA, 1983, MSc, 1992; PhD, 2005). Her professional experience includes nursing practice, administration, research, education and health policy. She has been recognized as a distinguished alumna of the Faculty of Nursing at the U of T and received a Centennial Achievement Award from the Canadian Nurses Association in 2008. In 2017, she was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and in 2020, as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Nursing. Dr. MacMillan was the first Provincial Chief Nursing Officer for the Ontario Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care (1999-2001) and Executive Director, Office of Nursing Services for First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Health Canada (2001-2004). Prior to her appointment to Dalhousie University, she was Dean, School of Health Sciences at Humber Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning in Toronto. Now retired, she holds adjunct appointments at the University of Prince Edward Island Faculty of Nursing and the School of Nursing and the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her research interests are in patient safety, nursing human resources, nursing history and interprofessional collaboration.

Dr. Colleen Metge

Associate Professor, University of Manitoba
Digital Supply Chain Workgroup Leader

Dr. Colleen Metge is an associate professor in community health sciences at Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba. After graduation with a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy (AB) in 1975, she worked front-line pharmacy (hospital and community) and then with the professional organization of pharmacists in BC; she enrolled in a doctoral program in pharmaceutical policy at the University of Maryland in Baltimore in 1990. On obtaining her PhD with an emphasis on epidemiology and economics, she accepted a position at the University of Manitoba, where she stayed as a tenured associate professor in pharmacy until 2009 teaching ethics, epidemiology, economics and pharmacy administration and undertaking a myriad of health services research. Her research experience and expertise is broad; mostly, before her retirement from the WRHA in June 2017, Colleen managed an embedded research unit of 12 PhD/masters level colleagues who provide health services research and evaluation to Winnipeg’s health authority and the province of Manitoba. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Metge has been principal investigator, co-PI or co-applicant on 30 grants totalling $20.2 million, including the 5-year $1.9 million PATHS: Equity for Children CIHR Programmatic Grant in Health and Health Equity awarded to the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy. Seventeen of the grants were awarded in the last 10 years while not directly employed in academia.

Dr. Anne Snowdon

Professor, Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Odette School of Business, University of Windsor,
Scientific Director & CEO, SCAN Health Chief Scientific Research Officer, HIMSS
Leadership & Policy Workgroup Leader

Dr. Anne Snowdon is a Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the University of Windsor. Dr. Snowdon is leading a national community of practice and research program focused on the capacity of health supply chain to enable health system responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in seven Canadian provinces. This work builds on a well-established program of research focused on healthcare supply chain, and health system innovation to achieve sustainability, economic value and productivity by providing support for innovators and entrepreneurs to successfully bring their discoveries to the Canadian, U.S. and world markets. Currently, Dr. Snowdon is the Scientific Director and CEO for SCAN Health, Chief Scientific Research Officer for HIMSS, Vice Chair of the Board of the Directors for Alberta Innovates, and member of the Health Futures Council of Arizona State University. She is an Adjunct Faculty at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Windsor, the School of Nursing at Dalhousie University and the Centre for Innovative Medical Technology at the University of Southern Denmark. Dr. Snowdon has published more than 150 research articles, papers and cases, has received over $25 million in research funding, holds patents and has commercialized a highly successful booster seat product for children traveling in vehicles, and is a Fulbright Scholar. She holds a PhD in Nursing from the University of Michigan, MSc from McGill University, and BScN from Western University.

Ron Johnson

Vice President, Eastern Health
Domestic Supplier Network Sustainability Workgroup Leader

Ron Johnson has approximately 30 years of progressive career experience in health care from front-line delivery to executive management. As Eastern Health’s VicePresident, Innovation and Rural Health, Ron holds overall responsibility for various program areas including innovation and rural health, among others. He is currently on assignment with the Newfoundland and Labrador Transformation and Planning Office which is leading the development of a new provincial health organization. Prior to becoming a member of the executive team, Ron held the position of Director of Materials and Biomedical Equipment Support at Eastern Health and was responsible for Supply Chain Management and Biomedical Engineering. He holds a Diploma of Technology from College of the North Atlantic; a Bachelor of Technology; and a Master of Employment Relations from Memorial University of Newfoundland. He has also completed diplomas in Health Service Management and Modern Management from the Canadian Healthcare Association. Ron is certified in Change Management and holds the professional designations of Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Health Executive (CHE).

Jayson Myers

Chief Executive Officer, NGen – Next Generation Manufacturing Canada
Domestic Supplier Network Sustainability Workgroup Leader

Jayson Myers is the Chief Executive Officer of Next Generation Manufacturing Canada. NGen is the not-for-profit organization that leads Canada’s Global Innovation Cluster for Advanced Manufacturing. It is dedicated to building world-leading advanced manufacturing capabilities in Canada, for the benefit of Canadians. Jay is an award-winning business economist who specializes in industrial and technological change. Between 2007 and 2016, he served as President & CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, Canada’s largest industry and trade association. He helped establish and co-chaired the Ontario Manufacturing Council, Great Lakes Manufacturing Council, and Canadian Industrial Roundtable on Skills. Jay has been widely recognized as one of the most influential economic policy advocates in Canada. He is an advisor to both private and public sector leaders, and has counselled Canadian prime ministers and premiers, as well as senior corporate executives and policymakers around the world. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the World Manufacturing Forum and a leading advocate on the world stage on behalf of advanced manufacturing in Canada. Jay has held a research fellowship at Nuffield College, Oxford and lectureships in political economy at Oxford and the University of Warwick. He completed his academic studies at Queen’s University, UBC, the London School of Economics, and Oxford University.

Dr. Christian Leuprecht

Director, Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, Queen’s University
Supply Chain Security & Sustainability Workgroup Leader

Dr. Christian Leuprecht is a distinguished Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Military Journal. He also directs the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations in the School of Policy Studies and is an Adjunct Research Professor in the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security at Charles Sturt University. A former Bicentennial Professor in Canadian Studies at Yale University, Eisenhower Fellow at the NATO Defence College, and Fulbright Research Chair in Canada– US Relations at John Hopkins University’s School for Advanced International Studies, he is an elected member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada and recipient of the Cowan Prize for Excellence in Research at the Royal Military College of Canada. His latest book is Intelligence as Democratic Statecraft.