Meredith Whitehead
Meredith Whitehead is the Professional Practice Leader, Nursing at Mackenzie Health. She is responsible for the development, implementation, and evaluation of strategies that promote evidence-based practice, knowledge development and knowledge transfer. Prior to assuming her current role, Nursing, Meredith was a Clinical Nurse Educator in the Emergency Departments at Brampton Civic Hospital and York Central Hospital. As an educator, she started her journey with implementing RNAO Best Practice guidelines. As part of her desire to expand her personal and professional knowledge, Meredith graduated her Master of Science in Nursing in 2010 from York University.
She has been a member of the RNAO since nursing school as an on campus representative and CSO executive member and Meredith has been lucky enough to continue her passion about practising BPGs by leading the Client Centered Care and Therapeutic Relationships implementation at York Central Hospital. She has also had the privilege of just completing an Advanced Clinical Placement Fellowship in the Leadership stream. She has just been appointed to the RNAO Board as a member of the By-Laws Committee. She is also looking forward to presenting at the RNAO International Conference in June 2012.
Kevin White, RN, MScN
Nurse Manager
Krembil Neuroscience Ambulatory Clinic
Brenda Zimmerman
BSc (Toronto); MBA & PhD (York); CA (Ontario)
Associate Professor of Policy
Director, Health Industry Management Program, Schulich School of Business
Brenda is an associate professor at the Schulich School of Business, York University and a partner in Change-Ability Inc. At York, Brenda recently founded and directs the Health Industry Management Program.
Brenda teaches leadership, problem solving and creativity skills, strategy, accounting and control systems to MBA students and qualitative research methods to doctoral students. Dr. Zimmerman's work for the past few years has focused on applying lessons from chaos theory and complexity science to human systems. She is the author of many articles applying these theories to organizational strategy and change.
A frequent keynote speaker, Dr. Zimmerman has worked with a diverse group of clients and research sites including financial services, social service agencies, government and the health care sector, wholesalers, a chemical company, a steel mill, and manufacturing firms. Her research with the VHA (Voluntary Hospitals of America), a group of about 1700 non-profit hospitals and community health care organizations in the USA, resulted in several papers and a book co-authored with Curt Lindberg and Paul Plsek called Edgeware: Insights from Complexity Science for Health Care Leaders.
Previously at the Faculty of Management at McGill University in Montreal, she helped lead the McGill-McConnell masters program for national voluntary sector leaders and was a module leader with the Internal Masters in Professional Management.
In addition to her complexity work, Dr. Zimmerman is a Chartered Accountant. She has been an advisor to the Auditor General of Canada and to the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants on control systems. She is also the author of a popular monograph on the implications of charities doing business or commercial ventures
