President & CEO, Women’s College Hospital
Heather McPherson is a highly recognized healthcare executive with extensive experience in
clinical, academic and health system leadership. She is the President & CEO of Women’s
College Hospital, and was honoured as one of Toronto’s 50 most influential people in 2019. She
is passionate about equity, and has been working to close the gaps that exclude marginalized Torontonians from health care. She has kick-started an Indigenous health program that provides safe spaces
and culturally inclusive services to Indigenous patients, including cancer-screening programs
that incorporate traditional healing activities. She was chair of the board of Planned Parenthood
Toronto and lends her expertise volunteering with several community organizations.
Heather is an inspirational leader with a special interest in diversity, equity and inclusion, and here are three takeaways:
- For successful change to occur, it is important for the leader to clearly articulate a vision and engage stakeholders through the process by truly listening and understanding, instead of “checking a box”
- There is a stigma in leadership that you have to hold it all; when in fact, the more you can distribute your leadership across the team, the more resilient you will be as a leader.
- If everyone agrees with your idea, that may lead to failure. Success comes when every viewpoint and perspective is contemplated and diversity is celebrated.
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