Workgroup Leader Bios
Dr. Anne Snowdon, BScN, MSc, PhD, FAAN
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 Odette School of Business, 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.
Jay Singh
Chief Commercial Officer, PADM Medical
Sourcing, Procurement, & Collaborative Stockpile Strategy Workgroup Leader
Singh joins the PADM Medical with almost two decades of senior executive experience, most recently with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and Shared Health. He is said to have extensive experience in building effective teams and innovative systems in diverse industries, such as health care, financial services and information technology. As a Regional Director of Supply Chain Management at the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Singh played a critical role in the provincial COVID-19 response.
Tony Williams
Provincial Director of Supply Chain, Central Health Newfoundland
Sourcing, Procurement, & Collaborative Stockpile Strategy Workgroup Leader
Tony Williams is currently the Provincial Director of Supply Chain for Central Health where he oversees the implementation of the new shared services model within Newfoundland and Labrador. Prior to joining Central Health, Tony held a supply chain leadership role with the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information for over 10 years. During the height of COVID, Tony and team worked diligently with their customers and partners in each of the five Health Organizations in the province to ensure an adequate supply of PPE was provided to health care workers
Tony holds a Commerce degree, an MBA and also the Supply Chain Management Professional (SCMP) designation. Tony has committed additional time to the his chosen field by holding Director and Vice President roles on the Board of the Supply Chain Management Association for Newfoundland and Labrador’s Institute. He has also taught workshops to candidates within the SCMP program.
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 Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba. After graduation with a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy 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, Dr. Metge 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 are broad; mostly, Dr. Metge is a methodologist who relishes helping students and others in conceptualizing the best approach to answering a research question. In 2009, Colleen left the College of Pharmacy to take the position of director, research and evaluation with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA). 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. She continues in her role as adjunct scientist and professor at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and the department of community health sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba. Currently, she is affiliated with the Odette School of Business (University of Windsor) in supply chain management and with Women’s College Research Institute in prescribing optimization. In addition, Dr. Metge has served as both chair and committee member on the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research’s Innovation to Commercialization grant review committee; she also reviews applications for Research Manitoba’s Innovation Proof-of-Concept grants. 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.
Nancy Pakieser
Principal, Capstone 406, LLC
Digital Supply Chain Workgroup Leader
Nancy Pakieser started her career in a clinical capacity, as a Radiologic Technologist, in both acute care and outpatient settings. She has had a wide range of marketing experience on the vendor side, including supply storage systems, medical device, therapy delivery, robotic surgery and software solutions. She has carried the lessons of her clinical experience with her into business. It has shaped her ongoing professional drive to always bring products and services to the market that supports the enhanced delivery of care to patients.
Nancy established Capstone 406, LLC in 2020, a boutique consulting firm focusing on marketing for technologies and processes that advance the digital transformation of the healthcare supply chain. She currently represents the Consortium for Universal Healthcare Credentialing (C4UHC), a non-profit association, as the Executive Director. C4UHC is leading the industry to adopt the ANSI Standards that establish a consistent approach to healthcare vendor credentialing in the US. She is also involved in several industry organizations including: The Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM) CQO Thought Leader Committee, the Strategic Marketplace Initiative (SMI), the Healthcare Transformation Group (HTG), the McKenna Lecture planning committee and the GS1 US.
Ron Johnson
COO, Eastern Urban and VP, Innovation and Research, NL Health Services
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 Vice President, 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
Professor, Royal Military College
Supply Chain Security & Sustainability Workgroup Leader
Dr. Christian Leuprecht (Ph.D. Queen’s) is Class of 1965 Distinguished Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Military Journal, Director of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations in the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University, a senior fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute and the Centre for North American Prosperity and security, and he is also 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 (2009-2010), Matthew Flinders Fellow at Flinders University of South Australia (2017-2018), Eisenhower Fellow at the NATO Defence College (2019), and Fulbright Research Chair in Canada–US Relations at John Hopkins University’s School for Advanced International Studies (2020), he is an elected member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada, recipient of the Cowan Prize for Excellence in Research at the Royal Military College of Canada and past president of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee 01: Armed Forces and Conflict Resolution. He holds Ontario provincial appointments as chair of the Ontario Research Fund Advisory Board and to the Kingston Police Services Board; as well as to the scientific advisory board of the World Customs Organization, the UK’s Polar Institute and the OneSocietyNetwork. His recent books include Dirty Money: Financial Crime in Canada (McGill-Queen’s University Press) – #22 of the Hill-Times 100 Best Books of 2023 -- Security. Cooperation. Governance. The Canada-United States Open Border Paradox (University of Michigan Press, 2023), Patterns in Border Security: Regional Comparisons (Routledge, 2023), Polar Cousins: Comparing Antarctic and Arctic Geostrategic Futures (University of Calgary Press, 2022), and Intelligence as Democratic Statecraft (Oxford University Press, 2021). He is series editor of Canada: State of the Federation, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press and is a member of the editorial boards of Armed Forces & Society, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics and the Springer book series in Advances in Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications. He previously held a federal appointment to the Council of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and served as Associate Dean as well as Deputy Head.
Rick Prinzen
Senior Executive in Supply Chain and Operations
Supply Chain Security & Sustainability Workgroup Leader
Currently focused on independent consulting and executive advisory opportunities, Rick enables organizations and teams to achieve their full potential with business process excellence leveraging employee enablement, augmented customer experience and stakeholder partnerships.
A former Chief Supply Chain Officer & VP Donor Relations and a VP Global Supply Chain Strategy within biologics manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries Rick has over 15 years’ executive experience leading and optimizing large and complex supply chain and operations functions at a national and global level within highly regulated industries for both public and private enterprises. He has additional operations experience in consumer goods packaging, automotive and chemicals sectors.
Rick has led organizations to top quartile performance in productivity and product supply stability, with significant contributions to operations savings in $10’s of millions. He has provided executive sponsorship for major supply network refurbishment and greenfield programs approaching $150 million and including world class production, distribution and testing sites as program centre-pieces. Appropriate consideration for Leadership in Engineering & Environmental Design (LEED) has resulted in gold certification. Global supply network leadership includes product packaging and site mandate rationalization as key components of both market access considerations and end-to-end supply cost reductions in the $100’s of millions.
Significant gains in customer experience, quality management systems, supply chain network optimization and business systems optimization are prominently featured in Rick’s experience. Leading the introduction of new capabilities and business lines such as public cord blood banking, manufacturing / testing automation, technology and customer experience management, Rick leverages cross-divisional partnerships and a focus on driving value through extensive team and leader input and experience. His track record embodies a rich history of continuous Improvement cultures and employee engagement.
Rick holds Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Bachelor of Science in Engineering degrees from Queens University. He has held a co-chair position on the National Emergency Blood Management Committee for Canada. Recognizing the ever-developing condition of food insecurity domestically he has recently turned his leadership expertise and personal time to food banking, among other purpose-driven non-profit organizations.
Dr. Trevor Jamieson
Chief Medical Informatics Officer, Unity Health Toronto
Workforce Sustainability Workgroup Leader
Dr. Trevor Jamieson is the CMIO of Unity Health Toronto and the Medical Director of Partnerships and KT at the Center for Digital Health Evaluation (CDHE) at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto. He is interested in how digital tools are deployed into clinical workflows and how quality improvement can be driven by clinical informatics. He also has an interest in the health policy landscape as it pertains to digital health technologies in Canada.
Dr. Kathleen MacMillan
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. Most recently, Dr. MacMillan was recognized for her contributions to nursing and to healthcare with the C.N.A.s top award of recognition – the Jeanne Mance Award, in 2022. 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 previously held 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 inter professional collaboration.
Judy Birdsell
Founder, Imagine Citizens Network
Citizen Forum Co-Lead
Judy Birdsell is one of the founders of Imagine Citizens Network (ICN) a Society whose mission is to enhance citizens’ ability to become valued partners in improving healthcare experiences and outcomes for people living in Alberta. She was the inaugural board chair and has recently completed her six year term. She has a deep commitment to patient perspectives in health, as demonstrated by more than 30 years volunteering in leadership positions with several national non-profits. Her passion for this cause was further fueled by a series of events surrounding her sister’s death. Her personal consciousness having been raised by these events, her family and her have experienced many other situations that have reinforced the absolute necessity of people being much more knowledgeable and engaged in their own healthcare journey. Professionally, she has a background in policy and strategy consulting, mainly in the field of health research policy. Previous volunteer roles have included President of Canadian Cancer Society; Board Chair, Stem Cell Network; Board Chair, Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative; Member, CIHR Stem Cell Oversight Committee; Board Member, Health Quality Council of Alberta and Board Chair, MCF Housing for Seniors and member of the Strategic Advisory Panel for Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Healthcare System. Currently Judy is a volunteer member of the Executive Leadership Team of Imagine Citizens Network. She has previously received three national awards to recognize her achievements in the voluntary sector and in 2020 was deeply honored to be awarded the Order of Canada.
Don McLeod
Co-Director, Imagine Citizens Network
Citizen Forum Co-Lead
Don McLeod has over 30 years’ experience providing leadership in not for profit and public sector organizations. For 20 years he has served as a senior consultant and facilitator supporting public and not for profit organizations in organization development, public consultation, and strategic planning. Don is currently serving as part time Co-Director for Imagine Citizens Network (ICN). Since ICN began in 2015, he has also served as lead for the organization’s citizen engagement work. He led a major engagement project focused on community care for Alberta Health and led the initial ICN SCANH citizen engagement project in 2021. He is currently leading ICN’s work engaging Albertans about what quality outcomes and indicators are most important from a citizen-patient perspective in collaboration with Alberta Health Services Seniors Health Team and the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine. Don has been involved in leading several multi-stakeholder community initiatives including the Age Friendly Calgary project and designing a Dementia Strategy for the Calgary Region. Don also serves as a consultant and facilitator for TREC (Translating Research in Elder Care), a national research collaborative based at the University of Alberta. He previously served as Vice President, Organization Effectiveness for Bethany Care Society and brings a systems perspective from his involvement in several governance roles within the Alberta health system.