About Us
Canada is transforming the way we plan for our health workforce to better respond to a growing and aging population, increasing demands for health services, and a shortage of health workers.
Health Workforce Canada is an independent organization established in 2023. Supported by our funder Health Canada, we unite health workforce experts, policymakers, researchers, health workers, patients and caregivers to strengthen health workforce data and planning. Collectively we can ensure health workers are there to provide the care people need within a cost-effective and sustainable health care system.
Health Workforce Canada is already making headway. Grounded in strong data principles, our efforts are generating innovative solutions to Canada’s most critical health workforce challenges.
We plan, build and support a strong, healthy workforce by:
- Convening the Networks: Working with partners to advance key health workforce priorities.
- Advancing Data: Connecting health workforce data to improve planning and support an efficient and effective health care system.
- Modelling and Forecasting: Catalyzing Canada’s capacity for workforce planning and modelling to bring about innovative solutions to close the gap between the number of health care workers we have and what we need to deliver the right care to people in Canada.
- Sharing What Works: Identifying and sharing best practices, tools, and innovations to build a resilient workforce and address key gaps and implementation challenges.
Our approach is grounded in collaboration, respect and accountability, with a commitment to supporting the resilience of all health workers. We are shaping a stronger, more equitable health workforce for the future by fostering meaningful partnerships, sharing knowledge, and leveraging data-driven insights.
We are committed to building respectful relationships with First Nations, Inuit and Métis organizations through a distinctions-based approach that respects Indigenous rights, self-governance and data sovereignty. We aim to address health disparities in collaboration with our Indigenous partners and improve outcomes by advancing culturally safe practices and enhancing First Nations, Inuit and Métis health workforce data and planning capabilities.
As our work evolves, we will continue to engage and collaborate with partners across the health care system, creating opportunities to contribute ideas, share insights, and drive collective impact. We will know we’ve been successful when our efforts result in accessible, well-utilized workforce data, effective collaboration on shared priorities, scalable solutions that sustain the workforce, and continuous learning that drives adaptation to Canada’s evolving health care needs.
Board of Directors
Glenda Yeates
Chair
Glenda Yeates is a consultant and mentor. She is a former Deputy Minister of Health Canada, former President and CEO of the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and former Deputy Minister of Health for Saskatchewan. She is a member of the Order of Canada.
Dr. Karima Velji
Vice Chair
Karima Velji is Chief of Nursing and Professional Practice and an Assistant Deputy Minister for Ontario. She is a Registered Nurse and has held senior leadership positions in several academic health science centres and has operated a successful consulting company. Dr. Velji is a sought-after consultant for system level projects and has led external reviews of several organizations. She is a surveyor with Health Standards Organization (HSO), Accreditation Canada.
Sean Brygidyr
Sean Brygidyr is a senior health system executive with more than 25 years of experience in workforce strategy, physician compensation, and health policy. As Executive Director of Workforce and Compensation & Medical Remuneration at Manitoba Health, he leads physician compensation and workforce expenditure portfolios across the province.
Sean has led province-wide workforce planning and policy initiatives that align funding models, bargaining strategies, and system priorities to support sustainable, high-quality healthcare delivery. He also contributes nationally as Co-Chair of the National Physician Compensation Committee and a member of the Committee on Health Workforce.
Sean is known for strategic, collaborative, evidence-based leadership in complex public-sector environments.
Marion Crowe
Marion Crowe is a proud member of the Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan and was the founding Executive Director, now Chief Executive Officer of the First Nations Health Managers Association. She was a founding board member of the Saskatchewan Chapter of AFOA Canada and became the first Indigenous person appointed to The Ottawa Hospital Board of Governors, where she currently serves as Chair of the Quality & People Committee and Co-chair of the Indigenous Peoples Advisory Circle. Marion was also the first Indigenous person appointed to the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute Board of Governors.
Shalene Curtis-Micallef
Shalene Curtis-Micallef was appointed Deputy Minister of Health, effective January 19, 2026. She most recently served as Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General of Canada, since February 13, 2023.
Over the course of her career at Justice Canada, Shalene held a range of senior leadership positions, including Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) of the Tax Law Services Portfolio, Deputy ADM for the Policy Sector, and Executive Director and Senior General Counsel within the Health Portfolio. In these roles, she contributed to the advancement of significant legislative reforms including in the areas of cannabis legalization and regulation, tobacco control, food safety modernization and public health.
Dr. Carl-Ardy Dubois
Carl-Ardy Dubois is Dean of the School of Public Health at the Université de Montréal (ESPUM) and full professor in the Department of Management, Evaluation and Health Policy. He has a multidisciplinary background, with a degree in medicine and graduate studies in epidemiology, biostatistics, health services administration and public health. He has had a distinguished research career for more than 20 years and has demonstrated exceptional leadership in health workforce capacity building and has provided expert advice to ministries of health and health organizations across the world.
Jeannine Herritt
Jeannine Herritt serves as an Assistant Deputy Minister responsible for health service delivery and health workforce planning at the Department of Health and Community Services, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. As a Registered Nurse, she brings extensive experience in health care garnered from various direct care and leadership positions held within Newfoundland and Labrador’s health service delivery organization and the provincial government.
Dr. Alika Lafontaine
Alika Lafontaine is an anesthesiologist and health leader. He is immediate past president of the Canadian Medical Association and a recognized expert on health systems and health policy, with unique experience in Indigenous Health Systems.
Dr. Scott McLeod
Scott McLeod is a physician leader with more than 35 years of healthcare experience. He is known for building high-performing teams and cultures rooted in innovation and psychological safety. He served 27 years in the Canadian Armed Forces, specializing in aerospace medicine, and eight years as Registrar and CEO of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta.
A strategic thinker with a growth mindset, Scott drives complex initiatives and sparks creativity across diverse settings. In 2025, he founded Leadership Essentials Canada Inc. to help health system leaders thrive during some of the most challenging times in healthcare.
Dr. Michael McMillan
Michael McMillan is President & CEO of the Health Employers Association of BC, where he provides strategic human resources, labour relations, workforce, compensation and bargaining leadership for British Columbia’s publicly funded health employers. He brings more than 30 years of senior health system leadership experience across provincial health operations, health workforce strategy, labour relations, physician compensation, rural and northern health services, and system transformation.
Norman Rees
Norman Rees, CPA CA has over 35 years of executive leadership and governance experience and is an advisor to not-for-profit entity start-ups. He served as the inaugural Chief Financial Officer for Public Health Ontario, and spent the majority of his career directing business and financial strategies, planning, governance and infrastructure for large public sector and private sector corporations including large multi-site community acute care hospitals in the GTA. Since retiring in 2013, he has provided financial leadership to a number of not-for-profit agency start-ups in a variety of sectors including artificial intelligence, financial regulatory services, cybersecurity, community housing and IT infrastructure.
Kristen Winter
Kristen Winter is an Executive Vice President with a distinguished 25-year career spanning both the private and public sectors. Her purview extends to the holistic management of human capital at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, including Human Resources, Occupational Health and Central Staffing and Scheduling for all clinical programs. Kristen has an unwavering commitment to excellence, equity, and innovation in healthcare management and has held key positions in academic health sciences centres and corporate healthcare entities. As a healthcare leader, she champions excellence, equity, and innovation while fostering a culture of collaboration and impact.
Dr. Verna Yiu
Verna Yiu is Provost and Vice-President Academic, University of Alberta. She is past president and CEO of Alberta Health Services, and a Board member at the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI).
Executive Team
Sean Chilton
Chief Executive Officer
Sean Chilton is a Registered Nurse and seasoned health executive with over three decades of progressive leadership across one of Canada’s largest and most complex health systems. Prior to joining Health Workforce Canada as CEO, he served as Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations with Alberta Health Services. Sean is known for driving transformational change, building high-performing teams, and delivering strategic results in dynamic, high-pressure environments.
Longer Bio
Sean Chilton joined Health Workforce Canada as
Chief Executive Officer on December 1, 2025. He
has over three decades of progressive leadership
experience in various health care organizations.
His most recent role was Senior Vice President
of Clinical Operations, Alberta Health Services.
In addition to his wide range of clinical,
operational, corporate and strategic leadership
experience, Sean is recognized for forging strong
partnerships with government, Indigenous
communities, unions, and academic institutions,
while championing patient-centered care,
technology and workforce innovation. He led the
development of the Alberta-wide Health Workforce
Strategy to support recruitment, retention and
optimization.
Sean is a Registered Nurse, graduating from the
Royal Oldham School of Nursing in Oldham,
England. He was the 2022 recipient of the
Canadian College of Health Leader’s Nursing
Leadership Award, acknowledging his accomplished
career and dedication to patient-centred care
and leadership. He is a lifelong learner who
recently completed a Fellowship in Health System
Improvement with the School of Public Health at
the University of Alberta.
Dr. Deborah Cohen
Chief Operating Officer
Deborah Cohen has more than 20 years’ experience in health care and health workforce data systems through the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI). She is an Adjunct Professor with the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Ottawa. She holds a PhD in Population Health with a research focus on modelling, equity and health system performance.
Longer Bio
Deborah Cohen is the Chief Operating Officer
of Health Workforce Canada, a newly formed
organization mandated to work with health
system stakeholders to plan, build and
support a strong health workforce for the
future – one that will enhance quality of
care and health outcomes for all.
Most recently she was Director of Health Human
Resources Information Systems at the
Canadian Institute for Health Information
(CIHI), where she focused on building
the pan-Canadian health workforce data
foundation, as well as health workforce
analytics and forecasting models to meet
critical health care planning needs across
the country. Throughout her 20-year career,
she has worked in a variety of health data
sectors including health human resources,
pharmaceuticals, mental health, population
health, Indigenous health, and equity.
Deborah holds a PhD in epidemiology and is
an Adjunct Professor with the University of
Ottawa, School of Epidemiology and Public
Health.
Lynn McNeely
Director, Data and Planning
Lynn McNeely has more than 15 years’ experience in health data, standards and systems for the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI). Most recently, she was Manager of Health Human Resources, Data Development. Before that she worked 15 years as a Registered Nurse in multiple clinical and case management roles across health care sectors.
Alison Steeves
Director, Communications
Alison Steeves has more than 20 years of experience in health care communications and engagement. She has worked with a range of organizations, focusing on communications strategy, planning and execution. Previously, she was Director, Communications at Health Quality Ontario and has held a number of leadership positions in the non-profit and for-profit health sector.
