MHA Student Suzanne D. Idle winner of a Robert Wood Johnson Award

Congratulations to MHA Student Suzanne D. Idle, who is one of six of Canada’s top emerging health-care professionals awarded the Robert Wood Johnson Award at a special ceremony hosted by the Canadian College of Health Leaders (CCHL) and the Canadian Healthcare Association (CHA).

“Supporting and advancing effective health-care leadership in Canada is an important part of our mandate at the Canadian College of Health Leaders,” said Ray Racette, President and CEO of the CCHL. “This year’s recipients join a long line of Robert Wood Johnson award winners who have positively impacted not only the organizations in which they work, but the health-care system overall.”

The award recognizes individual achievement and promising contributions in the field of health services management. Since its inception in 1956, the award has been presented to more than 280 Canadian health-care professionals. The Robert Wood Johnson Award is supported by Johnson & Johnson Medical Companies in partnership with six leading Canadian universities which offer a Masters program in Health Care Administration, including: the University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, Université de Montréal, and Dalhousie University.

The award ceremony occurs in conjunction with the annual National Health Leadership Conference which is co-hosted by the Canadian College of Health Leaders (CCHL) and the Canadian Healthcare Association (CHA). This year, the Conference is being held in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Suzanne is currently completing her second year of her MHA, while working as a clinical dietitian with Providence Health Care. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Food Nutrition and Health with honours at the University of British Columbia in 2003. From there, she went on to undertake an internship with the Yukon First Nations Dietetic Internship Program to become a Registered Dietitian. Since she began work as a dietitian, she pursued her clinical passion for nutrition support through advanced practice training and credentialing, such as completion of a Nutrition Support Traineeship at the University of Virginia.

After eight years of involvement with the health care system, Suzanne found herself looking for a way to have a wider impact on the efficiency and sustainability of the health care system and sought out the MHA Program at UBC. Her current focus is her research work with the Vancouver Native Health Society Garden Project on an Indigenous approach to program evaluation, which honours both her First Nations Gitxsan ancestry and the Vancouver urban Indigenous population who access the Garden Project.

Congratulations, Suzanne!