Lin Li is a PhD student in the School of Nursing at McMaster University. She also works as a pediatric nurse at McMaster Children’s Hospital. Her doctoral work focuses on supporting the transition to adulthood for youth with medical complexity and their families. She has been recognized as an emerging expert in her field, often being invited to deliver presentations on transitions to adult care, as well as contributing as a key informant to the RNAO Best Practice Guideline on Care Transitions. Lin also co-chairs the Environmental Scan subcommittee of the national Child Health Hub in Transition (the “Transition Hub”) and has been on the executive leadership team of the Pediatric Nurses Interest Group (PedNIG) for the past 3 years.
In addition to her interests in transitions, Lin is also passionate about family and youth engagement in research, as well as equity, diversity, and inclusion in nursing and higher education. Lin recently led a team of graduate nursing students to complete a scoping review on inclusivity in graduate nursing education. Lin and her colleagues examined how inclusivity has been enacted, cultivated, and/or experienced in graduate nursing programs, identifying the need for more intersectional and transformative approaches to addressing the learning environment.
Lin is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) through a Frederick Banting and Charles Best Doctoral Research Award.
Jess Crawford (they/them) is a white settler with German and British ancestry. They are a trans, non-binary, and queer Registered Nurse living, learning, and working on Treaty 1 Territory (Winnipeg). Jess’ work has focused on mental health and addictions, 2SLGBTQIA+ health, community health, and harm reduction across the lifespan in both urban (Treaty 13, Toronto) and remote areas (Treaty 3, Northwestern Ontario).
Jess is in the second year of their Masters of Nursing at the University of Manitoba. Their thesis work focuses on supporting the implementation of gender-affirming care in nursing education. Jess comes to their work with a humble understanding that not everyone has safe opportunities to explore concepts such as sex (assigned at birth), sexuality, and gender. They view their work as an essential stepping stone to creating safe learning spaces for personal and professional growth in nursing care for 2SLGBTQIA+ care recipients. They are a teaching assistant for gender and reproductive health and a research assistant evaluating interprofessional collaboration as a means to dismantle racism in health care creating a 2SLGBTQIA+ education module with Nurses Specialized in Wound, Ostomy and Continence Canada. They are grateful to have received a Fellowship for Patient Engaged Research and a University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowship.
Ovie is nationally recognized as a nurse and business leader. She is pursuing her master’s in business administration, is Lean Six belt certified and is a clinical nurse manager. Ovie is a sought-after consultant to many national organizations. She is an advisor to the Canadian Nursing Association, and the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing, and is a stakeholder with Canadian Health Workforce Network.
A transformative leader who identified a serious problem in healthcare and acted quickly to form a national organization and initiative to address this problem. She recognized that existing nursing associations work primarily to advance the collective interests of the nursing profession as a whole – an important mission. They do not, however, effectively help individual nurses maximize their personal and career potential – and none of the legacy nursing associations fully understand or adequately meet the unique needs of Canada’s Black Nurses. So, she conceived an organization that would fulfill those unmet needs – the Canadian Black Nurses Alliance (CBNA). Under Ovie’s leadership and in a short period of time, CBNA has become a phenomenal national organization that is life-changing for many Black Nurses. Already, the CBNA has grown to include students and practicing members in multiple provinces across the country and has become the most influential voice for Black Nurses across the nation.
Ovie sees the future of nursing through an African proverb Ubuntu and embodies the understanding that “I am because we are” as a motivation to strive for a society where all can grow and flourish. Ovie has broken the glass ceiling to inspire the next generation.
Dates: Monday, November 21 and Tuesday, November 22, 2022
Meet Canada’s new Chief Nursing Officer Dr. Leigh Chapman at the Cross-Country check-up – Monday, November 21, 2022
