Initiatives such as this have many origin stories. For my own part, the Collaborative Centre represents a critical step in my work on sustainable healthcare. That work started about a decade ago with a research project that exposed me to the modern slavery and environmental damages embedded in healthcare’s global supply chains.
While that research continued, I turned my focus to local impact-oriented work, empowered by talented and ambitious colleagues who decided that we could teach about climate and sustainability in healthcare. By good fortune, this work expanded to become a pan-Canadian initiative, funded by Environment and Climate Change Canada, in collaboration with partners across the country. As that national work became established – supported by an extraordinarily talented pan-Canadian team, and countless generous collaborators – I was able to focus again on local work, including through community-engaged research, collaboration with TAHSN, and the co-creation of this new academic unit: the Collaborative Centre.
Through all of this, I have been privileged to work with extraordinary colleagues, including staff, students, professional practitioners, and academic researchers. I have been supported and challenged by extraordinary leaders, including Institute Directors, Deans and CEOs. I have been fortunate to secure the collaboration and support of two brilliant Associate Directors, appointed by the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, and the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, and to have secured the generous support and wise counsel of faculty in the Leslie Dean Faculty of Pharmacy.
Many faculty, students, trainees, staff, and health sector partners have encouraged and enabled these efforts – contributing to the strategic planning process, defining our purpose and priorities, and shaping our collective capacity for action and impact.
I thank you for the opportunity to do this work together.
Fiona A. Miller, PhD
Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Director, Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care
I thank you for the opportunity to do this work together.
Fiona A. Miller