LMP funds faculty to develop their leadership skills
The Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine offers funding to develop the leadership skills of faculty members.
Successful applicants are awarded funding to support their attendance at a leadership conference or course, feeding back what they have learned to the department via a report or presentation at an LMP development event. This helps our faculty to acquire the knowledge and tools to become excellent leaders in the field; and in turn, help drive innovation in LMP and their local hospital sites.
Since it launched in 2019, there have been three competitions and a total of 11 faculty have been awarded grants (72.7% female, 27.7% male).
We awarded the funding to three faculty this academic year.
Dr. Mirette Hanna, MD, PhD, FRCPC
Assistant professor, LMP, Director Transfusion Medicine, Co-Director Tissue bank at The Hospital for Sick Children
Hematopathologist Dr. Hanna joined LMP and SickKids in January 2021 from Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Center (QEII HSC), a tertiary health care institution affiliated to Dalhousie University in Halifax.
She is a site supervisor for the Transfusion Medicine AFC Program, providing supervision and mentorship to clinical hematology and hematological pathology fellows during their rotation at The Hospital for Sick Children, amongst other roles.
With the funding, which was matched by SickKids, she was able to attend the virtual Career Advancement and Leadership Skills for Women in Healthcare course at Harvard Medical School in Fall 2021.
“As a junior staff, attending the course of Career Advancement and Leadership Skills for Women in Healthcare helped me to gain insight in strategic planning, defining leadership style, crisis management, conflict resolution and overcoming barriers”, commented Dr. Hanna. “It helped me to develop and improve my negotiation skills and strategic thinking, to share clear messages and make complex ideas easy to understand for everyone, manage a team that successfully handles and resolves workplace issues, and have the flexibility to solve problems. More so to motivate my team to go the extra mile, identify the skills of each of your employees and delegate responsibilities”.
Dr. Manal Tadros, MBBS, MSc, PhD, FRCPC
Assistant professor, LMP, Medical Microbiologist, The Department of Paediatric Laboratory Medicine (DPLM), The Hospital for Sick Children
A Medical Microbiologist, Dr. Tadros, supports the microbiology laboratory team at SickKids while providing clinical service. She has led multiple quality improvement projects and was awarded the Arthur Vandenbroucke Award for teaching laboratory technologists during the implementation of her Biosafety program when at Unity Health Toronto in 2016.
At Sickkids she assisted in verifying new diagnostic assays for SARS-CoV-2 virus and played a leadership role in auditing Biosafety practices and risk assessment for processing patients’ specimens for SARS-CoV-2.
She plans to attend the Career Advancement and Leadership Skills for Women in Healthcare course at Harvard Medical School in 2022.
“I think this course would help me enhance and develop my leadership skills while maintaining a healthy balance between personal life and academic career through collaborative efforts and seeking appropriate mentorship. I am also excited to attend a course that is geared towards women as leaders in healthcare and I think that this course might offer a unique approach”, she commented.
William Tsui, MSc, PA(ASCP)CM, CCCPA
Lecturer, LMP, Education and Clinical Coordinator, MHSc Laboratory Medicine, Pathologists’ Assistant Field, Pathologists’ Assistant, Mount Sinai Hospital
William Tsui is a Pathologists’ Assistant in Mount Sinai Hospital and plays a leading role in LMP’s MHSc in Laboratory Medicine, PA field.
Mr Tsui led the second-year practical component of the program as the Education and Clinical Coordinator. Working closely with the past field director, Dr. Juan Putra, and current field director, Dr. Fang-I Lu, he created the curriculum for the practicum portion, and led numerous pathologist course coordinators and site lead PAs to support the program. He helped plan and implement a two-week didactic and practical Boot Camp to help our PA students transition into a laboratory environment, as well as contributing to the program’s evaluation system and rubric for the practicum component.
He plans to attend the Rotman-Odgers Berndtson New Leader Integration Program, offered by U of T’s Rotman School of Management with the funding.
He commented, “The program focuses on developing leadership skills for participants starting out in a new leadership role such as team management, networking, diversity, equity, and shaping team culture. These are invaluable skills and knowledge that will prepare me to better manage some of the new responsibilities as the Education and Clinical Coordinator role continues to evolve. The skills I develop from the program will help me partner with the site lead PA team and other LMP faculty to engage and teach our students. I strive to establish an inclusive, fair, and cooperative culture that will attract other talented individuals to participate for years to come”.
Applications for funding open every Fall and LMP primary-appointed faculty will be emailed and invited to apply.
Contact for further information
Dr. Cathy Streutker
Vice Chair, Promotions & Mentorship
streutkerc@smh.ca
Patricia Cayetano
Senior Administrator, Human Resources
patricia.cayetano@utoronto.ca