STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS IN HEALTHCARE COURSE

Strategically communicating about information technology's risks: Factoring in public-policy failure
Dr. Gordon Atherley

What do your employees know about your clients?
Mark Giberson

Crisis communications
David Brazeau

Developing a communications strategy
Diana Robinson

Developments in tele-health or tele-medicine
Stewart Stein

Communicating with different cultures and generation
Yasmin Vali

Web 2.0 public relations for healthcare
Howard Oliver

Healthcare branding – Identifying best branding practices to optimize the effectiveness or your communications programs
Patricia McQuillan
Darren Bishop

Bill Colvin is a strategic communications professional with over 25 years experience that spans the private, not-for-profit and government sectors. In his role as a consultant, he has provided strategic communication and public affairs advice to numerous health care organizations and associations in addition to health ministries at both the provincial and federal levels. He currently operates as the Chief Communication Officer for Lakeridge Health. In addition, he is the current Communication Chair of the GTA/905 Health Alliance.

Howard Oliver works at What If What Next^TM.

MARK GIBERSON has more than 30 years of experience in organizational communications—in strategic planning, media and community relations, internal and external communications, publication management, corporate communications and speech writing. He has won local, national and international awards and has designed communication programs for The Conference Board of Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Organization of East Caribbean States. Earlier in his career, he directed communications programs at St. Thomas and Carleton universities. Earlier still, he was an information officer with the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. Giberson joined the federal public service in 2000 and has worked at Environment Canada and the Treasury Board Secretariat, where he contributed to the development of the government's communications policy. He joined Health Canada's First Nations and Inuit Health Branch in October 2002 as manager of internal communications. He continues to offer communications services through The Giberson Group, a consultancy he established in 1995. Giberson has served two terms as president of the Ottawa chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC); two terms as the association's director for Eastern Canada; and three terms on IABC's international executive board. Giberson has an honours BA in history from St. Thomas University in Fredericton and an honours degree in journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa.

Yasmin is currently the Director of Community and Patient Relations at The Scarborough Hospital (TSH) in Toronto, providing leadership and overall direction to developing strategies of communication for patients from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures. She is proud to be the first director to lead the unique Access and Equity Services at TSH and has shared information about TSH and its unique services through presentations at national and international conferences.

With over 40 years experience in the health care system, Yasmin is a Registered Nurse, a Certified Midwife (UK) and holds a Masters Degree in Health Services Administration.

Since beginning her career, she has worked as a nurse in Kenya, UK and Canada, as a midwife in Kenya and Switzerland, and since 1978 has held management and administrative positions in Kenya, Pakistan, and Canada.

Yasmin is also the co-founder of the Community Health Clinic for the Uninsured, a clinic affiliated with the hospital's Urban Outreach and Family Health centre that provides free health care for medically uninsured immigrants and refugees.

Born and raised in Kenya, East Africa, she speaks several South Asian languages, Kiswahili, English and French.

Having worked in many countries and among many different cultural groups, Yasmin has a strong focus on embracing diversity. By sharing her knowledge with others, she challenges everyone to work with and respect differences. She is also a strong community advocate, working with numerous community groups and sitting on several community committees as well as Boards of local community agencies. Yasmin is often shy about the sharing of several publications, and is humbled at having received the "Outstanding Canadian Citizenship" award in 2000, and her February 2007 feature in the Canadian Nurse as "a Nurse to Know: Champion of Diversity"

Dr. Gordon Atherley is a Principal at Greyhead Associates. He was the CEO of a federal crown corporation charged with a national mandate for information service in a politically sensitive area, workplace health and safety. He was responsible to a tripartite governing body and accountable to the Parliament of Canada for the trustworthiness of the information his corporation communicated to workers, governments and employers.

Diana Robinson is president of Diana Robinson & Associates, which specializes in integrated marketing communications. She has a background in both marketing and public relations and throughout her 21-year career, has worked with some of Toronto's leading integrated marketing and communications agencies. She has worked with more than 100 clients from many industry sectors: education, food & beverage, consumer products, travel, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, non-profit, association, corporate, health and beauty care, retail, fashion, home improvement and financial. Diana has developed and executed national programs, as well as campaigns for the U.S. and international markets. She also worked for one of the country's first integrated marketing agencies, and spent time on the client side as a corporate communications manager. Her campaigns have won 16 industry awards for writing, marketing communications, and media relations.

Diana has a degree in journalism from Ryerson, her Certified Advertising Agency Practitioner designation and was the 2002-2003 Vice President of Professional Standards for the International Association of Business Communicators' Toronto chapter. Diana was also the Chairperson and a judge for the IABC/Toronto industry OVATION awards program from 2001-2003.

Diana founded Diana Robinson & Associates in 2001 to meet the needs of clients looking for senior expertise and accountability on a day-to-day basis at cost-effective rates.

Recently, Diana was awarded four International Association of Business Communicators Toronto chapter OVATION Awards: two Awards of Excellence for the Media Relations and Special Events work she did last year to launch singer Beyoncé's fashion line in Canada, an Award of Merit in Media Relations for the launch of Catelli's Smart Pasta and she was named Freelancer/Independent Agency of the Year by IABC Toronto, the largest chapter in the world. She is heading off to New York City next week to receive an IABC international Gold Quill award for her Catelli Smart Pasta media relations work. Diana was also the woman behind the successful launch of the Sean John fashion line that brought designer/rapper/businessman Sean "P. Diddy" Combs to Canada, winning an international 2006 IABC Gold Quill Award, a 2006 Silver Leaf Award and a 2006 OVATION Award.

Stewart is a marketing and business development specialist with over seven years of Telemedicine experience which, despite his youthful appearance, makes him a virtual grandfather in the field. Stewart is the Corporate Lead, Marketing and Member Development at the Ontario Telemedicine Network.

With a focus and expertise on brand management, market research and brand strategy development, Brand Matters is a brand consulting firm offering a range of brand consulting services and innovative branding techniques.

Patricia McQuillan founded Brand Matters in 2000, staffing client teams with deep expertise in all aspects of branding and market research. After a successful 12 year corporate marketing career, Patricia brings extensive experience and knowledge combined with innovative insight with Brand Matters. She specializes in Market Research, Brand Strategy Development, Marketing Communications Planning and Internal Branding.

With a B.A. Honours (Economics) and an MBA in Marketing and Finance from Queen's University Patricia adds the Canadian Securities Course and Partner, Director Officer qualifications to her résumé of expertise. As Vice-President – Marketing, RBC Dominion Securities and Vice President – Marketing, TD Waterhouse, Patricia successfully introduced strategic marketing programs and built long-lasting brands. Earlier in her career, she engineered successive business turnarounds in the consumer packaged goods industry at Kraft Canada over a 6-year period as a Senior Brand Manager.

Patricia currently serves as a Director on two boards: the American Marketing Association (AMA) and the MS Society. She is also a Council Member of the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) Branding and Strategic Planning Council and a Corporate Member of Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA). Patricia is the lead moderator for brand-related topics for the AMA Toronto Chapter and is also currently leading an industry study for the CMA on Internal Branding Best Practices for the CMA. She has been published by the HRPAO, Workplace News and the Canadian Marketing Association in the past year.

Patricia balances a highly creative strategic focus with sharp analytical skills and simplifies the Brand Matters difference as an unbiased process designed to connect business to brand™. The resultant Brand Differentiation Model™ distinguishes the client's expertise from that of direct competition, thus building the platform for successful implementation and measurement every time. In essence, Brand Matters connects organizations to their customers and brand through its rigorous multi-stakeholder inclusive process. Internal brand alignment and employee engagement are key benefits of this process.

Today, Patricia continues to use her strong, consumer-based and business-to-business marketing skill set to oversee brand positioning for other highly ambitious and results-focused corporate leaders. Her growing client list includes Air Miles Reward Program, Canada Life, Canadian Diabetes Association, Cloverleaf Seafood, Government of Canada, Ontario Real Estate Association and the global brand Siemens in Canada.

Mr. Darren Bishop is Brand Consultant at Brand Matters Inc.