Chris Carruthers Award – Canadian Society of Physician Leaders

Chris Carruthers

Excellence in Medical Leadership Award

Chris
Carruthers

Excellence in Medical Leadership Award

Nominations are being sought for the Chris Carruthers Excellence in Medical Leadership Award. The Award shall be presented to a physician who has made an outstanding contribution to the development and mentorship of medical leaders in the field of health services leadership and management.

Nominees of the Chris Carruthers Award must demonstrate outstanding abilities and contributions in one or more of the following categories:

Commitment to enhancing the role of physicians in the management of healthcare delivery organizations

Leadership in a hospital or health region management role

Significant contribution to leadership development within CSPL or any related organization or program of provincial/national scope

Nominees must be Canadian physicians who are members of CSPL. Nominations may be submitted, accompanied by the required documentation, by any physician member of CSPL.

Please send completed nominations and letters of support electronically to:

Chair, Awards Committee, c/o Colleen Galasso, Executive Director at:
colleen@physicianleaders.ca.

The deadline to submit a nomination is:
March 31, 2025.

The Award will be presented at the Canadian Conference on Physician Leadership.

2024 Chris Carruthers Excellence in Medical Leadership Award Winner

Dr. Curtis Johnston

Deputy Zone Medical Director,
Edmonton Zone,
Alberta Health Services

Dr. Curtis Johnston has made significant contributions to medical leadership throughout his career, leaving a profound impact on the healthcare systems across Alberta. Serving in various leadership roles, including hospital Site Chief of both Medicine and Critical Care, Facility Medical Director, and Deputy Zone Medical Director for the Edmonton Zone, Dr. Johnston has demonstrated exceptional leadership abilities and a steadfast commitment to the development of medical leaders.

As Facility Medical Director, Dr. Johnston prioritized the development of medical leaders through personalized coaching, physician leadership seminar series, and annual medical leadership retreats. These initiatives, acclaimed for their practicality and effectiveness, provided emerging and established medical leaders with valuable insights and skills to navigate the complexities of healthcare leadership, fostering a supportive environment for critical discussions and collaboration, and creating a community of medical leaders.

Dr. Johnston’s commitment to enhancing his own leadership skills is evident through his extensive involvement in courses, conferences, and obtaining his Certified Executive Coach Designation. His leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic as the Senior Medical Advisor for the Provincial Emergency Coordination Center garnered widespread recognition, earning him the title of Physician of the Year by the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association and a Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal.

Furthermore, Dr. Johnston’s contributions extend beyond his immediate healthcare setting. He initiated a Virtual Medical Leadership Development series, initially offered to physicians in Edmonton, but due to its popularity is now open to physicians across the province. These sessions provide an invaluable opportunity to network with other medical leaders, discuss complex situations, and to learn from each other in a peer-to-peer, nonhierarchical environment. He launched a complementary “Critical Conversation Series” equipping physician leaders with strategies to effectively navigate challenging conversations.

In terms of cultivating leadership capacity, Dr. Johnston developed and delivers the New Physician Orientation program, compulsory for new physicians joining Alberta Health Services. Additionally, he offers individual coaching sessions to medical leaders, providing tailored support to address complex issues. This personalized coaching represents a unique and innovative approach to medical leadership development and growth.

Dr. Curtis Johnston’s leadership journey is characterized by his unwavering dedication to advancing medical leadership, fostering collaboration, and driving positive change within the healthcare system. His achievements and contributions have left an indelible mark on medical leadership development in Alberta.

“Dr. Johnston is one of those rare leaders who has earned and engenders trust, embodies humility and compassion, and has steadfastly committed himself to the improvement of those he leads.” – Dr. Kathryn Dong

Terms of reference

The nominee must be a Canadian physician who is a CSPL member in good standing.
CSPL shall be under no obligation to present the award annually and it may be awarded to more than one person in a given year.
In the event of the demise of the nominee after being selected but before being presented with the award, it shall be presented posthumously.
Nominations may be submitted, accompanied by the required documentation, by any physician member of CSPL. Documentation must include a completed nomination form,
a detailed letter qualifying the nominee, the nominee’s curriculum vitae and at least two letters of support. Nominations should be submitted in typewritten form and can be sent electronically or by mail.
A nomination may be re-submitted in a subsequent year.
The Chair of the Nomination Committee of CSPL shall receive nominations six weeks prior to the Canadian Conference on Physician Leadership at which the award is to be presented. They should be sent to:
The Chair, Awards Committee, c/o
Colleen Galasso, Executive Director,
Canadian Society of Physician Leaders,
875 Carling Ave. suite 323,
Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5P1
613-369-8322
colleen@physicianleaders.ca
The Nomination Committee shall make the final decision by consensus.
The recipient of this award shall be offered the opportunity of attending the Canadian Conference on Physician Leadership to accept the award at the expense of CSPL.

Dr. Curtis Johnston,

Deputy Zone Medical Director,
Edmonton Zone,
Alberta Health Services

Cecile Andreas

MB, ChB, CEC, PCC

Since starting her coaching practice in 2014, Cecile is known to bring her deep experience as a physician leader and service provider to her coaching work, with a focus on unlocking the potential in people, teams and organizations. She uses a strengths-based approach with her clients and believes that our best opportunities lie in developing from the places in ourselves in which we already have strong ability.

Geographic Location: Cranbrook, British Columbia, also available on Zoom, FaceTime, Google Hangouts or Skype

Certification/Years as a coach: Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching (Royal Roads University) 2014

Advanced Certificate in Group and Team Coaching (Royal Roads University) 2017

Advanced Coaching Psychology Certificate (Royal Roads University) 2018

Certified Daring Way™ and Dare to Lead™ Facilitator

Certified LEADS Coach

ICF Professional Certified Coach 2018 - present

Phone number and/or email: info@cruxcoaching.ca • 250-919-6529

Website: cruxcoaching.ca

Expertise: Leadership, Women in Leadership, Groups and Teams, Managing Stress and Burnout, Resilience for Physicians and Physician Leaders, Daring Leadership

Mantra:

"You either walk inside your story and own it or you stand outside your story and hustle for your worthiness." – -Brené Brown

Cecile’s mission is to unlock the potential in people, teams and organizations through coaching. She brings her deep experience as a family physician to her work as an executive coach, coach supervisor and educator.

Cecile has a passion for supporting physicians to flourish through reflective practice, where she is able to draw on her whole experience and being to create a space for shared learning. She believes that values, leadership, courage and vulnerability are inextricably linked, and that we rise from our challenges if we are willing to walk through our stories and integrate the lessons in them.

Cecile is an associate faculty member in the Advanced Certificate in Group and Team Coaching and a mentor coach in the Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching Programs at Royal Roads University.

Cecile holds a Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching, and an Advanced Certificate of Coaching Practice from Royal Roads University. She is a Certified Daring Way™ and Dare to Lead™ Facilitator and a certified LEADS™ coach. She is certified to use the TotalSDI™ and Integrative Enneagram (iEQ9)™ tools. She holds a medical degree from the University of Stellenbosch.

Amanda (Mandy) Brisebois

MSc, MD, FRCPC, FACP, AoADI, CEC, PCC (ICF), CHE, CCPE, Med., MMgmt (IMHL)
Dr B Free Conflict Coaching for Physicians and Team Optimization

Geographic Location: Location not significant factor for conflict coaching. However, I am in Edmonton, AB and have also practiced in Calgary, AB, and Victoria, BC.

Certification/Years as a coach: Coaching since 2012 with certification from Mayo Clinic - Certified Wellness Coach, Center for Executive Coaching Executive and Healthcare Leadership. Certified through Justice Institute of British Columbia for Mediation and trained in negotiation and conflict coaching.

Phone number and/or email: drbfreecoaching@gmail.com

Website: https://amandabriseboismd.com/

https://www.albertadoctors.org/app/forms/EZMSA/IntakeForm.aspx

AMA Website: https://albertazmsa.com/physician-advisor

Expertise: Dr. Brisebois is a certified Wellness, Healthcare and Executive Coach, a certified mediator, a General Internal Medicine and Palliative Medicine Specialist, as well as having extensive training in conflict, negotiation, equity, diversity and inclusion. She has served as the Medical Director for a large 360 bed hospital, the Medical Director of the Covenant Palliative Care Institute, as well as an Associate Chief Medical Officer of Covenant Health. She has completed a Masters of International Health Leadership through McGill University and has trained at multiple world renowned organizations including the Mayo Clinic, Berkeley, Oxford, UBC, London School of Economics, University of Alberta, and the Justice Institute of British Columbia.

Her leadership specialty is helping practitioners and teams create an environment of productive conflict and high-level “in-the-moment” interactions to optimize team successes. She has seen her support create happier, more efficient, and more effective healthcare teams. She has spoken as a keynote speaker at many international events, and she is a published author in her fields of expertise. Her most recent publication in this area is an opening chapter in the AAPL publication “The CMO Guidebook” which outlines her journey facing disappointments in the workplace and turning difficult situations into personal successes.

Mantra:

B Free to get back to Medicine by mastering the art of managing our differences

I am a passionate physician who has worked tirelessly on the front lines caring for patients since 2000. Throughout my career, I have seen changes that have degraded physician autonomy and have negatively impacted our outlook. Health system culture changes and operational pressures have forced physicians to alter how they are practicing medicine, ultimately impacting our ability to focus on patient care. I have concerns regarding the sustainability of the profession and want to help.

Having been through conflict myself in my medical career, I have experienced too many situations in which little attention was paid to consistency and process. A lack of process and transparency can lead to the perception of unsatisfactory outcomes for many practitioners when facing conflict. Seeing this lack of process firsthand drove me into leadership, hoping to impact change and to support physicians facing issues in their practices.

The formal leadership journey that I embarked upon started in 2014 and ended up in my leading a team of 350 physicians through Covid pandemic. During the Covid pandemic, it became apparent that conflict for practitioners and their teams was at an all-time high, and little resource was available to support these physicians. Physicians were losing sleep, sacrificing personal relationships, and removing themselves from their workplaces due to a lack of capacity to achieve satisfactory resolution to conflict. I spent 100s of hours coaching colleagues and teams during this time, but still saw a lack of process in the system to deal with physicians’ issues.

It was clear to me in my coaching that physicians are not trained to handle conflict, leadership, or equity and inclusion. I undertook over 2 years of intense education in these areas to become a respected advocate and teacher in these areas. As society entered summer 2022, and the new generation of the pandemic met us, I made a goal to ensure that practitioners have the skills to create professional success out of conflict. These skills can support practitioners to love their careers once again by freeing time to focus on the field of medicine that they strove so hard to enter. This is my calling, and I want to share the skills and process that can also lead you to productive conflict in your life.

Mamta Gautam

MD, MBA, FRCPC, CPDC, CCPE, CPE

Dr. Mamta Gautam is a psychiatrist at The Ottawa Hospital and in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa; and President and CEO of PEAK MD. Dr. Gautam is an internationally renowned clinician, consultant, certified coach, researcher, speaker and author in the areas of Professional Health and Professional Leadership.

Geographic Location: Ottawa, Ontario. I am happy to provide coaching via Skype or Zoom regardless of your location.

Certification/Years as a coach: Since 2009

Email: mgautam@peakmd.ca; mgautam@rogers.com

Website: www.peakmd.ca

Expertise: Physician health, physician leadership, Physician executive coach, Coaching through leading change, career change, applying for an executive position

Mantra:

"Who, exactly, seeks out a coach? Winners, who want even more out of life.” – Chicago Tribune

She is a pioneer in the area of physician health and well-being, and has been hailed as “The Doctor’s Doctor”. She is the founding director of the University Of Ottawa Faculty Of Medicine Wellness Program; as well as the Canadian Medical Association Centre for Physician Health and Wellbeing, where she served as the Chair of the Expert Advisory Group. She created the Canadian Psychiatric Association Section on Physician Health; and in 2008, she founded the International Alliance on Physician Health, bringing together experts worldwide to collaborate on work in this area. She currently serves as the Chair of the Ontario Medical Association Burnout Working Group. She has written two bestsellers – Irondoc: Practical Stress Management Tools for Physicians and The Tarzan Rule: Tips for a Healthy life in Medicine. She brings this knowledge and expertise to PEAK MD, through which she consults to organizations and corporations; and coaches senior leaders internationally. She is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards for her innovative work in professional health, and has been awarded Distinguished Fellowships in both the Canadian and American Psychiatric Associations

An experienced leader, she is a Past President of the Ontario Psychiatric Association and the Federation of Medical Women of Canada. She is a faculty member at the American Association of Physician Leaders, and Joule’s Physician Leadership Institutes, and serves on the Board of the Canadian Society of Physician Leaders. Her key area of interest is in developing women leaders, and she has just launched a national Think Tank to promote and support women in medicine.

Cecile Andreas

MB, ChB, CEC, PCC

Geographic Location: Cranbrook, British Columbia, also available on Zoom, FaceTime, Google Hangouts or Skype

Certification/Years as a coach: Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching (Royal Roads University) 2014

Advanced Certificate in Group and Team Coaching (Royal Roads University) 2017

Advanced Coaching Psychology Certificate (Royal Roads University) 2018

Certified Daring Way™ and Dare to Lead™ Facilitator

Certified LEADS Coach

ICF Professional Certified Coach 2018 - present

Phone number and/or email: info@cruxcoaching.ca • 250-919-6529

Website: cruxcoaching.ca

Expertise: Leadership, Women in Leadership, Groups and Teams, Managing Stress and Burnout, Resilience for Physicians and Physician Leaders, Daring Leadership

Mantra:

"You either walk inside your story and own it or you stand outside your story and hustle for your worthiness." – -Brené Brown

Cecile is an associate faculty member in the Advanced Certificate in Group and Team Coaching and a mentor coach in the Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching Programs at Royal Roads University.

Elizabeth Pedersen

MD, FRCS(C), CCE, ACC

Geographic Location: Edmonton, Alberta

Certification/Years as a coach: CCE, ACC with 5 years experience

Phone number and/or email: melizabethpedersen@gmail.com (preferred), 780 863-8524

Website: accessvita.com

Expertise: EQ2.0 and EQ360 certified, LEADS Canada Coach certified

Mantra:

I believe that physicians are often thrust into leadership positions without any leadership training and coaching is a powerful way to help them navigate their roles, learning needs, and the stressors that are related not only to a career in medicine but also leadership positions within healthcare.

As both a surgeon and an executive coach, Beth can relate to the unique working environment of medical professionals and leaders. Beth understands the satisfaction and privilege of patient care as well as the stress of working with limited resources; the challenges of time management and work-life balance; and how fragile confidence can feel and yet how decisive physicians and leaders need to be. Beth has used her own coach to work through leadership challenges, burnout, building effective teams and knows the power of coaching!

Beth trained as a coach to help physicians and medical professionals identify the clutter in their lives and make room for what counts. She helps physicians interested in leadership to manage work so it doesn’t take over life, to mitigate feelings of overwhelm, to overcome burnout, to move into and out of leadership roles, to find the confidence within themselves to be the best leaders and physicians they can be, and to achieve work-life balance.

Coaching will help you to realign your work and personal life with your values and your own needs. This will make you a better physician and medical leader as well as happier in your personal life. I am motivated to improve patient care by empowering medical professionals to have a better working environment as well as work-life balance.

Beth trained in Toronto and Calgary to become an orthopaedic surgeon and practicse as an adult and paediatric foot and ankle surgeon in Edmonton. Beth studied coaching at Royal Roads University and completed her ICF certification (ACC). She has deepened her understanding of emotional intelligence through EQ certification, and leadership training through LEADS Canada coach certification. Although busy with clinical practice and coaching, she maintains her own wellness by spending time with her family, reading, riding her bike, walking her dogs, and cooking with her husband

Wendy Pentland

BSc(OT) MEd PhD PCC

As an ICF certified Professional Coach (PCC) Wendy has provided life and executive coaching services since 2004 to over 600 individuals including professionals, academics and executives internationally in both the public and private sectors. A particular focus has been coaching physicians.

Geographic Location: Kingston, Ontario (services are offered in-person and nationally/internationally via telephone/Skype/Zoom)

Certification/Years as a coach: Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coach Federation (ICF). 18 years coaching experience.

Phone number and/or email: Inquiries are welcome by phone (613-542-8998) or email wendypentland@gmail.com

Website: www.wendypentland.com LinkedIn – Wendy Pentland

Expertise: Coaching physicians in areas including:

Enhancing communication, professionalism and collaboration competencies.
Leadership.
Transitions (personal and professional).
Health and well-being.
Coaching physicians who have been advised or required by a third party (e.g. regulatory body, professional association, hospital, academic medical organization, legal counsel) to engage in coaching to improve communication, professional behaviours, collaboration skills, self-management and/or interpersonal skills.

Mantra:

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom” – Victor Frankl

Wendy completed coaching training in 2004 through the Adler School of Professional Coaching (Toronto) and previously obtained occupational therapy and graduate degrees in Canada and Australia. She maintains ongoing certification with the International Coach Federation (ICF) and draws on additional trainings including Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) with Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mind-Body Centred Somatic coaching, Narrative Coaching, Retirement Coaching certification, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and am a LEADS Certified Coach with LEADS Canada/Canadian College of Health Leaders.

Wendy brings to coaching over 35 years of experience in healthcare and academia; as an occupational therapy clinician in Ontario, British Columbia and Australia, health care administrator, tenured university professor, researcher on the relationships between time use, health and well-being and consultant. She has taught, mentored in, presented and published about coaching internationally.

Wendy’s coaching approach is grounded in the belief that people are motivated primarily by two desires: to fulfill their own potential and to make a meaningful contribution to the world; to make a difference. People frequently have difficulty fulfilling these desires because we govern ourselves with beliefs and fictions that hold us back and blind us to what may be greater possibilities.

Wendy has coached physicians on a variety of issues including career transitions, leadership development, managing interpersonal workplace conflict, transitioning through mid-life as well as into retirement, completing book manuscripts, time management, stress reduction, work-life balance, setting and achieving strategic goals, and managing professional and personal relationships. She enjoys and has coached many physician clients who have been advised or mandated by a third party to engage a professional coach to address communication, interpersonal and/or professional conduct issues.

Sarah Smith

Sarah Smith is a Rural Family Physician and the Charting Coach for Physicians. Sarah specialises in helping Physicians improve their office efficiency, particularly in the area of completing charting same day and assisting with strategies for getting today's work done today. Within her program, Sarah also helps Physician business owners with team management and leadership with improvement in office systems and processes.

In addition to coaching, Sarah is a Physician Champion and Improvement Facilitator for her Primary Care Clinic and within the McLeod River Primary Care Network. Sarah is active in her role as Medical Educator and Site Coordinator for the Longitudinal Clerkship Students in her community and Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Alberta.

Geographic Location: Zoom online Coaching for Canadian, US and International Physicians. Physical Location Edson, Alberta.

Certification/Years as a coach: Certification 2019, The Life Coach School. Trauma Coach Training through Lodestar Coaching 2021. More than 500 hours coaching Physicians in the specific area of Charting and Office Efficiency.

Phone number and/or email: ceo@reachcareercoaching.ca

Website: www.ChartingCoach.ca

Expertise: Sarah is the Charting Coach for Physicians, with a comprehensive program Charting Champions exclusively for Physicians. Physicians within the Charting Champions program get online modules, a supportive community and individual specific help with weekly group coaching calls. Additionally, the Charting Champions Program is a Lifetime access program.

Sarah also has the Beat the Backlog Mastermind 12 week program designed to help Physicians who have a large and worrisome Backlog of unfinished charts and tasks.

From a Leadership perspective, you may have Physicians within your organisation who are struggling with completing charting, forms, inboxes or a large backlog. Charting Coaching provides the skills and tools these struggling Physicians need to become effective in getting their work done, with the outcome of satisfied and more productive Physicians.

Mantra:

Physician Coaches show you how you are getting in your own way, help you find solutions to your obstacles and walk you into transformation. Prepare for Amazing!

I help Physicians Stop Charting at Night and Create Time for the Things They Love.

We know that the paperwork and the administration burden contribute to Physician dissatisfaction and burnout. Physicians may be overwhelmed and looking to leave their medical career due to this administration and paperwork burden. Physicians are expensive to produce and expensive to replace, organisations often seek out help for their struggling Physicians. Charting Coaching can be a simple effective solution to help Physician satisfaction and improve Physician productivity.

Debrah Wirtzfeld

MD CEC CCPE ICD.D MBA

Geographic Location: In person (post-COVID!). Currently by Zoom or phone as per your preference.

Certification/Years as a coach: 2014 Royal Roads University/Seven years as a coach

Phone number and/or email: debrahwirtzfeld@gmail.com , (preferred), 780-819-8031

Website: sheknowsshift.com

Expertise: Physician career transitions (especially into executive positions), women physician leaders, building resilience and confidence

Mantra:

Coaching is meant to develop our individual strengths and bring us from good to great and great to excellent!

Debrah Wirtzfeld is an Executive coach and communications expert with extensive experience in assisting individuals and teams empower their performance, gain confidence, and achieve success! Her multidisciplinary background in psychology, medicine, and leadership development, allows her to assist clients in building and leading teams that can have significant impact in the healthcare sector. Her strongest asset is a deep understanding of the critical importance of effective communications in building successful relationships and teams.

My passion is in supporting professional transitions and assisting clients in adapting to new roles where their relationships and responsibilities have changed. I will work with you to build new relationships and strategic networks, define novel communications pathways, and develop and achieve important goals. I will support you in building a team where your influence will be greater because you have a focus on fostering the development and advancement of others.

As an ICF certified coach, I have extensive experience with the Myers-Briggs Type Indictor, Insights, the Emotional Quotient Inventory and Crucial Conversations. I have a strong background in fostering diversity and building inclusive leaders who want to bring all voices to the table.

I am the co-founder of Inspire Mindset MD (www.empoweringwomenprofessionals.com) where I work to foster empowered performance through a focus on building professional competence and confidence. I am also the founder and CEO of MD Confidence Consulting (www.sheknowsshift.com), an organization dedicated to supporting leaders through professional transitions. I provide consulting and coaching from the moment you are thinking about a change, including how to write an appropriate resume and approach a senior leadership interview, to leaving a position and re-establishing previous relationships and accountabilities.

I have coached Executive leaders, CMOs, Department/Section leads, Provincial Program leads and other administrators in the healthcare environment at the Health Authority and University level. I also have experience in assisting CEOs within the private sector to build teams and recognize required return on investment. I work as a group coach in supporting communication skills and empowering performance.

If you are thinking about a transition, leading from your strengths, or building teams where there is successful communication and a vision for success, I would love to follow along with you in this journey!