Speaker's BIO:

Denika McPherson brings over fourteen years of healthcare experience in critical care, primary care, digital health, academia at the college and university level and people and operations leadership. She is a Senior Business Advisor for the Ontario Government, an After-Hours Clinical Manager at Unity Health and an Examiner with Touchstone Institute.

She has served as a mentor for three different faculty programs at the University of Toronto (U of T), an RNAO best practice guidelines stakeholder, contributor and evaluator, a pitch competition evaluator, an MIT Hackathon mentor, Canadian Critical Care Trials Group Equity Diversity and Inclusion Working Group member and hospital committee chair. She is a U of T alumnus of the Master of Nursing – Nurse Practitioner Program with a Collaborative Specialization in Resuscitation Sciences. Demonstrating her commitment to continuous personal and professional development, Denika then completed the Executive MBA Essentials certificate program at the Rotman School of Management, a fellowship with ICON Talent Partners and is also an alumnus of the U of Ts Black Founders Network, an entrepreneur accelerator within the U of T Entrepreneurship network.

She’s received corporate awards for Excellence in Nursing and Leadership. She firmly believes that leadership is not a title, it is about making others and organizations better due to your presence and ensuring that the the positive impact lasts beyond your absence. Denika is passionate about macro or system-level impact, operational excellence, healthcare, technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership.

Outside of work, Denika enjoys photography, playing steelpan, high-intensity interval training, visiting museums and libraries, attending cultural events around the city, cooking and travelling. She has visited every continent except Antarctica, which is on her list.

Chantal Sorhaindo is a Nurse Practitioner at the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto Family Practice Unit, St. Michael’s Hospital. She graduated from the Sheridan College Practical Nursing program in 2010, completed the Centennial College Bridging to University Certificate in 2011, and graduated from the Ryerson University Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program in 2013. She recently completed her MN and NP Certificate (Primary Health Care) with a specialty in global health at the University of Toronto (U of T). Chantal has experience working in Primary Care, Occupational Health, Safety and Wellness, Home Care, and served as a Quality Improvement and Charge Nurse in Long-Term Care. She prides herself in her anti-Black racism work and served as the Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA) Outreach
coordinator, where she represented U of T at the Harvard University Black Policy Conference in April, 2019.

Currently, she is the group Chair of the NPAO Black Nurse Practitioners’ Community of Practice, is on the leadership team of St. Michael’s Hospital Department of Family and Community Medicine Anti-racism Advisory Committee, is working with the NPAO social media committee, and was a contributor to the New and Novice NP New Graduate Tool kit.

In her spare time, she enjoys singing and song writing, spending time with friends and family, and has recently picked up golfing. She is looking forward to working with the NPAO board of directors with the goal of elevating NP voices and making actionable changes to benefit the lives of NPs in Ontario