How Involvement in Governance Boosts Leadership Skills with Emily Gruenwoldt

Today I sit down with noteworthy healthcare leader Emily Gruenwoldt. Emily is the President & CEO of Children’s Healthcare Canada and Executive Director of the Pediatric Chairs of Canada. Previous to these roles, she spent over ten years with the Canadian Medical Association in various Director-level roles including Professional Affairs, Physician Leadership Development, and Strategy & Innovation. Emily has significant health care governance experience having served two terms as a board member for each of Carefor Home & Health Services and The Ottawa Hospital, and one term at Arnprior Regional Health. She is also co-founder of Emerging Health Leaders. In 2017, Emily was recognized by the Ottawa Business Journal as a recipient of the Top Forty Under Forty Award. She is also the recipient of the Canadian College of Health Leaders Robert Zed Young Health Leader award (2011). We talk about her career to date, including the story of the professor who dramatically changed the course of her career. She shares with us her passion for pediatric health, and the work she does to support children and their families navigating the healthcare system. We also talk about the gap Emily saw that led to the creation of Emerging Health Leaders (EHL) and her hopes for the continued success of all the local nodes of EHL. Finally, Emily talks about how she stepped out of her comfort zone early in her career to become involved in healthcare governance and how this experience was the best leadership training she could have ever hoped for.