President : Joanne Figliano-Scott, [email protected]
Joanne Figliano-Scott is a nurse with more than 20 years of working experience at Toronto Public Health. Joanne is currently the Director of Community Health and Wellbeing and Chief Nursing Officer at Toronto Public Health (TPH).
Joanne completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from McMaster University and earned a Master of Education from University of Toronto with a special interest in organizational effectiveness.
After graduating from nursing, Joanne worked as a Public Health Nurse at Durham Public Health and taught Community Health Nursing at York University before joining Toronto Public Health.
For more than twenty years, Joanne has worked as a Public Health Nurse, a Health Promotion Specialist, a Public Health Manager, a Senior Policy and Strategic Issues Advisor, and most recently as an Associate Director in the Office of the Medical Officer of Health at Toronto Public Health. In these roles she has supported the organization to develop and deliver quality, client-centered services; contributed to knowledge transfer; and reinforced population health assessment and program evaluation. Joanne has led public health teams in managing strategic issues, advancing policies and engaging internal and external stakeholders on complex public health issues. Joanne has a strong interest in health promotion and advancing effective local public health efforts to reduce inequities in health.
As a Nursing Professional Joanne has helped advance nursing practice as a member of TPH’s Nursing Practice Council, contributing to Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) initiatives, including Best Practice Spotlight Organization. Joanne is currently the Chief Nursing Officer at Toronto Public Health and the President-elect of the Ontario Public Health Nursing Leadership Association.
President-Elect : Natalie Riewe, [email protected]
Natalie is a nurse with over 21 years of nursing in the acute and public health sectors. She is currently the Vice President, Clinical Services Department at the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU). Natalie is passionate about public health practice, health system planning and seeks to engage and support the next generation of nursing leaders. Natalie has been an active and engaged member of OPHNL since 2014, participating on various workgroups, planning workshops and as member of the OPHNL Executive as Chief Nursing Officer representative in 2022 -2023.
Natalie graduated with a BScN from York University and completed a Master of Nursing Degree from Athabasca University and she holds a BA degree in psychology from York University.
She began her career as a student nurse at the former York Central Hospital, Registered Nurse at Toronto Western Hospital and then moved into Public Health in 2006 at the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit. Natalie worked as a Public Health Nurse (PHN) responding to public inquiries on a variety of public health topics in their Intake program and in the Reproductive Health program. Natalie held positions as a Manager for Reproductive Health, Child Health and Healthy Growth Development programs. In these roles she provided leadership in a variety of multi sector community committees and initiatives. Natalie has also held positions in SMDHU as Acting Assistant Director, Community and Family Health Department and as Chief Nursing Officer.
She has experience in leading strategic planning for SMDHU and previously supported the Association of Local Public Health Agencies as a project lead on the evaluation on the impacts of the COVID-19 response on public health unit programming. She coordinated the development of the report, Public Health Resilience in Ontario (2022) and Public Health Matters, public health primer (2022).
Treasurer: Renee Boi-Doku, [email protected]
Renee has been a nurse for 30 years, 25 of those years has been with Toronto Public Health (TPH). Renee began her time at TPH in the Healthy Communities directorate working on the School Team, the Sexual Health Promotion Team, and the Urban Issues. She gained valuable experience in partnering with diverse communities on meaningful topics that benefitted from health promotion, disease prevention and community development. Currently Renee is the Supervisor Nursing Quality Practice, where she supports TPH management in addressing nursing practice questions and leads a small but mighty Nursing Practice Council to address nursing practice issues and plan organization wide nursing events. Renee has her B.Sc.N., M.Sc.N., and is certified in Community Health Nursing from the Canadian Nurses Association.
Secretary: Jennifer Mitton, [email protected]
Jen is the Nursing Practice Advisor for Hamilton Public Health Services and holds a clinical faculty appointment in the School of Nursing at McMaster University. She is a graduate of McMaster School of Nursing (BScN and PhD) with over 20 years of public health experience. Prior to her current role, Jen worked as a public health nurse for Niagara Region (School Health & Substance Abuse Prevention), Region of Peel (Substance Abuse Prevention and Tobacco Control) and Hamilton Public Health Services (Tobacco Control). Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Jen has been in the dual role of Nursing Practice Advisor and Advanced Pandemic Planner.
CNO Representative: Judy Buchan, [email protected]
Judy Buchan is the Director of Communicable Diseases and Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) at Peel Public Health. In this position, she provides strategic leadership and direction to sections within the Communicable Diseases Division. As the CNO, she is responsible for providing nursing leadership, nursing practice quality assurance and continuous quality improvement to support overall organizational effectiveness. Judy has been a member of Ontario Public Health Nursing Leaders since 2016.
Judy is a successful senior leader with more than 25 years of progressive leadership experience in local public health. She has widespread experience in maternal child health, public health, communicable diseases, and nursing practice. Most recently, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Judy has assumed the role of Director of Public Health Emergencies, leading the COVID-19 operational response for Peel Public Health.
She has a Bachelor of Political Science degree from McMaster University, a Baccalaureate of Nursing Science from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Nursing from Ryerson University. She has also completed the Advanced Health Leadership Program at the Joseph L Rotman School of Management – University of Toronto and well as a Project Management Professional certification.
Professional Practice Lead Liaison: Vicky Olmstead, [email protected]
Vicky has worked in public health for 24+years with the Regional Municipality of Durham. Vicky has been a manager in a variety of programs over the years including Healthy Families, Sexual Health, Injury Prevention, Durham Health Connection Line and Immunization and Quality Assurance. Vicky is currently the Assistant Director, Population Health at Durham Region Health Department.