To mark
International Women’s Day, we asked several PHSA women who have reached long-service milestones in 2018 to share a little about what they do. Their passion and dedication is inspiring.
Women make up almost 80 per cent of all staff and also 80 per cent of the PHSA executive leadership team. PHSA recognizes that International Women’s Day includes all women, including trans women, non-binary and gender non-conforming people.
International Women's Day celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, while also marking a call to action for accelerating gender balance in our teams and organizations. The first International Women's Day occurred in 1911, supported by over one million people. Today, IWD is celebrated around the world.
Meet some of the women at PHSA who’ve reached long service milestones this year:
5 years of service
I work on environmental health surveillance and research projects in environmental health services at
BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), exploring how environmental exposures such as wildfire smoke, extreme heat and industrial air pollution affect population health in B.C. I enjoy my job because I am always learning at work, I have amazing colleagues, and I hope that providing good evidence to public health decision-makers will ultimately lead to improved health outcomes across the province.
5 years of service
I’m a project manager for the Health Literacy team at
BC Children's Hospital, helping support the mental health and well-being of children, youth, and families in BC. My work includes developing and sharing new resources — like apps and websites — and also building capacity of health and school professionals through workshops and training. In my past work at an alternative health clinic, I saw that many clients weren’t health literate, which motivated me to get a Master of Public Health focused on health promotion. Now, at BC Children’s Hospital, my awesome team inspires me each day. Everyone has the same passion to promote health, and our team is very supportive and collaborative. I also love that the impact of our work reaches across the province. Working with BC Children’s Hospital and PHSA means that when we develop resources, we can help families province-wide.
20 years of service
I work as an ALS Paramedic Specialist in Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Dispatch. I also teach
BC Emergency Health Services courses for learning and am on the Vancouver TF1 Heavy Urban Search & Rescue (HUSAR) team. I love my new role providing clinical support to all the paramedics in the province via CliniCall and face-to-face on street calls. I’ve always loved pre-hospital medicine and, if I can, making a patient’s bad day a little better. To see our team of paramedics in action, check out Knowledge Network's documentary, Paramedics: Life on the Line, which also shows what inspires me at work.
Marilyn Oberg
20 years of service
I am a paramedic chief, with the Ambulance Service (BC Emergency Health Services). On a daily basis, I am thrilled to participate within our gorgeous tapestry of our remarkably talented team.
Stephanie Turner
20 years of service
I have been an operating room (OR) nurse for 24 years, having worked at
BC Children’s Hospital for 21 years now. For the first 18 years, I was a member of the Open Heart Cardiac OR team, and then just over a year ago I became the clinical resource nurse for both the pediatric urology and plastic services. This involves ensuring the surgeons have all the equipment they need for their surgeries, whilst also teaching our growing nursing team how to scrub and circulate for these cases. Each day, I am truly excited to come to work and know that I am front and center in improving the health and wellbeing of many children’s lives here in BC.
Kathy Crandlemire
20 years of service
I am a Paramedic Unit Chief and a Community Paramedic with
BCEHS stationed in the beautiful community of Sicamous. I have the honour of looking after people in our community who require emergency out-of-hospital care as well as monitoring and educating patients with chronic health conditions who are still able to live in their homes. As a training station, I also teach, mentor, encourage, challenge and help develop new employees to our service. I am inspired every day by my patients! It amazes me how resilient people can be and it really is an honour to be there to help them at a time of need in their lives. The best part of my job are the challenges I face on a daily basis, whether it’s mentoring, educating or working through a difficult call.
30 years of service
I started in tuberculosis (TB) services (then called the Willow Chest Centre) in 1986 as a summer student weeding inactive TB charts. From 1988 onwards, I held various administrative positions in other
BCCDC departments and eventually returned to TB services as the office coordinator in 2017. This position has a variety of tasks that keep me very challenged. I am inspired daily by the people I work with. I have had the privilege to work with some of the most passionate and innovative health professionals in BC here at BCCDC. It has been an amazing 30 years.
45 years of service
I have been a cancer research scientist in a cancer hospital setting since I started my PhD in 1966. I spend a lot of time writing journal articles and presenting talks about what our group has discovered, and writing grants for funding to support the work going forward.
But, most of my time is spent supervising trainees to pursue new directions in cancer biology, which has turned out to be much more complex than was ever anticipated.
I am inspired by the excitement of chasing after new knowledge and new methods to find answers to questions that previously seemed inaccessible, and the opportunity to share that journey with highly motivated and talented trainees, colleagues and the public worldwide.
Want to join these women? We have
career opportunities for professionals across the spectrum, from corporate to clinical. Working at PHSA is about making a difference. It's about providing the highest quality patient care by placing the needs of our patients first.
