Director, Health Equity and System Transformation

At Ontario Health, we are committed to developing a strong organizational culture that connects and inspires all team members across the province. Our vision is that together, we will be a leader in health and wellness for all. Our mission is to connect the health system to drive improved and equitable health outcomes, experiences and value. How we work together is reflected through our five values: integrity, inspiration, tenacity, humility and care.

What Ontario Health offers:

Achieving your career goals is a priority to us. Benefits of working at Ontario Health may include the following based on employment type:

• Fully paid medical, dental and vision coverage from your first day
• Health care spending account
• Premium defined benefit pension plan
• 3 personal days and 2 float days annually
• Individual contributors start at 3 weeks’ vacation with 4 weeks at 2 yrs.
• Career development opportunities
• A collaborative values-based team culture
• Wellness programs
• A hybrid working model
• Participation in Communities of Inclusion 

Want to make a difference in your career?  Consider this opportunity. 

The Director, Indigenous Health Research and Monitoring drives the development and maintenance of an Indigenous health system performance dashboard, including identifying and recommending system-level Indigenous health equity and programmatic indicators and applying and upholding Ownership, Control, Access and Possession (OCAP) principles.  This role works as part of the Indigenous Leaders Model (ILM). The ILM is an entity of strategic ambassadors for Indigenous health who provide connections and coordinated and consistent direction to the regional health care system and health care providers. This role is accountable to the First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and urban Indigenous communities in the region and works in alignment with the Ontario Health equity, inclusion, diversity, and anti-racism (EIDAR) framework, the Indigenous Health Equity Coordinating Office (IHEC), and the regional Health Equity and System Transformation team. The Director is accountable for upholding OCAP principles and maintaining connections with data sovereignty leaders, including Provincial Territorial Organization’s, the London District Chiefs Council, the First Nations Secretariat, and academic bodies.  This role also engages with Indigenous data champions and health equity data efforts provincially, including Aboriginal Health Access Centres, IHEC, Ontario Health Teams, and municipal community safety and wellbeing planning groups. In collaboration with these partners, the Director will produce high-quality, actionable analytics for quality improvement, performance management, and health services planning, including the development of a systems performance dashboard on Indigenous Health. The successful candidate will possess strong leadership skills, is strategic, creative, a relationship builder and will be a change agent for Ontario Health.

Here is what you will be doing: 

• Apply Indigenous knowledge systems, ethics, and methodologies to develop regional Indigenous performance guidelines and a dashboard for the region and to support the EIDAR team.
• Drive the co-development of a local Indigenous health equity plan, in conjunction with the Indigenous Health Networks, including identification of appropriate indicators, while providing oversight on system-level implementation, with an emphasis on:
  • Cultivating and identifying appropriate measures and indicators to document and support the advances of Traditional Healing programming.
  • Supporting ongoing identification of Indigenous patients and families.
  • Advancing Indigenous Cultural safety reporting and evaluation.
  • Improved Indigenous health data coordination, stewardship, and collection.
  • Development of protocols to support Indigenous health self-identification and data collection across the region.
  • Advocate for structural changes to address health inequities and to improve overall wellbeing of Indigenous people.
  • Support the development of one health system report card for the region building on the Truth and Reconciliation Report Call to Action (2015).
• Provide both technical and analytical expertise in creating meaningful information from administrative and survey databases.
• Engage and work closely with other FNIMuI health equity and data leaders to facilitate and identify a regional approach to enhanced social-demographic data collection, including principles and recommendations for health service providers and Ontario Health West, ensuring that moral and ethical Indigenous data sovereignty and stewardship approaches are honoured to move towards standardized and widespread uptake of Indigenous self-identification health data at point-of-care.
• Collaboratively develop and implement analyses and applied research projects, including conducting literature reviews, identifying data sources, supporting the development of appropriate methodologies, determining appropriate statistical techniques, and conducting analyses to summarize and present key findings.
• Drive ensuring the appropriateness of analytical methods and accuracy of data analyses – seeking to ensure that there is an equity and Indigenous determinants of health lens applied to data reporting, collection, protection, ownership, and analysis.
• Research, analyze, interpret, and reconcile clinical information used for data analysis, providing wholistic, historic, colonial, and contemporary context where needed.
• Document methods and results ensuring that unique and emergent processes are shared and recorded for quality improvement.
• Develop reports and meeting materials to share with different audiences, including program teams, principal investigators, and clinical working groups.
• Leverage Business Intelligence (BI) tools and adapt as needed to ensure that Indigenous indicators of health and wellness are appropriate for creating reporting solutions and work collaboratively to enhance delivery of information to key partners.
• Provide expertise and direction to enhance quality measurement and evaluation processes.
• Promotes respectful relationships with Indigenous communities and partners, seeking to build strong connections and accountability with other Indigenous data stewards.
• Work with projects’ teams (including clinicians, internal and external partners) to determine requirements/business objectives and translate them into information solutions to support decision-making, planning and strategic implementation.
• Participating in internal and external committee meetings, able to speak to broader system challenges, promoting respectful relationships with Indigenous communities, advocating for meaningful ongoing engagement with Indigenous patients and families.
• Be accountable to an arms-length governance body made up of Indigenous community members, practitioners, health organizations, and Ontario Health West.

Here is what you will need to be successful:

Education and Experience

• Master’s in Statistics, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Health Services Research, Health Informatics, Computer Science, or recognized equivalent, is required.
• 7-10 years of experience in Indigenous health/social services/political environment with a focus on performance and data, and data analysis, preferably in environments supporting FNIMuI peoples in connection to mainstream sectors.
• Experience in statistical modelling or advanced analytics (e.g., regression analysis, survival analysis, cluster analysis, longitudinal analysis, principal component, and factor analysis etc.) is an asset
• Strong computer skills, including MS Office suite; knowledge of MS Project is an asset

Knowledge and Skills  

• Preference will be given to applicants who self-identify as an Indigenous person, with lived experiences in community, with demonstrated practices drawn from Indigenous knowledge systems
• Strong quantitative and qualitative background with a demonstrated ability to independently perform analyses using programming/statistical languages (SAS and SQL).
• Experience coding in R or Python is an asset.
• Experience with national and provincial healthcare administrative and clinical datasets, including CIHI Discharge Abstract Database (DAD), National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS), Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) physician billing data, and Ontario Cancer Registry (OCR) is an asset.
• Conceptual knowledge of health care system performance measurement and health information systems is an asset.
• Experience in the application and adaptation of Indigenous methodologies, and ability to enhance contextual limitations of current data sets by using descriptive, anecdotal, traditional storytelling and other Indigenous-led knowledges and decolonizing methodologies in interpreting and synthesizing research and technical information, offering a more complete picture of Indigenous health and wellness, inclusive of Indigenous indicators of health from a wholistic framework.
• Experience leading meetings, presenting analysis and policy, business case and briefing note development, and project management.
• Motivated to achieve high quality work with ability to multi-task and maintain excellent communications with multiple partners and communities.
• Ability to work independently, take initiative, with strong problem solving and critical thinking skills, including systems thinking.
• Team player who values collaboration; experience working within a complex and politically sensitive environment.
• Demonstrated knowledge of and/or experience with:
  • Indigenous ways of being and knowing, particularly around health, wellbeing, and Traditional Healing.
  • Decolonizing and Indigenous approaches to knowledge mobilization, sharing and community-based ethical protocols and engagement.
  • Social and Indigenous determinants of health and their impacts on Indigenous communities.
  • Indigenous rights and sovereignty of health and care.
  • Health equity, anti-racism, and anti-oppression training.
• Knowledge of trauma-informed approaches to inclusion, practices, and protocols to ensure connections with diverse sub-populations including the needs of women, families, and gender diverse communities; Two-Spirit, LGBTQ, Trans and Indigi-Queer communities; Elders and knowledge keepers; youth.
• Understanding of Ontario Health’s regional mandate and its role within the broader health system
• Exceptional interpersonal and relationship management skills, including sound judgment, tact, and diplomacy with ability to gain cooperation and build trust as a means of influencing outcomes.
• Extensive knowledge of applied practices and education related to health equity, Indigenous cultural safety, anti-racism and anti-oppression, public health, community development, community engagement and respectful relational practices.

Employment Type: Permanent Full Time

Salary Band:   9

Location: Ontario (currently hybrid; subject to change)

All applicants must be a resident of Ontario to be considered for roles at Ontario Health.

Ontario Health encourages applications from candidates who are First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and urban Indigenous; Francophone; Black and racialized; members of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities; trans and nonbinary; and disabled. 

We encourage applicants with accessibility needs to notify us if they have any accommodation needs in the application and/or interview process. 

Note:  As part of the initial recruitment screening process, applicants must confirm that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. If applicants are not fully vaccinated, they will be required to identify any accommodation needs pursuant to a protected ground under the Code.  Applicants who identify an accommodation need will be required to provide supporting documentation with respect to their need for accommodation when requested by Ontario Health. If no such accommodation is identified, the applicant will not be eligible to proceed through the recruitment process.