WXN (Women’s Executive Network) and its partners proudly announce this year’s winners of the 2024 Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Awards. The WXN Top 100 Awards opens doors for women to achieve higher levels of excellence by proving that opportunities are increasing for female leaders to have an impact at the highest organizational levels. Being recognized as WXN Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award is an opportunity to send a message to young female leaders that ceilings are shattering and possibilities are endless.
Dr. Andrea Edginton, University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy hallman director and professor, joins the ranks of remarkable and inspiring women across Canada in the WXN Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award, Executive Leaders category.
"I am grateful for this recognition from WXN and deeply honored that so many in my circle dedicated their time and energy to nominate me," says Edginton.
Edginton is the third to hold the hallman director position since the School was founded at the University of Waterloo in 2008. She leads a School of over 45 full- and part-time Faculty and over 30 full-time staff. She is an award-winning researcher and a highly accomplished leader who emphasizes collaboration, community building, driving innovation in education, equity and health initiatives. Edginton passionately pursues improved access to education for Indigenous peoples, empowers women as leaders and advocates for pharmacists to become strategic partners to improve access to healthcare in rural and remote Ontario.
Edginton a successful entrepreneur, educator and researcher is the vice president of Design2Code Inc, a consultancy company that creates and applies scientific software to guide pharmaceutical companies in their drug development process. Her primary expertise is in designing pediatric clinical trials through simulation of virtual children for dose determination. Further, in 2022, with her colleagues Dr. Nardine Nakhla (CEO) and Michael Sevestre (CTO), she cofounded MAPflow Inc. and serves as COO and president. MAPflow leverages a novel SaaS platform supporting a clinical decision-making tool for minor ailment prescribing by pharmacists. As MAPflow completes its second year of business, it celebrates reaching over 35% of Ontario pharmacies.
As a professor at the School of Pharmacy, Edginton has 130+ peer-reviewed publications in pharmacokinetic modeling and simulation. Her academic research focuses on the development and application of physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models in the areas of pharmaceuticals and human health risk assessment. In addition, Edginton leads the modeling component of the Web-Accessible Population Pharmacokinetics Service – Hemophilia (WAPPS-Hemo) project that uses advanced pharmacokinetic modeling for tailoring treatment prophylaxis in persons with hemophilia. This free service is used by over 780 hemophilia treatment centres in over 50 countries, providing clinicians with an easy-to-use tool to optimize medication therapy in their patients. As a result of this, Edginton was recognized with the prestigious American College of Clinical Pharmacology 2022 Roger Jelliffe Individualized Therapy Award. Important to Edginton, her research focuses on populations underrepresented in clinical research (e.g. neonates, breastfeeding people, rare diseases).
She has served the University of Waterloo community through numerous administrative positions in the School of Pharmacy, but also as a member of the board of directors for the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology and chair of the Clinical Research Ethics Board. Edginton was recognized four times in the past ten years by the University of Waterloo with the Outstanding Performance Award, complementing the Excellence in Science Research Award in 2022 and the Excellence in Science Teaching Award in 2015. Externally, Edginton is a member of the International Hemophilia Prophylaxis Study Group, past chair of the Council of Deans representing each Dean from the Canadian PharmD programs and a board member for the Ontario College of Pharmacists, the regulatory body for pharmacy professionals in Ontario.
In all my work, high functioning teams are imperative. My approach to leadership is about building teams that harness each person’s unique strengths, removing obstacles, and clearing the way for their success. I believe in people, and if you put them in their strengths, surrounded by others with complementary skills, they will achieve results that I couldn’t imagine were possible.
Edginton operationalized the Women in Pharmacy Leadership program at the School of Pharmacy. Like many other fields, women are under-represented in leadership positions within the pharmacy profession despite most graduating students in Canada over the past 30 years have been women. Alumni from our PharmD or graduate program who identify as women with an expressed interest in leadership are assigned senior mentors from the Schools wider community and provided with the knowledge and skills to attain and excel in positions that will help shape the future direction of pharmacy and healthcare.
"My greatest sense of accomplishment comes from helping others achieve their goals," says Edginton. "Whether it's our faculty, staff, alumni, PharmD, or graduate students, my aim is to empower them to reach their own definitions of success."
Congratulations Dr. Edginton, all of us at the School are #UWaterlooProud!