Dr. Nardine Nakhla, associate professor at the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy, co-founder of MAPflow, a health-technology platform, and practicing community pharmacist, joins the ranks of remarkable and inspiring women across Canada as a recipient of the 2025 Women’s Executive Network (WXN) Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award in the Professionals category.
“This award is incredibly meaningful for me, both personally and professionally. It honours all those who have shaped my journey: mentors, students, co-founders, colleagues, and the thousands of pharmacists who inspire me daily. I’m especially grateful for my family’s unwavering love and support, and for the guidance and strength God has given me to persevere, serve others and create lasting impact through this work,” says Dr. Nakhla.
“This recognition reaffirms what I’ve always believed: transformational change in healthcare happens at the intersection of technology, pharmacy and people,” Dr. Nakhla adds.
Her journey reflects a powerful convergence of academic excellence, policy impact, and tech-enabled innovation in pharmacy practice.
Dr. Nakhla obtained her PharmD from Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in New York in 2007. Drawn to Waterloo’s culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, she joined the School of Pharmacy in 2009. Since then, she has led the design and delivery of curricular content focused on minor ailment management, patient self-care and non-prescription therapeutics.
Her leadership in this area led to her appointment to the Minor Ailments Advisory Group, an expert interprofessional team convened by the Ontario College of Pharmacists to develop evidence-informed policies that expand pharmacists’ prescribing authority for minor ailments. As a key contributor, Dr. Nakhla helped co-author the historic regulations that took effect on January 1, 2023, granting more than 15,000 pharmacists across Ontario autonomous prescribing authority. Since then, over two million Ontarians have received care through these minor ailment services.
Recognizing that writing policy was only part of the solution, Dr. Nakhla identified a critical gap: without the right tools, training, and workflow support, the promise of an expanded scope would stall. To bridge that gap, she co-founded MAPflow, a health technology platform that translates policy into practice and empowers pharmacy professionals to deliver safe, efficient and effective patient-centred care with confidence.
“MAPflow has helped over 250,000 Canadian patients, powered more than 2,000 pharmacies and supported over 1,500 students in their education to date. Our leadership structure reflects the values driving that impact,” she says. “Alongside me is my co-founder and chief operating officer Dr. Andrea Edginton, hallman director of the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy and a 2024 WXN Top 100 Award recipient. Our entire team is composed of bold, brilliant women whose diverse expertise fundamentally shape the product and user experience. We design with empathy, prioritize accessibility, and build solutions rooted in real-world pharmacy practice – not what we imagine from a distance.”
Beyond MAPflow, she has shaped the profession through education and thought leadership. She has taught more than 3,300 pharmacy students and trained more than 2,500 pharmacists. On a national scale, she leads educational policy and standards that influence how minor ailments are taught across Canada, ensuring the next generation enters practice equipped to meet evolving healthcare needs.
Her accolades include the 202 Buisness Innovation Award, recognizing excellence in advancing patient care through innovation from Pharmacy Practice + Business, the 2023 Distinguished Teaching Award, the University of Waterloo’s most prestigious honour, and the 2020 Pfizer Bowl of Hygeia, the highest honour for provincial service to the profession.
Dr. Nakhla is a sought-after speaker at conferences across Canada and abroad, sharing her expertise in advancing pharmacy practice. She has authored several chapters in leading pharmacy education textbooks and, for the past decade, has been a regular columnist for Pharmacy Practice + Business, reaching over 12,000 pharmacies nationwide. Her articles translate evidence into practice and empower her students—the majority of them women—to publish their coursework in the same outlet, extending classroom learning into real-world impact.
“I envision a future where women in pharmacy lead boldly—not by traditional hierarchies, but through the systems we build, the barriers we remove and the people we lift as we climb,” she says. “The most important work isn’t just breaking barriers for yourself; it’s building infrastructure so the next generation doesn’t face them at all. That’s why we hire students at MAPflow, why I push them to publish, and why I push for systemic change in how pharmacy is practiced. I want them to inherit a profession where opportunity is accessible by design, not reserved for a few.”
“Sustainable leadership, like self-care, requires intentionality and self-awareness. Who you were last year can’t lead where you’re going next. You have to evolve with purpose, not pressure,” she adds.
For Dr. Nakhla, leadership is about legacy.
“I want to create a future where women leading in pharmacy and health tech is so embedded in the fabric of the field, it no longer needs an award to prove it,” she says.
Congratulations, Dr. Nakhla!