Nancy Waite named director of Academic Leadership Program

This article originally appeared in the Daily Bulletin.

"I am very pleased to announce that Nancy Waite, Associate Director in the School of Pharmacy, will become the Director of the Academic Leadership Program as of July 1, 2019," wrote Associate Vice-President, Academic Mario Coniglio in a memo circulated to Executive Council on Monday. "The Academic Leadership Program has provided leadership development and support for chairs and directors since 2002 and was expanded to associate chairs and associate directors, and associate deans in 2015."

Professor Waite (right) joined the School of Pharmacy in 2012 and led the development of the wholly new BScPhm (co-op) program, and subsequently the PharmD and Bridging PharmD programs that are recognized nationally and internationally for their innovation and quality. She has over 25 years of Canadian and US experience providing academic leadership in a number of institutions besides Waterloo, including the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at University of Toronto, the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Albany, New York, and the Pharmacy Department at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. Her research interests are varied, with a strong focus on medication management and education, as well as pharmacy curriculum development, including mixed method experiential education (co-op, rotations, community service learning). As a successful researcher, Professor Waite has won over $10M in competitive grants, and is currently the co-lead of the Ontario Pharmacy Evidence Network (OPEN), which is a platform for medication management and health system research across five institutions, with over 50 researchers and strong collaborations with government, payer, and healthcare professional organization knowledge users.

"Under Professor Waite’s direction, the Academic Leadership Program will continue to offer quality training and mentoring programs that fit the UWaterloo environment, creating internal succession plan options, and expanding diversity in our leadership," Coniglio writes. "Professor Waite’s vision is to further evolve the program to take a career life-course approach to leadership development - providing leadership training to anyone interested at any stage of their career."

Professor Waite is succeeding the outgoing ALP director, Professor Sheila Ager, who has served in this role since May 2016. During the past three years, Professor Ager ably stewarded the program, making numerous improvements to ensure the program was valuable and relevant to the diversity of academic leaders it was designed for. Workshops and forum lunches spanned topics ranging from policy issues to tenure and promotion to personal survival. During that same time also emerged the first of the program’s triannual newsletters.

"Please join me in welcoming Nancy Waite into her new role, and in thanking Sheila Ager for her three years of leadership of this important program," Coniglio's memo concludes.

For more information about the Academic Leadership Program, please visit https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-leadership-program/.