Departmental Town Hall Meeting

We invite you to a town hall meeting on October 28th from noon to 1 pm via Zoom Join Zoom Meeting .
Meeting ID: 614 9139 2803 | Passcode: 990620.

• to discuss our department’s emerging strategic direction. Developing a five-year strategic plan is one of my initial priorities and I am delighted to see the progress that has been made over the past few months. My conversations with faculty, students and staff earlier in the year have helped to clarify the opportunities and issues, as have discussions during our regular rounds such as those led by Dr Cheryl Wellington on Research Priorities and Dr Mike Nimmo on Education Priorities. To help me think through and document our strategy, a broadly representative Strategic Planning Steering Committee has been formed and has already been hard at work!
• Together, we have created a planning process that allows us to seek guidance, discussion and feedback from department members over the next six-eight months. The intention during the October 28 townhall is to share some early ideas with respect to the future direction of the Department. Your comments both during the session as well as through a questionnaire distributed following the session, will help sharpen the development of the draft strategy and Department priorities by the Steering Committee.
• The more detailed action steps will be identified over the winter under the leadership of five sub-committees: Research, Education, External Collaboration/Partnerships, Department Engagement and Equity, and Organizational Effectiveness. Our goal is to have a draft strategic plan for your review by April 2023.
• We will continue to keep you informed of our progress through the department meetings (held on the 4th Friday of the month in our weekly rounds timeslot from noon to 1 pm), our biweekly bulletins and our winter newsletter. There will also be opportunities during the winter to provide more specific input, working with these five sub-committees.
• Schedules are busy and hectic and we thank you, members of our Strategic Planning Steering Committee, as well as Heleena Mistry who coordinates all of the activities needed to bring people together – in advance for your time, ideas and suggestions. We look forward to connecting over the next several months as we co-create the Department’s future.