Event Date: November 4, 2026
Join us on November 4, 2026 from 1:00 to 2:00 for PGLO’s second session in a five-part leadership development series designed for geriatric and seniors’ care leaders navigating system transformation, innovation, and implementation within Ontario’s evolving health system.
Through this series, participants will learn approaches that support innovation, implementation and system transformation in seniors’ care while exploring opportunities to demonstrate value, influence policy and advance strategic priorities that matter to older adults.
In this month’s interactive session, we will learn about turning evidence into sustainable practice.
Session Description
Evidence is not enough. Leaders are often responsible for translating evidence into sustainable practice change. This session explores the leadership behaviours, structures, and supports required to implement new models of care, standards, pathways, and innovations. Our speakers will provide key implementation advice rooted in practical examples.
Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to:
- Explain the leadership role in successful implementation and change management.
- Identify organizational conditions that enable implementation success.
- Apply implementation lessons from seniors’ care initiatives to their own settings.
Our Speakers
Emily Lambe is a Project Manager with the Ontario Centres for Learning, Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care at the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging, where she co-leads the Person-Centred Language (PCL) Initiative in collaboration with Behavioural Supports Ontario. Drawing on her experience in dementia care, knowledge mobilization, and co-design, Emily works with people with lived experience, care partners, and long-term care teams to translate evidence and lived experience into practical, person-centred resources. She is passionate about advancing respectful and inclusive communication and supporting the implementation of person-centred language through collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Jillian McConnell is a Knowledge Translation Specialist at brainXchange, a knowledge exchange network hosted by the Provincial Coordinating Office of Behavioural Supports Ontario at the North Bay Regional Health Centre. With a background in psychology and over a decade of experience in dementia care and knowledge mobilization, Jillian facilitates Communities of Practice, leads provincial and national person-centred education and engagement initiatives, and develops knowledge products that support innovation in aging and dementia care. Her work connects leadership, educators, clinicians, allied health professionals, researchers, care providers, and partners with lived experience to advance practical, evidence-informed solutions across health and social care sectors. Jillian co-leads the Person-Centred Language (PCL) Initiative in collaboration with the Ontario Centres for Learning, Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care.
Shusmita Rashid, MPH is a healthcare executive, change strategist and implementation science practitioner with 15+ years of experience helping leaders translate evidence and innovation into practice across complex health and social care systems. She is Executive Director of Change the Conversation at Diabetes Canada, where she leads a national initiative focused on changing the values, beliefs and language that shape how diabetes is understood and experienced.
Shusmita brings a practical, systems-oriented perspective to leading implementation. She focuses on the gap between knowing what needs to change and making change happen, with particular attention to how leaders build readiness, create shared meaning, engage interest holders, navigate competing priorities and create the conditions for sustained adoption. Previously, she led Knowledge Mobilization at the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation and knowledge translation at Unity Health Toronto, working with researchers, clinicians, and innovators to move research into practice. She also provides implementation science expertise to global health research and innovation initiatives.