Empowering Canada’s next health leaders: The McMaster and J&J Diverse Future Leaders Program

Since 2021, McMaster University and J&J Innovative Medicine (J&J IM) have worked together to deliver the Diverse Future Leaders Program (DFLP).

This unique leadership development opportunity is offered at no cost to participants and runs annually between January and August. This year it was opened to 40 graduate students (from all programs), medical students, and medical residents from any Canadian university or college. As a highly flexible online program from January through August, the program offers a range of learning opportunities including speakers from J&J IM and leaders from industry, research, healthcare, biotech, and the start-up community; leadership workshops; and coaching sessions. Program participants are eligible to apply for one of several three-month internship placements in the summer or complete an inclusive leadership project focused on initiatives related to equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Speaker sessions are a key component of the program. They are highly interactive, with participants asking speakers questions and speakers sharing insights on the industry, and the work they do, as well as incredible words of wisdom participants can carry with them during the next stage of their careers.

To showcase the diversity of speakers in January and February alone, the program featured:

• Ebele Ola, Vice-President of Medical Affairs, J&J IM
• Berkeley Vincent, President, J&J IM
• Abubaker Khalifa, Co-Founder and COO of Moonrise Medical, Critical Care Physician at Joseph Brant Hospital, and Adjunct Clinical Professor at McMaster University
• Kyle Jackson, Current PhD Student at McMaster University, Director of Ontario Investments at Front Row Ventures, and Analyst at Halo Health
• Catherine Nassralla, MPharm and Masters of eHealth Graduate from McMaster University

Based on these speakers alone, DFLP participants learned about how multidisciplinary teams work together to advance the future of healthcare at J&J IM, how to develop an innovative mindset and take your experiences in research or clinical practice and apply them to solve real-world problems through entrepreneurship, how investors think about biomedical innovations (and how to get involved to learn this mindset!), and the importance of being open to trying new things and establishing your set of professional values to understand what you want from your future career.

Workshops which occur monthly have focused on adapting leadership styles to various scenarios and addressing conflicts in teams.

Summer Chou, PhD Candidate in Biochemistry & Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University, has been particularly quick to note the program’s unique value proposition. “The program combines career seminars led by professionals in various fields with workshops that help you develop your skillset. I haven’t seen other programs with the same breadth and although we’re only a couple weeks in, I’m already learning a lot about the diversity of work in industry and personal areas for improvement to help me succeed as a better collaborator and leader.”

To learn more about this fantastic leadership development opportunity, contact the McMaster University program director Sarrah Lal (sarrah@mcmaster.ca).