Northern Health (NH) strives to make our values – empathy, respect, collaboration, and innovation – the core of what we do every day.
The Dr. Charles Jago Awards, named after our former board chair, acknowledge and celebrate the NH staff, medical staff, and teams who have made outstanding contributions to the organization’s goals, reflecting our values in the process.
The Jago Award for Respect is presented to an individual or team who exemplifies outstanding behaviours and actions that demonstrate NH’s value of respect, by treating people with courtesy, politeness, and kindness; meeting people where they are; demonstrating curiousity about differences; encouraging others to express opinions and ideas; and fostering respect and understanding amongst team members.
Our recipient for the respect category is Vanessa Kinch. Vanessa was born in Prince George, but raised in the Lower Mainland, and returned to her hometown to pursue a nursing degree. She began her journey as a frontline nurse in acute and ambulatory care.
With the attainment of her master’s degrees in nursing and health informatics, her professional journey took a transformative turn, leading her to the dynamic domain of digital health and health informatics. She started in NH’s Information Management and Information Technology department as a graduate student, and now leads a team of health informatics professionals as the Director of Clinical Informatics. Vanessa’s career has allowed her the unique opportunity to travel the North, gaining insights into the distinctive needs of our Northern rural and remote communities and how technology needs to be tailored to those needs.
Outside of work, Vanessa channels her creativity into crafting furniture art and finds joy in outdoor activities, cake-decorating, and weightlifting. Her active family life includes her amazing husband, three children, and their English shepherd.
Below is an excerpt from the testimonial provided by Vanessa’s nominator, Regional Director of Data Analytics and Information Governance Andrea Lorette:
“Vanessa consistently makes space for partners and participants, engaging others collaboratively, guided by an improvement and learning approach and using respectful intention and communication methods. As we come from different domains of practice, we often have different points of view and I have always felt Vanessa’s openness, curiosity, and authenticity in regard to the perspective and contribution of others. I am always impressed with Vanessa’s ability to engage and lead other with kindness and integrity. She demonstrates respect to her direct staff, those she is deeply involved on with on projects and acquaintances over brief interactions, not changing based upon audience. Her reputation at Northern Health and beyond is a testament to her ability to live her values at work.”
Please join me in congratulating Vanessa Kinch, our 2024 award recipient for respect!
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