“In Conversation” is a series of interviews with key opinion leaders across the world of medicine in collaboration with BMJLeader.
Ming-Ka Chan 陳明嘉 (she/her) is a Chinese settler who immigrated to Turtle Island (known as Canada) at the age of six and is grateful to be on Treaty 1 Territory/homeland of the Métis Nation (known as Winnipeg). She has been a Pediatrics Clinician Educator at the University of Manitoba since 1999. Her focus is within the intersection of healthcare leadership education and social justice; she believes that work in these areas will help all to thrive.
Current roles include Co-Director, Office of Leadership Education, at Rady Faculty Health Sciences, University of Manitoba and Pediatrics Lead, Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity and Social Justice. She is also the current Chair of Doctors Manitoba’s Physician Health & Wellness Committee. She is a founding member and current Chair, Sanokondu Executive (a multinational learning community dedicated to fostering health leadership education worldwide: see) and a member of the Equity in Health Systems Lab. She is also the Planning Committee Chair for CLIME 2.0 – the Canadian Leadership Institute for Medical Education (a 3-day leadership intensive with a central theme on social justice). Clinically, she works as a hospitalist and as a consultant in clinics organized through Jordan’s Principle.
She is married to a gastroenterologist/hepatologist with two children and thrives on the outdoors, Pilates, and mystery novels.
“…my goal has always been to help and support others to thrive and I realized that thriving needs to start with belonging. It needs to start with ensuring that there are safe learning and work environments and, in order to have well-being, we need to have those as a precursor – the sense of belonging, feeling welcomed- in order to thrive.”
Enjoy the conversation: You can listen to the podcast, watch the video or read the transcript by linking to BMJLeader
Some key quotations from “In Conversation” with Ming-Ka
“I think of it in two ways…so much of health and health care involves change, so leadership is about supporting and facilitating change, whether that be for patients, families, or communities. The other is in the area of advocacy and I do think that we advocate for our patients and families on the day-to-day basis with the patients who present in our offices, emergencies, etc. And then, I think we need to think about the bigger picture, the system issues, thinking about it from a lens of prevention, and thinking about it on a more global scale.”
“The beauty is being able to have national collaborations and partnerships as well as global and, in this day and age, with connectivity and so many different modalities, I think there’s a huge potential, regardless of where you are located. I think the important thing is to have a peer support system, mentorship, sponsorship, and that can take shape no matter where you are.”
“I also believe that it’s really important to prioritize family. They are very much the heart and, I often say they’re the best of who I am, and much of what I do is on behalf of them in many ways. So that keeps me on that path. But I do make sure that I nurture my relationships at home, and friendships, to maintain that body-mind-spirit and that work-home integration. But it’s definitely, I think, always a work in progress.”
