New leadership position at UHN’s Michener Institute

TORONTO – Beginning September 1, 2020, Dr. Harvey Weingarten (pictured) will play a formal role in the growth of The Michener Institute of Education at UHN as the first principal of the School of Applied Health Sciences.

This position will provide leadership, strategic advice and guidance to the school and Michener overall as it expands to provide greater applied health sciences programming to Ontario and the rest of Canada. Dr. Weingarten has been supporting this growth strategy as a temporary Executive-in-Residence at Michener since November 2019.

Dr. Weingarten brings a varied and rich background in post-secondary education leadership to Michener and UHN. He was formerly vice-president (Academic) and provost at McMaster University, president of University of Calgary and most recently, president and CEO of the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario. He is also a senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute.

“Michener has informally been a national treasure for some time, but with Harvey’s depth of experience and acumen in the post-secondary education sector, we look forward to a more formal acknowledgment of our value to the Canadian healthcare system,” said Dr. Brian Hodges, executive vice-president of Education and chief medical officer at UHN.

This new role was appointed jointly by UHN president and CEO Dr. Kevin Smith and Dr. Hodges, in consultation with the Michener Board of Governors chair Cornell Wright. The principal position will work closely with the head of Academic Affairs and Operations in the School of Applied Health Sciences at Michener to realize an ambitious growth strategy for the School.

“We look forward to benefitting from Harvey’s commitment to advancing applied health sciences education through his expertise, leadership and advocacy. Our patients are the ultimate beneficiaries of this important work,” said Dr. Smith.

Established in 1958, The Michener Institute of Education at UHN is Canada’s only post-secondary institution devoted exclusively to health sciences education and the only health sciences school within a hospital network in Canada. Michener is publicly funded by the Ministry of Health and further enriched through partnerships with universities, private sector companies and leading healthcare organizations.