Asmita Gillani, Executive Director, Canadian Accreditation

Asmita leads the Canadian Accreditation services of Accreditation Canada (AC) as its Executive Director.

She has several years of senior executive experience, including leadership in Canadian hospitals and internationally in the UK, the Middle East and Africa. Her most recent experience was in Kenya as the CEO of Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi and Regional Director for Health Services, Africa Region.

As CEO of the largest private teaching hospital in sub-Sahara Africa, Asmita led several international accreditation processes such as JCI (Joint Commission International), SANAS (South African National Accreditation System), CAP (College of American Pathologist) and ISO (International Standards Organization), among others.

Asmita has in-depth knowledge of accreditation programs offered nationally and internationally. She has garnered key insights through the lens of a provider and is able to contribute significantly to making AC become the Number 1 Assessment Body by 2030.

Before her time in Africa, Asmita was the Chief Operating Officer/CEO of Mackenzie Health Centre in the Greater Toronto Area in Ontario, Canada. She was at the helm during Canada’s worst public health crisis with the SARS outbreak at the hospital, where several staff acquired the illness and the hospital was quarantined. Since then, Asmita has made patient and staff safety and high-quality care, foremost in all her leadership roles.

Some of Asmita’s recent accomplishments include: Leading the design of an Integrated Health System consisting of hospitals, an academic medical centre, satellite medical centres and primary care centres in four countries; Establishing the first comprehensive Heart and Cancer Centre in sub-Sahara Africa; Transforming a community hospital into a major academic medical centre and establishing post graduate residency programs in nine medical disciplines and two clinical fellowships.

Through her extensive travels to some of the most diverse health care settings, Asmita has developed a deep understanding of how accreditation provides key building blocks for improving quality and patient safety, and delivering patient centric care.

Janice Nolan, Managing Director, Diagnostic Accreditation
Janice brings many years of laboratory and healthcare quality management experience including hospital laboratory, pharmaceutical manufacturing, Canadian Blood Services and most recently Director, Quality & Regulatory Affairs at LifeLabs Medical Laboratory Services. With a proven record of laboratory leadership, process improvement and patient safety advocacy, Janice will continue the growth of AC Diagnostics.

Julie Coffey, Director, Diagnostic Accreditation and Education
Julie Coffey is a Medical Laboratory Technologist, certified Quality Auditor, and a certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence. She has played a key role in the development of the accreditation program and its requirements since its inception in 2000, and to date has coordinated and conducted over 150 assessments of medical laboratories using the ISO 15189 standard in four Canadian provinces. She participates in international meetings and sits on committees associated with the Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation and with ISO. Julie is on a mission to help laboratory and diagnostic imaging professionals create processes that are purposeful, inclusive and that infuse a new outlook on quality.