The Canadian College of Health Leaders is proud to announce that Mary MacKillop, Senior Director of Patient Experience (retired) at the Provincial Health Services Authority, has been awarded the 2026 Celebrating the Human Spirit Award in recognition of her extraordinary contributions to patient- and family‑centred care over more than three decades.
For 17 years at BC Children’s and Women’s Hospitals, Mary transformed patient and family engagement into a deeply embedded culture of partnership, compassion, and co‑design. She created low‑barrier pathways for patients and families to meaningfully shape programs and services, enabling more than 25 advisory groups, trauma‑informed engagement practices, and feedback systems that now support over 200,000 patients annually. Her belief that “the answer is always in the room” guided the development of national‑leading initiatives, including the Sibling Support Centre, PHSA’s Patient Care Quality Office model, and the National Standards of Practice for Volunteer Engagement, each demonstrating her ability to turn empathy into scalable, system‑wide improvement.
Mary’s leadership has had a profound and lasting impact on patients, families, staff, volunteers, and communities across British Columbia and beyond. She cultivated a culture where dignity, kindness, and human connection are foundational to care, empowering her team of 35+ professionals and nearly 2,200 volunteers to support families with compassion and respect at every step of their health journey. Colleagues across both hospital campuses regard her as the embodiment of patient‑ and family‑centred care—an influential leader whose presence elevates the people and systems around her. Through her unwavering advocacy, mentorship, and visionary approach, Mary has inspired countless acts of compassion and created programs that continue to serve as models across Canada.
The Celebrating the Human Spirit Award recognizes and honours the meaningful contributions of individuals or teams, who provide health services, for acts of caring and compassion that go above and beyond the call of duty, which inspire others and have a profound and lasting impact. This can be interpreted broadly to include any act that improves an individual patient’s health and/or spirit, the lives of the patient’s family and/or the community. This award is a vehicle to share their stories with colleagues from across Canada and to help inspire others.
The Celebrating the Human Spirit Award is sponsored by HIROC. The Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC) is a member-owned expert provider of professional and general liability coverage and risk management support.
This award is part of our CCHL National Awards Program and will be presented at the Honouring Health Leadership event on June 14, 2026. For further information and/or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Christian Coulombe
Vice-President, Marketing & Membership
Canadian College of Health Leaders
613-235-7219, ext. 213
ccoulombe@cchl-ccls.ca
