Paola Ardiles BSc (Hons), MHSc, MBA has been recognized for her innovative, collaborative and inter-sectoral approaches in health promotion research, policy and practice and was recently honoured to receive the 2017 Surrey Board of Trade-Women in Business, Social Trailblazer award.
Paola has been involved with Public Health Association of BC (PHABC) in the planning of various capacity building and community-engagement initiatives over her 9-year membership with the organization and has been an active board member for the last 6 years. She co-founded PHABC’s public engagement committee, served for 2 terms as the Secretary of the Executive Board and was elected to be President of PHABC in November 2015. She now serves on the board as Past President.
Paola has published and contributed to numerous public health issues and is known to be a catalyst for change by supporting paradigm shifts in the way health is conceived. In 2012, Paola was awarded the CMHA-BC Dr. Nancy Hall Public Policy Leadership Award of Distinction for her local, provincial and national work to advance the mental health agenda. Paola is passionate about creating spaces that facilitate dialogue to foster the development of relevant and creative upstream solutions to tackle complex health issues.
In 2013, Paola founded Bridge for Health, a local and global self-organized network committed to applying social innovation principles towards inter-sectoral action to promote wellbeing and equity. Bridge for Health recently incorporated as a cooperative association to advance social sustainability corporate practices, working in partnership with local and international partners. Bridge for Health received SFU’s 2017 Coast Capital Savings Venture-Social Impact prize.
Currently, Paola is a Lecturer with the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, teaching Health Promotion in the Master of Public Health program and leading the development of a new interdisciplinary curriculum on social innovation and community health for undergraduate students.