Directors

Candy Garossino

Director, Professional Practice and Nursing

“It is a privilege and honour to work with an incredible group of care providers and patients/residents/families as we shape the future of health care, together, fueled by evidence, best practice and relationship.”

Candy joined Providence Health Care in 1991. As the Director of Professional Practice, Candy is responsible for the provision of leadership, strategic direction and mentoring in the planning, development, implementation and evaluation of orientation, education training and ongoing professional growth programming. She develops working partnerships with other health authorities, the Ministry of Advanced Education, the Ministry of Health, community, colleges, universities, professional associations and regulatory bodies. Candy represents PHC Nursing at various forums, meetings and conferences at the regional, provincial and national levels.

As Director of Professional Practice and Nursing, Candy leads and participates in the overall development, implementation, administration and evaluation of effective allied health and nursing practice operational strategies and education throughout PHC.

Email: cgarossino@providencehealth.bc.ca
Assistant - Emma Davidson: emdavidson@providencehealth.bc.ca

Agnes (Aggie) Black

Director, Health Services & Clinical Research and Knowledge Translation  

“I am passionate about working alongside point-of-care clinicians and supporting them in their efforts to improve patient care through research, evaluation and evidence-informed practice.”

Aggie has a background in nursing, with keen interests in public health, women’s health and research. She has a BSN from the University of Washington and a Masters of Public Health from Simon Fraser University.

Reporting to the Chief Nursing Office/VP for Acute Care, the Director, Health Services & Clinical Research and Knowledge Translation  creates awareness and support for research led by nurses and allied health staff, assists clinicians with various stages of research involvement, creates an inventory of current research projects, and promotes collaborative partnerships between clinicians at the point of care and researchers in academic settings. Another important facet of her role is to coordinate the Healthcare Education and Research Rounds, a monthly webinar series highlighting research and encouraging clinicians’ discussion around evidence-informed practice, which has a providence-wide audience. She leads and evaluates the PHC Practice-based Research Challenge, a research training program to facilitate new researchers to work with mentors and conduct small-scale practice-relevant research projects; and the Knowledge Translation Challenge, a program designed to support clinicians with moving research evidence into practice. She also provides support for evaluation of healthcare programs and initiatives.

Email: ablack@providencehealth.bc.ca
Assistant - Wilma Chang: wchang@providencehealth.bc.ca

Indershini (Desh) Pillay

Director, Clinical Workforce Optimization and Design

Indershini completed a BA in Sociology/Psychology in Alberta followed by a Master of Science, Communication Disorders and Sciences in Oregon. She jointed PHC in 1998 and became Professional Practice Leader for SLP in 2003, leading a team of very committed, flexible speech and language professionals. Indershini is a visionary, competent and person and family centred leader who loves data and uses it to meet and improve the care of the people she serves.

Email: ipillay@providencehealth.bc.ca  

Grant McCullough

Executive Director, Professional Practice, Nursing and Clinical Informatics

Grant  is a registered nurse with a Master’s in Business Administration who has been with Providence Health Care since 2001. Grant has held positions in Professional Practice and Operations. His most recent roles include the successful implementation of one of the largest Cerner projects in Canada and leading PHC’s COVID-19 Response and Preparedness in collaboration with the Senior Medical Director. Grant’s experience with standardization of best practice, managing organizational wide change and leading large clinical projects will serve us all well in his role as Executive Director of Professional Practice, Nursing and Clinical Informatics.

Email: gmccullough@providencehealth.bc.ca
Assistant - Elizabeth Singh: esingh@providencehealth.bc.ca