Future leader

U of A student Dillon Lee earns ACP’s Leadership Development Award.

When you first meet Dillon Lee, it’s hard not to come away impressed. She’s confident, professional, and, most of all, passionate about advancing pharmacy practice. And she’s a former winner of ACP’s Leadership Development Award, which is awarded to a third- or fourth-year University of Alberta pharmacy student who has demonstrated exemplary professionalism, leadership, and citizenship.

Helping earn Dillon the award was her development of a healthcare guide for new Canadians and international university students who were finding it difficult to navigate the healthcare system.

Dillon interviewed international students, on-campus healthcare providers, pharmacists, and other relevant stakeholders. She found that while a language barrier existed, the bigger issue was that many immigrants don’t understand how healthcare is delivered in Canada. She determined one way to eliminate this gap would be to provide a comprehensive healthcare guide for international students and new Canadians.

“Luckily, I had over 50 volunteers who collectively translated the guide for me into 12 different languages,” said Dillon. “I collaborated with the University Health Centre, the Faculty of Pharmacy, the International Student Centre, and a whole collective group of people who decided to help out. It’s an initiative that helped me develop my leadership skills but also find ways to address health care gaps as a leader.”

Dillon is also passionate about quality improvement to help meet the growing needs of communities. Her first foray into quality improvement came while volunteering at the University of Alberta Hospital.

“As a volunteer, I saw older patients and their experiences of social isolation during mealtimes, which was stopping them from enjoying the meal,” she said. “I thought if there was a way I could make this environment a bit better for them, I will do it. As a volunteer, I asked the resource centre if there was a project I could initiate to find out what I could do to improve these mealtime experiences for older adults.”

The result of her work was to call for an expanded role for mealtime volunteers, and the findings were published in the Alberta Strategic Clinical Improvement Committee QI conference.