Diane Smylie

Diane Smylie has held leadership roles in initiatives to support quality improvement and organizational development in the areas of harm reduction, opioid agonist therapy programming, women’s and children’s substance use/mental health services, trauma informed practice and Indigenous cultural safety in Ontario and British Columbia. In 2016-2020, Diane led a provincial initiative in Ontario focused on reducing stereotyping and discrimination experienced by Indigenous people in health care. She worked with partners and colleagues to implement foundational Indigenous cultural safety education to more than 25,000 people across the health system. Prior to this, Diane worked in substance use and mental health services as a clinician, manager and leader for more than twenty years where she has been in roles to support program development, program evaluation, system planning, community engagement and knowledge exchange.

Diane is Red River Metis-Cree with roots in Treaty Six territory, including Smoky Lake, the Battlefords and Saskatoon. She has lived and worked in Tkaronto and surrounding Dish with One Spoon territories for most of her life and is a Citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario. She is currently the Ontario Lead, Projects and Partnerships for San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Learning Programs.