June 20, 2023
June 2023

Council welcomes new president and members

At Council, June marks a season of change, when veteran members depart and new members assume their roles.

 

It also bids a fond farewell to outgoing members

At Council, June marks a season of change, when veteran members depart and new members assume their roles.

This year, outgoing members include President Naomi Thick, Clinical Manager in the Hematology & Oncology, MDU & Dialysis program at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, who has been a member of Council since 2017.

Patricia Sullivan, RN, succeeded Thick in the role.

"It’s a privilege to be elected as Council President,” said Sullivan upon her election at the March Council meeting. “I am committed to advancing the Council’s role in protecting the public by promoting safe nursing practice. It is an honour to use my voice to serve patients and their families in this way."

Sullivan’s first day as Council President was June 7.

Sullivan leads a health care consulting company focused on improving quality and patient and workforce safety. She has 30 years of executive nursing experience in regulatory policy, performance measurement and quality improvement.  

Outgoing members and the role of Council

In addition to Thick, outgoing members of Council include RPNs Kerry Gartshore and Neil Hillier, who each served for three years, public members Judy Petersen, who served for six years, and Stephen Eaton, who served for three years.

We thank them all for their time and commitment to protecting the public.

Council serves the public interest and establishes the goals, objectives and policies of CNO according to the governing legislation. It's composed of 14 to 18 public members, 14 RNs and seven RPNs. Nurses from across the province are elected to Council by their fellow CNO members, while public members are appointed by the Ministry of Health. Council meets quarterly and each member sits on at least one statutory committee.

Meet the new members of Council

We welcome incoming Council members who have made this commitment:

  • Helen Anyia, RPN, Eastern District, works in long-term care and teaches at Algonquin College

  • Joe Farag, public member, is a semi-retired finance professional, who previously served as executive director of corporate finance and interim chief financial officer for the City of Toronto

  • Grace Fox, NP, Northwestern District, is employed at a small community hospital caring for alternative-level-of-care patients and working in the urgent care clinic

  • Jane Hess, RN, Central Eastern District, former director and chief nursing officer for the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit, also brings experience in nursing education. She’s currently the Community Impact Officer for United Way Leeds and Grenville

  • Grace Oltmann, RN, Eastern District, is the Clinical Services Coordinator at Carlington Community Health Centre in Ottawa

  • Diane Scott, public member, is co-founder and partner of SX2 Ventures and Chairman and CEO of the JMCC Group Worldwide. Her specific investment focus is life sciences and health care

  • Kimberly Wagg, RPN, Northeastern District, has a background in human resources management and education. She currently practices in public, private and long-term care settings

Visit the Council Members page

About CNO

The College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) is the regulator of the nursing profession in Ontario. It is not a school or a nursing association. CNO acts in the public interest by:

  • assessing qualifications and registering individuals who want to practice nursing in Ontario.
  • setting the practice standards of the profession that nurses in Ontario are expected to meet.
  • promoting nurses' continuing competence through a quality assurance program.
  • holding nurses accountable to those standards by addressing complaints or reports about nursing care.

The College was founded in 1963. By establishing the College, the Ontario government was acknowledging that the nursing profession had the ability to govern itself and put the public's well-being ahead of professional interests.

For the latest information, please see our Nursing Statistics page.

Anyone who wants to use a nursing-related title — Registered Nurse (RN), Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) or Nurse Practitioner (NP) must become a member of CNO.

Frequently Asked Questions

Go to the public Register, Find a Nurse, to conduct a search for the nurse. Contact us if you can't find the person you are looking for.

All public information available about nurses is posted in the public Register, Find a Nurse, which contains profiles of every nurse in Ontario. Publicly available information about nurses include their registration history, business address, and information related to pending disciplinary hearings or past findings.

Unregistered practitioners are people who are seeking employment in nursing or holding themselves out as being able to practice nursing in Ontario, but who are not qualified to do so. They are not registered members of CNO. Only people registered with CNO can use nursing-related titles or perform certain procedures that could cause harm if carried out by a non-registered health professional. CNO takes the issue of unregistered practitioners seriously. See Unregistered Practitioners for more information.

To ensure procedural fairness for both the patient (or client) and the nurse, the Regulated Health Professions Act requires that information gathered during an investigation remain confidential until the matter is referred to the Discipline Committee or Fitness to Practise Committee. CNO will not disclose any information that could identify patients (or clients) or compromise an investigation. See Investigations: A Process Guide for more information.

Information obtained during an investigation will become public if the matter is referred to a disciplinary hearing. If a complaint is not referred to a hearing, no information will be available publicly.

See CNO's hearings schedule, which is updated as hearing dates are confirmed. Hearings at CNO are open to the public and the media. For details on how to attend a hearing, contact the Hearings Administration Team.

A summary of allegations and the disciplinary panel outcomes can be found on the public Register, Find a Nurse. Full decisions and reasons are also available.

Where a disciplinary panel makes a finding of professional misconduct, they have the authority to reprimand a nurse, and suspend or revoke a nurse's registration. Terms, conditions and limitations can also be imposed on a nurse's registration, which restricts their practice for a set period. Nurses can also be required to complete remedial activities, such as reviewing CNO documents and meeting with an expert, before returning to practice.

For detailed information see the Sexual Abuse Prevention section.

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