Lisa Buchanan (She, Her)

Manager, Mobility & Global Experience / Director of Clinics and Placement Office

Georgian College

Roles/Involvement with EWO: In addition to EWO, I’m also active with CEWIL, CONAHEC, CBIE, and CAIE

Well, ever since I’ve been at Georgian, which is about 10 years now. I started as a part-time nursing faculty, teaching in clinical with students in long term care and from there I worked my way up to Clinical Placement Manager, then Manager of Student Led Clinics, then Director of Clinics & Placement Office and now Manager, Mobility and Global Experience with International Education & Development. 

2. Tell us a little bit about your career and why you do what you do?

My career has not been a straight path. When I first got started, I was working in the food industry as a scientist. As I started my family, I was in and out of various clinics with my small kids, and this is where I saw the potential to work with people and make a difference, which meant I went back to school for nursing. At first, I was a nurse in urgent care. In that role I had students that I mentored. I LOVED the teaching and learning aspect of nursing. This is when I discovered that nursing education was where I fit and clinical and experiential learning is where I found myself. There is an emotional piece attached to the role of nursing.  When I first got started, people would ask, “how will you handle graphic or upsetting situations?” When I faced those smells, sights, sounds and discovered “I’m ok” in semester one, it surprised me, but not everyone is that fortunate.For a lot of people, it’s not that simple. When it comes to health care, a successful career can be so dependent on the practical and logistics of the type of work required and the uniqueness of the student. For example, I was in school with a peer who had transferred in from the paramedic program. During his first ambulance ride, he got car sick and then not long after, he switched to nursing. I also mentored a student in the urgent care setting whose real skill was in taking her time with clients and wanting to hear their stories. While urgent care wasn’t an ideal place for this due to the pace, she later thrived in long term care where her approach was truly an asset. Mentoring and helping students find where they fit is when I feel like I have had an impact on their careers.

I’m a visual learner. A Doer. I’m really great at building and creating while doing, which is Experiential Learning in a nutshell. I’m the person that references the manual while I build. I might need to tweak things, but that’s how things make sense to me.

The pandemic was overwhelming and taught me so much about my leadership style. The nature of the work we were doing in Clinical and Placements, meant that we had foresight and could see the pandemic approaching before it was declared. It felt like we had students on the frontlines of a war. It was an eye-opening experience in the beginning, as we worked through the risks and priorities for our students, staff and faculty, the partners we work with, and the impact of the pandemic on each and everyone at the personal level. It was a lot to work through. I am also proud to say that we were one of the first schools to get nursing students back to placement.  Nothing mimics real life experience outside of the real world. Like many others, I felt burnt out working in health sciences as the pandemic continued. Full of worry, stress and feeling responsible for students, it was a rough ride.

As life started to return to something a bit more predictable over the past year  I was fortunate to have been able to attend the WACE conference and was inspired by global knowledge and different ways of thinking and doing. This is when I decided I wanted to be part of the global experience and global EL. When my current role was posted, I wasn’t even looking, but had my eyes on postings to support a team member that I was coaching in their career. It was a new position and I had this idea that it would be an opportunity to play a role in how we approach mobility at Georgian. I was interested in seeing how other areas of the college collaborate, lead and also work with remote teams. I had worked with folks from the Segal International Centre at Georgian, so I knew they were a group of people with incredible values that aligned with mine and I had such high regard for those people that I really wanted to contribute to that. 

3. Who are you outside of work? Where would we find you on a weekend or holiday? 

So since the pandemic, I have worked hard to find better work/life balance and so I dropped all work-related committees or things that were outside of my role including things related to my kids’ activities. Now I volunteer at OSPCA as a dog walker and enrichment volunteer - playing with dogs and I’m absolutely loving it. There was a deaf dog that I learned a lot from. I learned how to communicate with him and this really sparked an interest for me in dog behaviour. Now, I’m taking a course through Canine Foundations to be a dog behaviourist - the dogs at the Midland OSPCA shelter are my projects. The dogs that are high energy, bouncing off the walls - those are the dogs that have a mind and want to use it.  Those are the dogs that need me and I need them. They let me feel like the best trainer. I fostered to adopt one dog, and now I have three. I’ve also fostered two litters of kittens this year and I’m hoping to take on more weekend dog fosters to give them a break from the shelter. After my shift, they thank me and I’m like, “No, no - thank you! This feeds my soul.” I’ve been doing this for about 1.5 years. 

I have two boys, 18 and 20 and am married. I would have been a better parent if I had learned dog behaviour earlier. 

4. Tell us about what themes or topics in Co-op/WIL/EL that you are passionate about. (ex. EDI, career exploration, international students, mental health, employer networking events, strategic planning, research and data, etc.)

As I was leaving the clinical placement team this year, I had begun to implement some programs and practices  to put EDI in the forefront, which is important. I was inspired by the individuals in our EDIB portfolio through some of their presentations and I wanted to ensure that all students would be able to access  whatever is needed for their success.  Myself and my team worked collaboratively with our Accessibility Services to outline  clear paths for faculty to work with Accessibility Services to support the students and set them up for success. More streamlined services to help students much earlier.  It can be difficult to learn to recognize when a student may need support and I wanted to empower employees working with students to not feel they needed to make those kinds of decisions and to avoid a situation where students experiencing mental health concerns are not  referred to the appropriate supports early on. Some careers simply include trauma and chaos and people need to be supported, no matter what they are facing or what they signed up for. The world has changed so much and the barriers to access that existed not long ago are gone and organizations are very willing to collaborate and support students to overcome those that are still an issue. The most challenging issue I still see is recognizing that when a student says “I have anxiety”, ensuring that student is referred to accessibility for support. 

5. What advice would you give to your younger professional self?

I would say, “Don’t worry about the fact that you’re 30 and returning to school. You’re not starting all the way back at the beginning. You have something to give.” Actually, I tell myself that every 5 years. I didn’t learn that until I got my masters. I almost didn’t go back to school for Practical Nursing and here I am almost 20 years later - I fretted about a 2 year program when I was 30. Look at me now!

She is retired now, but for many years, Maryann Fifield who has been one of my long-time mentors, would say that the lateral moves she had made in her career had been really rewarding. The best decision I made was to make a lateral move for my own development and here I am, building a framework for international mobility at Georgian.