It’s not common to have a woman-led hospital working in collaboration with a woman-led hospital foundation. Even less common is a partnership that is so perfectly aligned in vision and motivation to serve the community.
That’s what makes the one between the Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) and the PRHC Foundation so exceptional, and gives patients and donors the confidence to put trust in their guidance.
This International Women’s Day, PRHC and the PRHC Foundation are celebrating their female leadership and the successful partnership between them.
“From the Foundation’s perspective, as much as donors are generously donating financial support, in a sense it’s not only about the money — it’s also about the mission,” says PRHC Foundation President and CEO Lesley Heighway.
“When a donor makes a financial contribution to the PRHC Foundation, at the core of their philanthropy they’re giving to make things better. From that perspective, it is important that the community sees this great partnership that we have with the hospital, knows there’s that strong level of alignment, and knows that we’re doing the planning together in terms of our work and how it supports the work of the hospital.”
Prior to joining PRHC Foundation in 2008 and leading the organization since 2011, Heighway spent much of her career working in healthcare and wellness, including in the pharmaceutical side of the dental industry and at a resort for wellness. It was while raising funds for an initiative that supports dental clinics in Cambodia that Heighway fully realized where she belonged.
“It was at that point that I purposefully sought out something in the not-for-profit sector where I could see the impact of my work and of the organization’s work touching a very broad base of the community,” she says.
For PRHC President and CEO Dr. Lynn Mikula, who has been in her role since 2023, it was not always her intention to lead a hospital. Instead, she trained and worked hard to become a surgeon with a thriving practice but, as she began to do more administrative work, she saw an opportunity to use her leadership skills in a different way.
“There was a moment when I realized that I could actually do a lot of good by making sure that the hospital, the organization, and the system are supporting the people who actually deliver the care in the best way possible,” Dr. Mikula says. “I’ve found great reward by focusing on how to best support the people who are delivering the care and making sure that the hospital is there for patients when they need us.”
Their roles as leaders extend outside the hospital, as Dr. Mikula and Heighway are both mothers. They agree this experience has also taught them much about how to lead, in particular with humility, compassion, empathy, and patience.
“While in your professional work, if you’re the CEO, people are looking to you as the leader to show the way,” Heighway says. “Certainly at home, you’re modelling all of the right behaviours. You’re trying to support your children as best you can, but ultimately, they’re going to chart their own path. Sometimes, that might not be the path that you foresaw. It might be in a completely different direction, but you step behind them and you’re supportive.”
Since the PRHC Foundation launched the $70 million Campaign for PRHC, the largest fundraising campaign in the hospital’s history, more than 86 per cent of the goal has been raised to date.
These funds have already supported life-changing initiatives including, among others, upgrading the cardiac cath lab, opening a new inpatient care space designed to prepare patients for their return home, developing an outdoor healing space for patients in the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), and upgrading and expanding the interventional radiology suites.
According to Heighway, the key to the successful partnership between the hospital and its foundation is the “shared ambition” for the vision of the regional hospital.
“It’s very bold,” says Heighway. “Our role is to step alongside the hospital as a Foundation with our donors to support that vision as best as possible and to be aligned. We’re always speaking from the same playbook and understanding each other’s efforts. That benefits our donors because, whether it’s me or our team out in the community, they know that we are representing the vision and the work of the hospital.”
“When our two organizations align around a shared priority, then we do incredible things for patient care,” adds Dr. Mikula, who explains that the PRHC Foundation is an essential part of the relationship the hospital has with each and every patient, loved one, and caregiver who steps through its doors.
“If that relationship was productive and healthy and served the patient in the way that they were hoping, they want to give back to the hospital and that happens through the Foundation,” she says. “To me, I view this as an extension of the caregiver-patient relationship. Healthcare does not just happen in that one moment. It goes much, much further. And that’s why this — the hospital and Foundation — is the most important partnership to me.”
This year the theme of International Women’s Day is “Give to Gain,” which encourages a mindset of generosity and collaboration as a way to forge gender equality. This is why support for mentorship and professional development are important to both Dr. Mikula and Heighway.
Though surgery is not traditionally a female-dominated industry, Dr. Mikula says she felt “fortunate” to have been supported during her training. Only as she became a more senior leader did she learn the extent of barriers that exist for women in the healthcare sector and realize she needed to give back.
“I needed to do what was done for me, which is to make those barriers go away so that other women could thrive and reach their full potential, because then we all do better,” Dr. Mikula says. “It’s better for everyone.”
While the healthcare workforce is largely female across all job roles, leadership positions only make up a small portion of those roles. Dr. Mikula suggests that female professionals in healthcare leadership do not receive pay equivalent to commensurate roles in male-dominated professions.
“We need to keep working for every single role in healthcare,” she says. “How do we develop women to step into leadership roles? How do we make it an opportunity? How do we make it structurally easy? The fact that they may want to have a family should not be a barrier. And then, how do we make sure that we are rewarding the kind of leadership that women bring, which is often different? It’s all about how you recognize and elevate the value that women bring to this wonderful profession.”
Heighway suggests the same barriers exist on the Foundation’s side, given that 80 per cent of the workforce in the not-for-profit sector is female and yet, in leadership roles, they earn nearly 18 per cent less than their male counterparts.
Like Dr. Mikula, Heighway participates in mentee programs and is proud of the way the Foundation invests in professional development.
“As I look around Peterborough, there are so many wonderful people who’ve begun their careers at PRHC Foundation, grown, and maybe taken a step outward,” she says. “Investment and mentorship are so key. I believe we all do better when women can achieve their full potential.”
This International Women’s Day, the message from Dr. Mikula and Heighway for women in leadership positions is to be brave, try not to let feelings of imposter syndrome be an obstacle to taking the next step in your career journey, and continue to lead with confidence even when facing uncertainties.
“One of the things I value most about our partnership is the opportunity to talk through uncertainties, worries, and anxieties and then to support each other in going ahead and making the decision and figuring out how it’s going to work out,” says Dr. Mikula.
“There is still so much joy in leadership and so much that you gain from being a leader. It’s a wonderful job that I feel very privileged to have, but it does take just being a little bit brave and realizing ‘I might not always get it all right, but I’m going to do it anyway.'”
“I think women are maybe a little more predisposed to wanting to have every single ‘i’ dotted and ‘t’ crossed before taking that step,” Heighway adds. “But just take the step. Just have confidence. Don’t be afraid to chart a new path or new direction for yourself.”
This branded editorial was created in partnership with the PRHC Foundation. If your organization or business is interested in a branded editorial, contact us.
