meet Kath Stevenson

principal of the groundwork strategy.

"I am passionate about supporting individuals, teams, and organizations in developing their abilities to improve their work while they do their work. While my focus and experience has been in the health, social care, and higher education sectors, the science of improvement is transferable and requires that we work and learn in interdisciplinary and open ways."

"I can wield and teach the tools of improvement science, but I also love working through the messy challenge that is the relational side of improvement and organizational development."

I have worked in health system improvement since 2004, when I began working for Saskatchewan's Health Quality Council (HQC). In the 6 years I worked there, I held a variety of positions, including senior quality improvement consultant and program director. Until 2018, I was a member of the coaching and teaching team at The Microsystem Academy (The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice). Most recently, from 2018-2024, I was the Director of Learning and Program Development in Quality and Safety for the Saskatchewan Health Authority, where I led the development and deployment of the SHA Management System and a related blended-learning program for over 40,000 staff and physicians.

I am currently a Clinical Assistant Professor at the School of REHABILITATION SCIENCES (University of Saskatchewan). While my focus has been quite intently on quality improvement, since 2020, I have also worked in pandemic response, building my competency in safety and emergency management, and established a preschool for immunocompromised families.

I am a founding member of the Change Collective, where I get the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from other agents of change and will be defending my PhD in Quality Improvement and Leadership at the Jönköping Academy for Improvement of Health and Welfare this August in Sweden.

I hold a BA Honours in English (1996), a BSc in Physical Therapy (1999), and an MSc in Community Health and Epidemiology (2003), all from the University of Saskatchewan.