NSB Logo Amie Archibald-Varley Amie Archibald-Varley

Amie Archibald-Varley

Speaker Exclusive

Toronto, ON, Canada

Health Equity Specialist, Mental Health Advocate & Healthcare Professional

Amie Archibald-Varley is an anti-racism and health equity specialist that inspires others to speak their truths and brings communities together to engage in “courageous conversations”. As a Health Equity Specialist, Registered Nurse and upcoming author with Harper Collins, Amie brings her real-life experience to conversations around healthcare, mental health, equity, leadership, and more. Audiences may know her as the co-host of the successful “Gritty Nurse Podcast” which discusses hot topics in healthcare and has ranked #2 in Apple Podcasts in Medicine for Canada.

Keynote Speeches

Virtual Keynotes & Webinars
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Leadership: Transforming your Teams with Compassion & Empathy

We continue to witness and examine the past few years’ impacts on our lives. In many industries and communities, the pandemic has left our tanks empty. So, what now?

More than ever, leaders must commit to the ongoing work of creating environments that are supportive, inspiring, and attractive.

Based on her experience within healthcare & health equity advocacy, Amie shares how leaders in any industry can lead with compassion and empathy. When working with teams suffering from moral injury and stress, Amie shows how this leadership mindset can help transform and restore their mental health, satisfaction, and productivity.

We’ve met many challenges but we now have an opportunity to make our workplaces, schools, & communities stronger than ever.

Key takeaways:

  • How to assess the current state of your team and organization
  • How to combat stigma and shame around mental health in your workplace
  • How to connect with one another through compassion, empathy, and engagement
Privilege, Policy and Power in Healthcare

How do we use quality improvement to leverage health equity and healthy public policy change? Amie Archibald-Varley engages participants to consider how they can shift into active anti-racist action throughout their personal lives, careers, and community.

Key Takeaways: 

  • An understanding of how power, privilege, and policy intersect in healthcare to create inequities 
  • Understanding what society constructs as “normal” and “other.” 
  • How to critically reflect on how policy and social media, and narratives impact negative stereotypes related to race 
Mental Health is Health

Discussing mental health in healthcare can be a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be. How do we discuss mental health in healthcare and reduce the stigma healthcare workers face regarding these discussions? Is mental health treated with as much care and consideration as physical health? Is burnout the only option? Why does my employer not seem to support me?

We need to eliminate stigma by opening up the conversation on mental health. This is personal. Amie Archibald-Varley has been transparent about her experiences with depression, anxiety, and postpartum depression. She has shown grit by combatting stigma and shame with openness by creating a platform that allows her to encourage others to lift their voices, tell their stories and lobby the government for change. 

Translating Advocacy into Action for Healthcare

You are an advocate – you just don’t know it yet. It is a skill that we can harness to see better healthcare outcomes for all community members. Advocacy does not stop at the bedside. Advocacy is action, change in policy and quality improvement. Advocacy is about learning about healthy public policy, the social determinants of health (including racism as a new determinant of health) and understanding the community’s needs. Advocacy is not speaking on behalf of the community but, rather, standing WITH the community and using power, resources, and agency to make meaningful.

Advocacy is political. How do we inform the greater public to build support? We can do it! Amie Archibald-Varley will show you how. 

There is Power in Your Voice & Your Story

Everyone has a story to tell. Storytelling in healthcare is a powerful tool. It can change peoples’ perceptions, open up dialogue, and generate new ideas and conversations. It is how we bring others into our worldview, present a different perspective and connect with one another. It is about compassion, empathy and engagement. A story can be compelling and captivating, bringing us in and focusing our attention. Stories impact our brains differently than simply presenting abstract facts and figures. On this workshop, Amie Archibald-Varley helps individuals harness the power of Contextual story-telling.

Story telling is a skill that can be developed and crafted just like any other skill. If harnessed correctly, we can make connections, build confidence and most importantly, bring about change in healthcare.

Audience reviews:

  • Amie was wonderful! Amie was so engaging and our leaders really connected with her. Her presentation was impactful and we have received very positive feedback about her and I would highly recommend her to my network and we would love to have her back one day! - Manager, Recruitment & Organizational Development, Safran Landing Systems

Speaker Biography

Amie Archibald-Varley is a thought leader, upcoming author with Harper Collins (2024), speaker, antiracism/anti-Black racism educator, health equity specialist, freelance journalist, podcaster, and quality improvement specialist. Amie is an ally in fighting against anti-Indigenous racism and has advanced education through San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training. She inspires others to speak their truths and brings communities together to engage in “courageous conversations”.

Amie is the co-host of the successful “Gritty Nurse Podcast” which discusses hot topics in healthcare. It has hit #2 in Apple Podcasts in Medicine for Canada. 

Amie has co-moderated and has been a speaker for many anti-racism and health equity & mental health discussions. She has facilitated discussions with CBC Radio, McMaster Program Development Faculty/ McMaster DeGroote School of Medicine, Canadian Black Nurses Alliance, The Conference Board, & Philadelphia Inquirer.

Amie has been featured on numerous TV, Radio, and News media outlets nationally and internationally. Amie has been a frequent medical contributor on CBC, CTV, Global News, CityNews, The Agenda, CTV W5, and TODAY.  She has written for The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine & Toronto Star. She is a freelancer with the Canadian Broadcaster Corporation (CBC) and contributes regularly to news & radio. She is also featured on the Smart Speakers Series on Newstalk1010’s The Rush with Reshmi Nair.