Toronto Public Health Chief Nurse Carol Timmings, who was RNAO’s president from 2016 to 2018, will continue to help shape nursing practice in the province in her new role as the director of practice and quality at the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO). The prominent nurse leader says she is exhilarated by the prospects of this next chapter of her career. 

Timmings says she is looking forward to learning more about professional regulation and the college mandate of supporting quality practice within its primary goal of public safety and protection.

Timmings has been an active RNAO member for more than 20 years. She’s held several positions on the association’s board of directors, including member-at-large, administration, prior to becoming president-elect in 2015 and president in 2016. She has held a number of other advisory board positions with organizations such as Health Quality Ontario, the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health, and the Ontario Public Health Association, as well as sharing her knowledge on expert panels for Ontario’s ministry of health.

Timmings says she cherishes the time she’s dedicated to being an RNAO board member. “RNAO has been a career highlight for me,” she says. Her advice as a nursing leader: get involved in your profession, engage on issues you care about, and have an impact on both nursing and health. “RNAO is a collective force, and the real heart of the organization is every RN, NP and nursing student in the province.”