Our Team Members

Dr. Alan Low is the Executive Director of Medicines Access Coalition – BC, Primary Care Pharmacist and Pharmacy Lead at BioPro Biologics Pharmacy, a collaborative practice approach, focusing on patient centred care. He is also a Clinical Associate Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC and an Instructor and Course Developer with the School of Health Sciences at the Justice Institute of BC (JIBC).

Convinced that pharmacists have much more to offer to the public and the healthcare system, Alan has led the development and implementation of provincial medication management projects in BC and Alberta as well as creating a novel model of community pharmacy practice where interprofessional collaboration is leveraged to improve patient health outcomes.

Within the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC, Dr. Low is one of the founders of the Faculty based Pharmacists Clinic and helped develop and lead the business case for the Pharmacists Clinic. He is the Course Coordinator for the Pharmacy Practice Management and Leadership Course and Lecturer. In addition, he is also a Board Advisor with the GI Society and sits on the Medical Board of HealthChoicesFirst.com, a patient video education resource. Dr. Low has experience in a wide variety of health and administrative settings including direct patient care in the hospital and clinics, clinical and practice-based research, consultant in healthcare projects and clinical pharmaceutical consulting. He has held positions such as Clinical Pharmacist, Clinical Specialist, Pharmacotherapeutic Specialist within teaching hospitals, as well as Manager of Government Affairs and Medical Affairs, Medical Science Liaison, and Senior Health Sciences Advisor in research-based pharmaceutical companies and was the Chief Operating Officer at Network Healthcare. Alan is a Certified Clinical Densitometrist (CCD), coauthored “The Osteoporosis Book, 4th Edition: Bone Health”, has numerous publications in scientific and health journals, newsletters, and is a founding co-editor of the Pharmacy Management in Canada textbook.

Alan has been an active member and past participant on various committees (with the College of Pharmacists of BC, BC Pharmacy Association, Canadian Pharmacists Association, Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists, GI Society, etc). He has interests in the areas of, rheumatology, osteoporosis, gastroenterology, diabetes, and cardiology. Alan enjoys being involved in projects that improve health knowledge translation, healthcare delivery, medical health education and health outcomes research. Alan’s training includes a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, a Hospital Pharmacy Residency at St. Paul’s Hospital, and Doctorate of Pharmacy degree at UBC. He is frequently invited to speak at regional, national and international conferences. He strives to develop solutions to close gaps in health care working together with a variety of people.

Greg Spievak is the founder and principal of Reboot Communications, a  firm that specializes in creating and delivering conferences worldwide.  For the last fifteen years, Mr. Spievak has produced conferences with  government agencies and international corporations in the areas of:  Information Technology, Privacy and Security, Biometrics, Digital Media,  Health, Green Technology, Counterterrorism and Public Safety.

For over twenty-five years, Mr. Spievak served in senior sales and  marketing positions in the high-technology and telecommunications  industries with companies such as AT&T, NCR, Xerox and 3M.

Howard Waldner is the past President and Chief Executive Officer of Vancouver Island Health Authority, serving in this role from 2004 until 2013. He is currently CEO of Caledonia Solutions, a strategic consulting company he founded in 2013.

He is a visionary and innovative leader with over 35 years of experience of managing health systems in both Canada and the U.K. He has a keen interest in system innovation, transformation and performance improvement. He is also passionate in the area of health facility planning, design and procurement and has led the development of number of large and successful hospital projects using both traditional and alternate funding approaches. He received the Canadian College of Health Leaders National Award for Innovation in Health in 2013.

He is a certified member of the Institute of Corporate Directors, and currently serves as an Independent Board Director of Strata-Health Solutions, a successful Calgary based Health IT company, and is a partner with Prioritize Software, a Vancouver based strategic solutions company. He also served as a volunteer member of the TELUS (Victoria) Community Board and has served on a number of “non-profit” Boards, including the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the BC Academic Health Council, (which he chaired for 5 years), the United Way Campaign Cabinet, Carewest, VRRI, and the Greater Victoria Coalition to end Homelessness.

Prior to joining VIHA in 2004, he was the Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the former Calgary Health Region from 1999 until 2004. Before moving to Calgary in 1999, he held a number of senior leadership roles within the Scottish National Health Service, most recently as the Chief Executive of Dundee University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

He received his Executive MBA from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and is a Certified member of the Canadian College of Health Leaders and a Fellow of the United Kingdom Institute of Health Care Managers.

He is Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of British Columbia, and teaches on a number of executive leadership and masters programs in the School of Public and Population Health.