*Nicole LeMire, Executive Director of the REACH Community Health Centre from 2018 to 2025*

Nicole LeMire, was Executive Director of the REACH Community Health Centre from 2018 to 2025. She came to the position with a strong background in Health Economics and a wealth of experience in program development and management. REACH was fortunate to have her at the helm just as the Centre was entering one of the most challenging periods in our history, including the COVID 19 pandemic and rise in opioid deaths. Both of which had a significant impact on our community and on our organization.

Nicole’s commitment and leadership enabled REACH to weather these difficulties and to emerge a much stronger and more robust community health centre. During the pandemic, her hard work, vision and dedication ensured that our community was receiving the care, guidance and support it needed, while REACH staff, who were working at capacity, knew she had their backs. Nicole played a key role in helping the Board continue to function as a responsible governance body, something we would have had difficulty doing at a time when face-to-face meetings were verboten.

Equally important, Nicole has been a strong and compassionate advocate for needed reforms in the primary health care arena – particularly regarding social determinants of health.

Nicole’s many accomplishments during her tenure at REACH include:

The establishment of an Urgent and Primary Care Centre (UPCC) under the REACH umbrella, the first UPCC attached to a community health centre in BC. The UPCC formally opened on the first day of the COVID 19 lockdown and since then has become an invaluable resource for episodic care in our community. REACH UPCC was specifically recognized and appreciated by Vancouver Coastal Health for its contribution to BC’s COVID-19 testing strategy 2020-2022. The UPCC is currently serving over 12,000 unique individuals annually, contributing significantly to public health.

The negotiation of funding flexibility during the height of the COVID 19 pandemic, an important achievement that allowed REACH to respond to our community’s needs with creative and timely programs.
The expansion of the Multicultural Family Centre into the Health Equity and Engagement Department (HEED) to address a broader range of health and social issues for justice-seeking communities. HEED has a strong focus on the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples, and on pressing social issues such as mental health and substance use, gender-based violence, chronic diseases, sexual health. Nicole has also championed the rights of individuals with precarious immigration status, strongly advocating for equitable access to health care.
Her efforts to ensure REACH physicians attained a contract with the Ministry of Health that included competitive working conditions has strengthened our capacity to recruit and retain top medical professionals, ultimately enhancing access and the quality of care provided to our patients.
Improved staff satisfaction and retention. Nicole understood that high quality health care depends on high quality working conditions. She encouraged an organizational culture that empowers and respects staff, while ensuring access to enhanced benefits, year of services bonuses, staff professional development programs.

Nicole’s contributions to REACH have been significant, raising the profile of Western Canada’s largest community health centre. But her impact has also been felt across BC’s primary health care sector where she has become an important and respected leader. In recognition of her accomplishments in the BC’s health sector, Nicole received the YWCA Women of Distinction Awards nomination and the prestigious ‘Rising Star Award’ from Société Santé en Français, a national organization dedicated to enhancing access to quality and equitable health programs and services in French through collaborative leadership.

Working with Nicole has been inspiring, enlightening and fun. We are enormously grateful to her for her seven years of service and visionary leadership she has provided to the REACH community and the REACH Board.

Respectfully submitted by:

Jane Turner, Board President 2018-2019
Colleen Fuller, Board President 2019-2023
Barbara Wood, Board President 2023 – current