Hamilton-Niagara's Top Employers (2025) Magazine - Flipbook - Page 16
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HAMILTON-NIAGARA’S TOP EMPLOYERS (2025)
Hamilton Health Sciences goes beyond its walls
A
aron Levo deeply
appreciates the vast
opportunities Hamilton
Health Sciences (HHS)
provides its employees.
Levo, vice president, people, culture and communications, started
working at HHS 10 years ago in
the communications department.
In line with HHS’s transformation
journey, Levo’s role evolved into
what it is today, which is to lead
areas including human resources,
volunteer resources, communications and public affairs.
“I get to work with a lot of
experts in so many fields with
a view to making HHS an even
better place to work,” he says.
“You can build a career here that
you wouldn’t get to elsewhere.
We actively make sure people are
connected to opportunities to
advance their career.”
Levo gives examples of
colleagues who have started
in communications and have
followed their unique learning
journey, ending up in different
departments such as project
management. Levo provides
another example of nurses who
have been able to change their
clinical focus and use their
knowledge and skills to work in
other areas, such as research and
leadership roles.
Fatima Sheikh, health equity
specialist, equity, diversity and
inclusion (ED&I) and human
rights, also values this aspect of
HHS. “Something the senior lead
in my department does incredibly
well is continuously advocate for
me in rooms that I am not in,” she
says. “If there are initiatives that
align with my learning goals, she
will put my name forward. That’s
a culture that is pervasive that I
appreciate so much.”
Levo is also proud of HHS’s
value to the city as a whole. “A
little more than half of the people
who work at HHS live in Hamilton
postal codes, and those people attend local events, contribute to the
economy, volunteer and take on
impactful roles in the community,”
he says. “They are integral to the
fabric of the city.”
The hospital is also going
beyond its walls to improve the
community’s health in innovative
ways that will benefit health care
throughout the province. One example is Sheikh's work as part of a
broader initiative that will provide
invaluable insight while aligning
with HHS’s vision in providing the
“best care for all.”
“For a long time in Canada,
we haven't collected socio-demographic information of our
patients and families, and it
became evident that this was
important information which
we need to better understand
our patients and families and
to provide better care,” Sheikh
says. “It will help us to identify
disparities – for example, why
is it that certain populations are
missing their appointments? Or
why are we seeing more people in
the emergency departments?”
You can build a career
here that you wouldn’t get
to elsewhere. We actively
make sure people are
connected to opportunities
to advance their career.
— Aaron Levo
Vice President,
People, Culture and
Communications
Fatima Sheikh, health equity specialist, equity, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) and human rights, at Hamilton�
Health Sciences.
She says that HHS has “an
opportunity to better understand
the needs of diverse patient
populations, identify and address
inequities among patient populations and improve our capacity to
offer culturally informed care.”
This program is part of HHS’s
