Julia Hanigsberg joined Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital as its President and CEO on January 12, 2015. Holland Bloorview is Canada’s largest paediatric rehabilitation hospital and each year serves over 7400 children and youth with disabilities and complex medical needs. Holland Bloorview is an academic hospital fully affiliated with the University of Toronto and carries out its academic mission through the Bloorview Research Institute and the Teaching and Learning Institute.
Prior to joining Holland Bloorview Julia spent 9 years at Ryerson University, first as General Counsel and Secretary of the Board of Governors and then as Vice-President, Administration and Finance. She was also interim Dean of the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education.
Her previous positions included numerous roles with the Ontario government including Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General, Counsel and Special Advisor to two Secretaries of Cabinet and Chief of Staff to the Attorney General of Ontario. Julia also led the project teams responsible for two transitions of provincial government leadership.
A lawyer by training Julia has law degrees from McGill University (where she was Editor in Chief of the McGill Law Journal) and the Columbia Law School and following graduation from law school clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada. She has held Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Fulbright Fellowships.
Julia has served on numerous volunteer boards and currently she is a member of the board of the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation, the Canadian Association of Pediatric Heath Centres, Canadian Business Sensibility, and on Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario, the CEO Committee of the Toronto Academic Health Science Network, the Executive Advisory Board of FIRST Robotics Canada, the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Faculty of Law, McGill University and McGill University’s Women, Leadership and Philanthropy committee.