About
The Ethics and Discernment Centre helps to empower healthcare professionals and those we serve to face the increasingly complex challenges of health care.
The centre consists of three full-time staff and dozens of supporters, including ethics committee members and champions for ethics at Covenant Health sites across the province.
Staff
Bonnie Tejada, chief mission and ethics officer
Bonnie Tejada is Covenant Health’s Chief Mission and Ethics Officer. She leads Spiritual Care, Mission Integration, Interpretive Services and Critical Incident Stress Management. Bonnie has a Masters in Christian Studies and is a certified Spiritual Care Practitioner.
Bonnie started her journey with Covenant as a chaplain in Acute and Palliative Care 15 years ago and is passionate about providing whole person care to those we serve, along with helping build Covenant’s unique mission inspired culture. Bonnie enjoys being a connector of people and ideas, finding the synergies that propel deeper reflection on ideas and our lived experiences. Bonnie is active on Ethics and Diversity committees and enjoys the constant opportunities to learn and be challenged in her work. Outside of work, Bonnie loves to spend time with her young family in nature, including lots of playing in the mud and gardening.
Jon Gilchrist, corporate director, ethics and diversity
In his role as an ethicist, Jon supports clinical and organizational ethics consultation, education and policy development across the organization. Jon also serves the organization as a coach, providing professional and leadership coaching to ethics committee members, staff and clinicians. Jon has a passion for deepening the organization’s capacity for ethical reflection, for helping health care professionals to cultivate reflective space in their practices, and to support individuals as they strive to align their actions with core values and beliefs.
When he’s not at work, Jon spends his time learning about wilderness guiding, planning and leading backcountry retreats and simply enjoying the Edmonton river valley with his family.
Eleanor Stewart, clinical ethicist
Eleanor holds a Doctorate in Rehabilitation Medicine with a focus on health care ethics. She was awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship for her research on ethical practice. In 2019, she was also awarded the Covenant Health's Mission Awards for Social Justice.
Eleanor’s interest in ethics grew from her experiences working with children and their families living with complex neurodevelopmental disabilities. She became involved in the ethics community as a member of the Ethics Committee at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital and member of her professional association and college. Later, as Eleanor’s interest grew, she returned to university to complete a PhD in health care ethics. As a voracious reader, Eleanor is always ready to recommend a book or two (or three) that she read on the weekend. Eleanor has two daughters, a cat, a dog, and a beautiful garden.
Cecilia Marion, clinical ethicist
Cecilia Marion holds a strong belief that individuals and their families need to be equal partners in the care relationships with-in our health and social services systems and our communities. Having worked extensively with families for over 30 years through all stages of the life span Cecilia is a strong advocate for meeting people where they are in their journey, having good conversations to seek understanding, and working with them as a team to overcome challenges and celebrate life.
Cecilia holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Family Ecology from University of Manitoba and a Masters Degree in Science, Majored in Family Ecology and Practice. Cecilia began her career in Education, working with children with disabilities and later as an Early Intervention Worker supporting families with babies born with disabilities. She has lived in the Arctic in Rankin Inlet and worked as a substitute teacher. Cecilia worked for 15 years at Catholic Social Services starting as a Family Support Worker assisting families involved with child welfare. She moved from Frontline work to a Supervisor, Program Manager and then to Vice President of Community Services.
Cecilia continually looks for opportunities to grow, learn and be of services. This led her to Covenant Health where she took up the challenges of a Director of Care at the Edmonton General.
She worked in the position of Senior Director of Operations with-in the Continuing Care portfolio, supporting Youville Home and St. Joseph’s Auxiliary Hospital with Covenant Health for 15 years. One latest exciting achievement is the Family Involvement Initiative which focuses specifically on improving the involvement of families in the care of individuals living in Long Term care.
Recently she completed a Graduate Certificate in Bioethics at the University of St. Paul in Ottawa. She now working as a Clinical Ethicist with the Covenant Ethics Centre and has embarked on a PhD in Interdisciplinary Research in Contemporary Social Issues.
Ogechukwu (Oge) Ezeh, Ethics Centre coordinator
Oge Ezeh provides direction and coordination of Covenant Health's Ethics Centre resources and services. She is responsible for developing virtual resources, coordination and execution of special projects and events, assisting the Clinical Ethicists in conducting research, and enhancing quality improvement/assurance measures for Clinical Ethics Services.
Contact
Regular hours
Hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
Phone: 780.342.8021 or 1.855.497.5353
Email: ethicscentre@covenanthealth.ca
Urgent requests (after hours)
Call our main phone number and listen for the on-call contact information.