Meet Christina Medland, executive director of people and organization development
Christina Medland, SFU’s new Executive Director of People and Organization Development, has a passion for inspiring and guiding people and organizations to reach their potential.
The common thread throughout Christina’s career in both the public and not-for-profit sectors over the past 30 years is her commitment to serving people, leading impactful initiatives and advancing organizations. Christina particularly loves collaboratively engaging others to develop and implement strategy and take actionable steps towards a new vision.
Christina comes to SFU from the City of Vancouver where she served for 17 years with three departments, each experience bringing increasing responsibility, complexity and a deepening passion for developing effective leaders and growing people and organizational potential. Her latest role was as Director of Strategic Operations & Organizational Effectiveness for one of the City’s highest-profile departments, Planning, Urban Design & Sustainability.
Prior to this, Christina was Director of Organization Development & Strategic Initiatives within Human Resources at the City for over 10 years where she had the privilege of working in almost every aspect of the talent and culture side of HR, including leading the development of the organization’s HR Strategic Plan and guiding the functions of Talent Management and Succession Planning, Total Rewards, Recruitment, Compensation, Organizational Development, Learning, Equity and Diversity. Among some of Christina’s most memorable highlights outside of HR were leading key organization-wide initiatives such as the Naming Rights Policy for civic owned facilities, Sponsorship Strategy for the City’s activities related to the 2010 Winter Games, the City’s Host City Team, and the City’s Women’s Equity Strategy.
Christina has loved learning from and working for interesting and high-profile organizations such as the City of Vancouver, YWCA of Vancouver, National Ballet of Canada and English National Ballet (London UK). She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Waterloo as well as numerous other certifications including Prosci Change Management certification, Emotional Intelligence Assessment certification and Leadership Circle 360 Assessment certification. She is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach through the Coaches Training Institute and has completed programs in Advanced Project Leadership and Intentional Leadership facilitation.
Outside of work, Christina currently volunteers as chair of the Board for a non-profit organization, as well as having served previously as chair of the North Vancouver Recreation and Culture Commission Cultural Grants Committee. She is also a mentor and coach for various individual leaders.
Christina lives on Vancouver’s North Shore with her husband and three children and loves to walk, ski, meditate, travel and hang out with family.