Where you live shouldn't determine if you live.

Accountability Beyond Words: Building Community Oversight

Talk is cheap. Action builds trust. We're establishing a Community Advisory Council to provide ongoing oversight, guidance, and accountability for our community commitments. This isn't window dressing - it's real community authority over how we operate.

What we're building:

  • Community representatives with real decision-making authority

  • Diverse northern community leadership and guidance

  • Transparent meeting summaries and public accountability

  • Annual impact evaluation with community feedback integration

Our commitments:

  • 20% of organizational hours for community benefit

  • 15% of profits reinvested in community access programs

  • Sliding scale pricing ensuring no one is turned away for financial reasons

  • Annual Community Impact Reports with verified metrics"

The Only Health Equity Consulting Firm Built for Northern Ontario

We understand Northern Ontario's unique challenges because we live them. Geographic isolation, resource limitations, and complex cultural dynamics require solutions designed by and for northern communities.

Professional expertise worthy of premium investment, combined with authentic community roots and transparent accountability. We're not consultants who fly in and fly out – we're neighbors building sustainable change together.

Professional Expertise Born from Lived Experience

Carla Bossart-Pletzer, Founding Director of Northern Health Equity Consulting, combines strategic organizational management expertise with authentic healthcare navigation experience as a Triple Negative Breast Cancer survivor.

Since her 2022 diagnosis, she has applied 15+ years of business consulting and organizational leadership to analyzing and improving healthcare systems from the patient perspective.

With a Public Administration background and healthcare leadership training from Rottman School of Business, Carla advises local, provincial and federal healthcare organizations and research institutions at the highest governance levels in health equity, patient engagement and person-centred care. She is committed to examining how we view expertise in healthcare, bringing lived experience that creates insights unavailable from traditional consulting approaches.

Based in Sudbury, Carla founded NHEC to ensure Northern Ontario's unique challenges and perspectives are represented in healthcare spaces where they are often forgotten, providing professional-level health equity support that understands northern realities.

Comprehensive Health Equity
Solutions for Every Sector

  • Hospitals, health systems, and publicly-funded agencies transforming patient engagement from compliance to competitive advantage.

    • Strategic health equity assessment and planning

    • Patient engagement excellence and advisory council development

    • EDI workshops addressing power and systemic oppression

    • Quality improvement through equity lens

    • Leadership coaching for equity-centered transformation

  • Long-term care, nursing agencies, home care, and private clinics building competitive advantage through authentic equity approaches.

    • Regulatory compliance and accreditation support

    • Patient engagement strategies meeting mandatory requirements

    • Cultural safety training and risk mitigation

    • Quality improvement through community partnership

    • Market differentiation through equity excellence

  • Grassroots organizations, Indigenous communities, and patient groups accessing professional health equity support through our Community Access Program.

    • Sliding scale and pro bono health equity consulting

    • Community-led engagement and advocacy support

    • Capacity building for healthcare navigation

    • Policy advocacy and systems change support

    • Partnership development with healthcare organizations

  • Universities, research institutes, and educational organizations developing community-engaged research and Northern Ontario expertise.

    • Community-engaged research partnership development

    • Indigenous research protocols and OCAP implementation

    • Knowledge translation serving community priorities

    • Grant development and collaboration facilitation

    • Co-authoring research papers and publications

  • Schools, camps, childcare centers, and service organizations building health equity upstream where wellbeing begins.

    • Organizational culture assessment and equity integration

    • Prevention programming through health equity lens

    • Inclusive program design for diverse communities

    • Staff training in trauma-informed approaches

    • Community partnership frameworks for upstream health

  • Healthcare regulatory agencies, environmental bodies, and professional organizations implementing equity-centered compliance.

    • Policy development and analysis through equity lens

    • Regulatory compliance implementation support

    • Stakeholder consultation and engagement processes

    • Community impact assessment frameworks

    • Continuous improvement and evaluation strategies

  • Policy development organizations seeking authentic Northern Ontario perspective and community-engaged research expertise.

    • Evidence-informed policy development with community voice

    • Policy analysis through Northern Ontario and equity lens

    • Stakeholder engagement and consultation facilitation

    • Research partnership and knowledge translation

    • Publication collaboration and thought leadership

  • Cancer societies, heart foundations, mental health organizations, and national charities developing Northern Ontario programs.

    • Regional expertise for national initiative implementation

    • Community engagement strategies for Northern Ontario

    • Cultural responsiveness assessment and support

    • Stakeholder mapping and relationship building

    • Market access support respecting community priorities

  • Companies developing or implementing solutions in Northern Ontario requiring authentic community engagement and cultural responsiveness.

    • Market access strategies with community engagement focus

    • Cultural responsiveness assessments and implementation

    • Community liaison and partnership development

    • Risk assessment and mitigation for community acceptance

    • Stakeholder consultation and relationship building