Lori DiPelino, HR Generalist, who is part of the 2023 Emerging Leaders cohort.

Lori DiPelino’s almost 35-year career has spanned different roles in varying industries, but the common thread is that she’s always wanted to help people.

“In the past few years, I have been taking on leadership roles in different ways without realizing that was what I was doing,” said Lori, HR Generalist at ARH, who is part of the 2023 Emerging Leaders cohort. “For instance, I’m often the one who trains new staff or volunteers to be somebody’s buddy to support their onboarding. In a performance review, my previous manager pointed out that I should consider developing my leadership skills, which evolved from there.”

Lori began investing time in self-directed leadership and coaching development. Still, it wasn’t until she joined the ARH Team and started the Emerging Leaders Program that she had the structured time and support to focus on this area of professional development.

“When I learned about this program, I thought, ‘wow, this is exactly what I need to build my skills.’ The Emerging Leaders Program shows the organization’s commitment to investing and growing leaders from within.”

ARH launched the Emerging Leaders Program in 2022 to develop up-and-coming leaders through formal training and skill-building.

Focused on growing coaching skills

Before Lori arrived at ARH in the winter of 2023, she worked in The Ottawa Hospital’s Employee Scheduling Department, where she had a temporary supervisor role responsible for overseeing 51 staff members. This experience made her realize she wanted to learn more about how to coach people and lead effectively.

Lori said: “I am very empathetic, but sometimes I need to take the personal part out of it. I want to hone my coaching skills to empower staff and give them the necessary tools without directly taking on other people’s work issues.”

As part of the Emerging Leaders Program, Lori belongs to a core working group of four staff members from different areas of the organization. They meet regularly through facilitated sessions about their course learnings and reflections, and they have the opportunity to practice and develop their presentation skills. This peer support aspect of the program has been a particularly valuable learning experience for Lori.

‘Part of a family’

At ARH, Lori is the lead for recruitment, retention, and recognition and also completed the new master schedule builds to support the new care hours for the Grove residents and is working on the master schedule build for the OR.

“Everyone makes you feel like you’ve always been here and you’re part of a family – it makes my commute worth it.”

When not a work

From when Lori’s daughter was five years old to university, Lori was a busy dance mom. Now, home life has a different rhythm, and her time is filled with weekends at the cottage and cuddles with her four-month-old grandson.

While Lori considers herself a nervous nelly afraid of heights, she surprised herself (and others) by doing the iFly sky diving on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean.