Brenda Zimmerman
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Brenda is an associate professor at the Schulich School of Business, York University and a partner in Change-Ability Inc. At York, Brenda recently founded and directs the Health Industry Management Program.
Brenda teaches leadership, problem solving and creativity skills, strategy, accounting and control systems to MBA students and qualitative research methods to doctoral students. Dr. Zimmerman's work for the past few years has focused on applying lessons from chaos theory and complexity science to human systems. She is the author of many articles applying these theories to organizational strategy and change.
A frequent keynote speaker, Dr. Zimmerman has worked with a diverse group of clients and research sites including financial services, social service agencies, government and the health care sector, wholesalers, a chemical company, a steel mill, and manufacturing firms. Her research with the VHA (Voluntary Hospitals of America), a group of about 1700 non-profit hospitals and community health care organizations in the USA, resulted in several papers and a book co-authored with Curt Lindberg and Paul Plsek called Edgeware: Insights from Complexity Science for Health Care Leaders.
Previously at the Faculty of Management at McGill University in Montreal, she helped lead the McGill-McConnell masters program for national voluntary sector leaders and was a module leader with the Internal Masters in Professional Management.
In addition to her complexity work, Dr. Zimmerman is a Chartered Accountant. She has been an advisor to the Auditor General of Canada and to the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants on control systems. She is also the author of a popular monograph on the implications of charities doing business or commercial ventures.