The SIM awards are peer-nominated and peer-reviewed awards that celebrate the very best in our community. Join us in celebrating the achievements, commitment and passion of the individuals and organizations who lead the way!
The SIM Awards are presented annually at the SIM Expo.
View the 2026 nominees below >
SIM Citizenship Award
This award recognizes simulationists across Canada who have made important contributions in the field of healthcare simulation. It honours those who have made an outstanding impact on the simulation community, education, creative professional activities, advocacy, research, and other endeavours. The award celebrates collaborative and dedicated individuals who have advocated for and championed simulation in their communities. It recognizes leading simulationists who may not be otherwise celebrated through more traditional academic awards.
The SIM Citizenship Award is generously sponsored by Gaumard.
SIM Innovator Award
The SIM Innovator Award is a national award that recognizes an organization who has demonstrated exceptional commitment to innovate, advocate and advance simulation for education, patient safety and/or quality improvement. The award celebrates an organization at the leading edge of integrating simulation into their activities, using simulation-based strategies to disrupt the status quo and profoundly improve education and/or patient care.
The SIM Innovator Award is generously sponsored by HIROC.
2026 Nominees
Canada’s SIM champions, community-builders and innovators – congratulations to the nominees. Below, we share summaries from the impressive nominations received this year.
2026 SIM Citizenship Award Nominees
| Robin Andrade University of Waterloo | For her development of an award-winning AI-enabled virtual standardized patient platform, Patient Pro, Robin is expanding access to clinical simulation in pharmacy education. Her ongoing research and PhD work continue to evaluate and refine the platform, with potential applications beyond pharmacy. |
| Allyson Cooper RRC Polytech | For her nearly two decades of work expanding simulation beyond nursing, Allyson helped transform a small RRC Polytech initiative into an interdisciplinary simulation centre serving programs from nursing and paramedicine to sonography and internationally educated nurses. Her work has created lasting infrastructure for simulation-based education across Manitoba. |
| André Daigle Université de Moncton | Pour son rôle dans l’intégration significative des patients partenaires à la formation par simulation, André contribue depuis 2019 à la co-construction et à la révision de scénarios, notamment pour des situations sensibles comme l’aide médicale à mourir. Son engagement a mené à des améliorations concrètes de l’expérience des patients partenaires et à leur reconnaissance comme membres à part entière de l’équipe pédagogique. |
| Jennifer Dale-Tam Carleton University | For her work building Carleton University’s interdisciplinary simulation program from the ground up, Jennifer established simulation as a longitudinal, stand-alone component of the nursing curriculum rather than simply an instructional supplement. Her approach progressively develops clinical judgment, communication, teamwork, and leadership within a psychologically safe learning environment. |
| Susan DeSousa Sunnybrook Canadian Simulation Centre | For her more than two decades of advancing simulation through accreditation, faculty development, and innovative clinical education, Susan has helped pioneer initiatives including Canada’s first Stroke Resuscitation Course and POCUS Bootcamp for Anesthesia residents. Her work has also strengthened simulation standards through national and international accreditation initiatives. |
| Sam Dhothar British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) | For his work advancing simulation operations as a distinct area of practice, Sam co-founded SimOps BC to connect simulation operations professionals across British Columbia and created the Simulation Operations Specialist Evaluation Tool (SOSET). His contributions are helping build professional recognition, standards, and community for a role essential to simulation but often behind the scenes. |
| Carla Ferreira University of British Columbia (UBC) | For her work expanding simulation across the undergraduate nursing curriculum at UBC, Carla has combined faculty development, competency mapping, telesimulation, and virtual simulation to build sustainable simulation capacity. Her efforts have helped establish the resources and educator community needed to embed simulation throughout the new MacIsaac Health Building. |
| Lisa George Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) | For her work advancing interprofessional simulation at CAMS, Lisa has developed IPE initiatives and helped expand a large-scale interprofessional mass casualty simulation. She also uses research and scholarship to evaluate these experiences and translate findings back into curriculum and practice. |
| Giuliana Harvey Mount Royal University | For her work expanding simulation beyond nursing, Giuliana has developed a collaborative model that prepares and mentors faculty across disciplines while establishing shared simulation resources and standards. Her approach is creating sustainable simulation capacity across professional programs while respecting the distinct learning needs of each discipline. |
| Alyshah Kaba eSIM Provincial Simulation (AHS) | For her contributions to simulation scholarship and evaluation, Alyshah has helped strengthen the use of research and evidence within simulation practice. Her work developing colleagues, partnerships, and opportunities for scholarship has extended the impact of simulation research across the broader community. |
| Michael Lundin Thompson Rivers University | For his work expanding simulation access in rural and remote settings, Michael helped grow distributed simulation in Northern BC from approximately 1,000 to more than 7,000 hours annually and developed a mobile simulation lab to bring education beyond traditional centres. His work demonstrates how simulation can be adapted to reach geographically dispersed learners and communities. |
| Andrea Shim University of British Columbia (UBC) | For her work advancing pediatric simulation at the MacIsaac School of Nursing, Andrea developed four high-fidelity simulations aligned with course competencies and used research findings to reshape how simulation supports clinical readiness. Her work has increased opportunities for psychomotor skills and clinical decision-making within pediatric education. |
| Thomas Waring Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) | For his “simulation first” approach across disciplines, Tomas has extended simulation beyond traditional healthcare education to areas including animal health and dental technology. His ability to translate complex disciplinary needs into meaningful simulation experiences has helped broaden how and where simulation can be used. |
| Tamara Young Island Health Authority | For their work addressing inequity in simulation design, Tamara developed the CPR Trainer with Breasts prototype to improve anatomical representation in CPR education. By combining clinical insight, co-design, and simulation innovation, Tamara is helping make training more representative and responsive to the learners and patients it serves. |
2026 SIM Innovator Award Nominees
| Brock University | School of Nursing (SON) St. Catharines, Ontario | For its integration of emerging technologies into nursing simulation, Brock University combines virtual, immersive and mixed reality, holographic simulation, 360° experiences, and large-cohort observation and debriefing across its curriculum. Its new AI-focused micro-credential also prepares nursing educators to integrate AI safely into education and simulation. |
| Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Toronto, Ontario | For its specialized use of simulation in mental health education, the CAMH Simulation Centre delivers more than 40 programs addressing areas including de-escalation, suicide and violence risk, and acute physical healthcare in psychiatry. As North America’s first simulation centre dedicated to mental health education, research, and quality improvement, it reached more than 3,300 learners in 2025–26. |
| Centre interdisciplinaire de simulations en santé (CISS) du Cégep de Chicoutimi Chicoutimi, Québec | Pour l’ampleur et la diversité de son approche, le CISS du Cégep de Chicoutimi offre plus de 470 scénarios validés cliniquement à près de 1 000 étudiant·es dans sept programmes de santé. Sa programmation intègre notamment la simulation interprofessionnelle, la réalité virtuelle et augmentée, les réalités des Premiers Peuples et les enjeux liés aux changements climatiques. |
| MacIssac School of Nursing | University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia | For its intentional use of simulation to develop clinical reasoning, the MacIsaac School of Nursing has shifted from using simulation primarily to address placement pressures to replacing 15–25% of clinical practice hours. Its pediatric program now delivers half of required clinical hours through simulation, with more than 500 simulation-based experiences planned for 2026. |
| Le programme de maitrise en science infirmière – infirmière ou infirmier praticien (IIP) de l’Université de Moncton Moncton, Nouveau-Brunswick | Pour son déploiement de la simulation à grande échelle dans la formation francophone des infirmières et infirmiers praticiens, le programme prévoit environ 153 expériences de simulation dans cinq cours en 2026-2027. Jusqu’à cinq salles peuvent être utilisées simultanément, avec 44 scénarios et 15 patients-partenaires, afin de soutenir une cohorte en forte croissance et les besoins des communautés rurales. |
Past Recipients
Congratulations to all the previous recipients, and thank you for all you have done to support simulation in Canada!
| Year | SIM Citizenship Award | SIM Innovator Award |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Renée Gordon • University of New Brunswick | ▸ Centre de formation professionelle de Lévis ▸ Faculty of Nursing, University of New Brunswick |
| 2024 | Nicole Harder • University of Manitoba | RadyVerse • University of Manitoba |
| 2023 | Annamaria Mundell • Alberta Health Services | Timiskaming District Secondary School • Sim Lab |
| 2022 | Adam Dubrowski • Ontario Tech University | Corporate Nursing Education Team • The Ottawa Hospital |
| 2019 | Karen Schafer • Vancouver Coastal Health | ▸ ‘Be the Beam’ Project Team, The Medical Radiography Program • BCIT ▸ Allan Waters Family Simulation Centre • St. Michael’s Hospital ▸ Institut du Savoir Montfort ▸ Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre |
| 2018 | Karl Weiss • Conestoga College | ▸ Speciality Nursing, School of Health Sciences • BCIT ▸ Clinical Simulation Centre, FHS • Queen’s University ▸ Clinique de diabète et CSME • CHU Sainte-Justine ▸ Emergency Health Services Nova Scotia (EHS NS) • Ambulance Operations – Performance & Development Division |
| 2017 | Colette Foisy-Doll • MacEwan University | ▸ Alberta Health Services • eSim Program ▸ Canadore College ▸ John Abbott College ▸ Dalhousie University • Stroke Interprofessional Team |
| 2016 | Karen Paquette • Cambrian College | N/A |
| 2015 | Elizabeth Horsley Tony Malette Judy Bournais | N/A |
| 2014 | Cathy Smith Julie Rivers | N/A |
| 2013 | Dominic Giuliano Lisa Satterthwaite Louise Moir Luc Simard Marie McEwan Yvonne Galbraith | N/A |
Prior to 2017, SIM-one offered a SIM Student award. Here are the past recipients!
| Year | SIM Student Award |
|---|---|
| 2016 | Megan Mahoney |
| 2015 | Paul Schnider |
| 2014 | Murray A. Hudon |
| 2013 | Lucy dong Xuan Li Meghan Friesen |