Dr. Keith Adamson brings more than 20 years of professional experience in clinical, management and professional practice leadership roles. Trained as a Social Worker, Keith completed both his Master of Social Work and his Bachelor of Social Work at the University of Montreal. Keith's management roles have expanded from providing a professional practice lens for the Social Work profession to an expanded scope where he held roles that were responsible for the practice of all health disciplines. He has held progressively senior management roles at Women's College Hospital and St. Joseph's Health Centre in Toronto. Most recently, he was Senior Director for Collaborative Practice at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto. In this role, as in past management roles, he managed a large operational budget for the Professional Practice portfolio within the Holland Bloorview organization. Keith is presently Assistant Professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto.
Over the last few years, Keith has seen great success in the development and implementation of best practices in inter-professional collaboration and the resulting transformation of clinical care excellence. Keith is a long-standing member of the Ontario Association of Social Workers, and was Vice-President, Professional and Social Advocacy for 2005-2006. He resigned from the role in 2006 to return to academic studies. He completed his PhD in Philosophy at Wilfrid Laurier University in June 2011. Keith's area of research has been inter-professional collaboration and its impact on patient care. Keith has also been very active in the healthcare community and has held various professional appointments as the past Chair of the Toronto Health Sciences Academic Network on Inter-professional Collaborative practice, a past Vice-President at the Parkdale Community Health Centre (Toronto), and he was recently appointed Co-Chair of the Mississauga Halton Local Health Integration Network's Health Professionals Advisory Committee.
After rejoining the Association's Executive as Treasurer-Secretary in 2012, Keith served as President for two terms (2014-2018) and is now Past President. He believes in the values of social work and the societal contribution that social workers make on a daily basis. He is committed to making the role of social work known to those outside of the profession and building pride amongst those within the profession.