Dr Shela Hirani Recipient of WXN One of Canada’s Most Powerful Women Award 2024

WXN is an executive networking community where professional development, networking, thought leadership, belonging, and celebration take center stage. Its Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Awards recognizes bold women for their leadership and groundbreaking achievements that have meaningfully transformed their industries, companies,communities and country. More about WXN here.

Dr Shela Hirani is named one of the Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award Winner 2024 [Category: Community Impact].

View all award recipients here

About Dr Shela Hirani
Dr Shela Hirani is an Associate Professor at the University of Regina, Faculty of Nursing, Canada. She is a world-renowned, multiaward-winning PhD prepared maternal and child health nursing professional, global health leader, researcher, and an International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) with 20+ years of experience in academia (within and outside Canada). As a passionate nursing professional, she is committed to the nursing profession, health promotion, climate action, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and anti-racism approach through her breastfeeding advocacy work in Canada and beyond. Her breastfeeding advocacy has promoted breastfeeding, dismantled breastfeeding barriers, led to a baby-friendly movement, and informed programs, policies and practices in diverse care settings. Based on her contributions to nursing education, research and services, she received more than 50 national and international accolades.

Dr Hirani was recognized by the World Health Organization as one of 100 outstanding women nurse and midwife leaders around the world in 2020. She received several other honors, including the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal from the Government of Saskatchewan, Canada in recognition to her services to the province, Saskatchewan Multicultural Leadership Award 2022 from the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan recognizing her leadership efforts for multiculturalism in Saskatchewan, and the YWCA Nutrient Women of Distinction Award in the category of “Research, Sciences and Technology”. She is also the recipient of Sigma Nursing’s Emerging Nurse Researcher Award 2020 and Canada’s most prestigious scholarship awards, including the CIHR’s Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship Award 2016, Honorary Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship Award 2016, and Dorothy Killam Memorial Graduate Prize 2016 recognizing her academic achievements, research outputs, leadership, and contribution for knowledge development in Nursing. She is also an honored listee in Marquis Who’s is Who® in recognition of her contributions to nursing profession and breastfeeding advocacy work with the vulnerable and marginalized mothers affected by disaster and displacement.

Community-wide Impact of Dr Shela Hirani’s Advocacy and Research
Dr Hirani is making significant contributions todismantling breastfeeding barriers by informing need-based culturally appropriate baby-friendly initiatives and supportive interventions to improve maternal breastfeeding practices in diverse care settings.

Dr Shela Hirani’s breastfeeding advocacy research in Canada isempowering vulnerable families, addressing breastfeeding barriers, and creating avenues to execute need-based baby-friendly interventions/initiatives supporting breastfeeding practices of refugee and immigrant mothers who often lack breastfeeding supports and face integration challenges and stressors due to racism, non-availability of social support, housing insecurity and inaccessibility to breastfeeding counselling services in their languages. Her efforts got attention in print media and is bringing positive change in practice [‘Dr Hirani is a voice for refugee and immigrant mothers in Saskatchewan’ by Regina Leader Post] and [‘Breastfeeding advocate creates ‘positive changes in the lives of marginalized women and children’ by Canadian Nurse].

Dr Hirani’s global breastfeeding advocacy efforts through her first-hand experience of working in disaster relief zones has helped humanitarian relief agencies, healthcare professionals and policymakers realize the importance of offering breastfeeding counselling, privacy [breastfeeding tents], mental health support, hygiene kits and informational support in local languages, rather than distributing formula milk as a humanitarian aid that can cause more harm than offering benefits in the disaster relief camps when there is no clean water or supplies available. Her work is helping to shape breastfeeding policy for displaced mothers and voice out challenges surrounding unmonitored distribution of formula milk to the vulnerable groups.

Dr Shela Hirani is an elected board member of reputable international, national, and provincial organizations. She is also serving as an editorial board member of the reputable global health journals. She is committed to provide quality mentorship to the next generation of leaders in breastfeeding advocacy and continue to make a positive difference in community through her scholarship of teaching, research and services.

Related Links:
https://wxnetwork.com/page/2024Top100AwardWinners
https://www.canadian-nurse.com/blogs/cn-content/2023/09/25/breastfeeding-advocate-shela-hirani
https://the.ismaili/global/outstanding-nurses/outstanding-nurse-dr-shela-hirani-supports-breastfeeding-among-vulnerable
https://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/503080/shela-hirani-has-been-inducted-into-the-prestigious-marquis-whos-who-biographical-registry
https://leaderpost.com/life/queen-city/u-of-r-professor-is-a-voice-for-refugee-women-in-sask-healthcare
https://ismailimail.blog/2023/01/24/dr-shela-hirani-awarded-the-queen-elizabeth-ii-platinum-jubilee-medal/
https://ismailimail.blog/2022/11/29/dr-shela-hirani-receives-the-2022-saskatchewan-canada-multicultural-leadership-award/
https://ismailimail.blog/2022/06/14/dr-shela-hirani-shelahirani-received-the-2022-ywca-regina-nutrien-women-of-distinction-award-for-research-the-sciences-technology-canada/