By Fred Sgambati (’83, ’85)

Acadia alum Shannon Boldon has an overriding ambition as a health policy consultant: to effect positive change and make a difference in people’s lives.

Currently based in Toronto, ON, the 2013 biochemistry grad strives to improve the knowledge and understanding of different diseases and advance health policies for better patient outcomes. An intelligent, thoughtful and determined individual who is committed to contributing to society in a meaningful way, Shannon is, indeed, making a difference and why she is the 2023 recipient of the Acadia Alumni Association’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award.

After earning an MSc from University College London (UCL) in Global Health and Development in 2015, Shannon interned at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland as a data analyst, working with an Ebola response team to clean, merge and analyze the Ebola patient data coming to the Geneva office from mobile clinics in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, deepening her insights into health issues in the developing world.

This work paved the way for Shannon to join The Health Policy Partnership in London, UK in 2016, initially as a researcher focused on enhancing care for sarcoma patients in Europe and beginning the following year as Senior Researcher. Through research and expert interviews, the team was able to outline the steps needed to improve sarcoma care across Europe, with findings presented to policymakers at a debate held in the European Parliament.

Shannon later worked to build and grow the All.Can initiative, a multi-stakeholder policy platform that aims to improve the efficiency of cancer care. She played a key role in establishing All.Can as a free-standing international non-profit organization. Impressively, she also registered four publications during her tenure with The Health Policy Partnership.

In 2019, Shannon established her own consulting company, focusing on health policy, and has continued to work with a global client list to improve healthcare. Her clients include global pharmaceutical companies, non-profit organizations, and specialist health consulting companies. She has a strong focus on cancer (bladder and lymphoma), rare diseases, and cardiovascular diseases.

Named the Acadia Students’ Union Junior Student of the Year Award recipient in 2012, Shannon was a member of the women’s varsity volleyball team and earned Academic All-Canadian honours that year as well. Academic All-Canadians are those exceptional student-athletes who achieve an academic standing of 80 per cent or better while playing on one of their university's varsity sport teams. She also founded the Acadia Chapter of Global Brigades and was extensively involved with the program for her final two years as a student. In 2014, she received the Global Brigade Kaplan Course Scholarship, awarded to leaders who have promoted exceptional holistic growth and development of Global Brigades on their local campuses.

“Since her time as a student at Acadia, Shannon has demonstrated remarkable compassion and intelligence, which now informs her accomplished career in global health policy,” says Acadia Alumni Association President Matt Rios (’14). “Her commitment to a ‘human-centric’ approach to health policy is something we all desperately need, and it lives at the very heart of what Acadia strives to communicate to its students. She has brought great pride to the University, and I, like many other Acadia alum, will be cheering her on as she continues to make a difference in the world. I am honoured to acknowledge her as this year’s recipient of our Outstanding Young Alumni Award.”