Kathleen Finlay is founder and Chief Compassion Officer of Generative/Compassion and is a founder of the Global Initiative for Generative Compassion. Described by CTV National News as “another modern thinker who can save lives,” her groundbreaking work over two decades to make patients safer in the hospital setting, reduce medical errors, combat gender violence and improve mental health delivery with innovations like the new national 988 suicide prevention hotline has established her as one of Canada’s most impactful and recognized voices for making compassion the new normal. Since 2021, she has been calling for a national inquiry into the lessons of the coronavirus pandemic, including the creation of a roadmap to address the needs of the most vulnerable who were disproportionately harmed by the public health crisis.
She has been a stalwart proponent of the creation of a basic minimum income, an idea first proposed some fifty years ago as a recommendation from a national study into poverty in Canada.
Kathleen’s founding of Generative/Compassion and related generative compassion initiatives was the result of extensive global consultations and collaboration with world experts, scholars and clinicians whose work embraces issues related to compassion, the mitigation of harm, institutional betrayal and trauma-informed practice. Many of the ideas that shape her compassion mission have been the subject of op-eds, articles, speeches and parliamentary submissions.
Building on a public policy career in finance, capital markets regulation and intergovernmental affairs that spanned more than two decades, she regularly appears before committees of the House of Commons and Senate. The work of her advocacy clinics and frequent op-ed columns have been extensively cited in national and international media, in scholarly journals and in legislative proceedings. In 2023, Kathleen was privileged to address the St. James Literary Society, the oldest organization of its kind in Canada and a venue where previous guest speakers have included prime ministers, governors-general and acclaimed authors. Kathleen’s topic: making compassion the new normal in a post-pandemic world.