About the Divisions Learning Session
The Divisions Learning Session (DLS) is an annual event that brings together Divisions of Family Practice leadership and physicians from across British Columbia to connect and collaborate on ways to strengthen primary care across the province.
Developed with direct input from Divisions, the DLS provides space for Division-led knowledge-sharing sessions, structured workshops led by subject matter experts, and networking opportunities.
Plenary speakers Dr Danièle Behn Smith and Kate Jongbloed
Dr Danièle Behn Smith, Deputy Provincial Health Officer, Indigenous Health
Dr Danièle Behn Smith is Métis from the Red River Valley and Eh Cho Dene from Fort Nelson First Nation. She has the honour and privilege of working as British Columbia’s Deputy Provincial Health Officer, Indigenous Health. She works alongside Dr. Bonnie Henry and and other team members at the Office of the Provincial Health Officer to uphold the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples, unlearn and undo systemic white supremacy and racism, and advance true reconciliation.
Behn Smith brings expertise as a family physician with training in emergency medicine (MD, CCFP-EM), functional medicine (Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner), and population and public health (MPH). She has practiced medicine in rural and remote Indigenous communities across Canada.
As both a physician and health leader, her work recognizes self-determination as the foundation of health and wellness among First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, and the importance of Indigenous approaches and healing systems.
Kate Jongbloed, PhD (she/her)
Kate is a white occupier living on the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She is an epidemiologist and mixed methods health researcher with 15+ years of experience documenting and responding to the impacts of settler colonialism on health and wellness.
Recently, she completed a two-year CIHR Health Systems Impact Post-Doctoral Fellowship mentored by Dr. Danièle Behn Smith in the BC Office of the Provincial Health Officer. She is now a Senior Scientist at the BC Centre for Disease Control working to grow an “unlearning and undoing white supremacy and Indigenous specific racism lab” (U&U Lab) for population and public health in BC. Two of her other roles are Adjunct Professor at University of Victoria’s School of Public Health and Social Policy and Associate with Qoqoq Consulting Ltd.
Registration
Each Division’s leadership group will have received an email invitation to attend the 2026 Divisions Learning Session. Each Division can bring up to three people: one Executive Director/staff lead and up to two physicians. If you are attending on behalf of your Division, please use the link in that email to register for the event.
Venue location and accommodation
We acknowledge that the land that this event is taking place on is the traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw, and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ Nations, whose historical relationship with the land continues today.
Coast Coal Harbour Hotel
1180 West Hastings Street. Vancouver, BC, V6E 4R5, Canada. View on map.
Accommodation
Our group accommodation rate at the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel has now been filled. Due to the rush for hotel rooms during the FIFA World Cup, there are very few reasonably priced hotel rooms available at this time. If you still require a hotel room, please email events@doctorsofbc.ca with your needs and we will try to assist.
Other nearby hotel options:
- Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront
- Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel
- Metropolitan Hotel Vancouver
- Delta Hotels Downtown Suites
Agenda
Divisions Learning Session
May 13 & 14, 2026, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Optional Networking Reception
Wednesday, May 13, 2026, from 4- 6 p.m.
Open to all registrants.
Funding
FPSC will cover the cost of the venue, audiovisual equipment, learning content, food and non-alcoholic beverages for this event. The provincial collaboration funding attached to your Division's annual FPSC infrastructure funding covers the cost for one executive director/staff lead and two physician Board Chairs/Co-chairs/Members to attend two provincial events per year. All expenses/sessional payments for the event should be billed directly to your Division for reimbursement.
Questions
If you have any questions, please email divisions@doctorsofbc.ca.