Dear Registrants,
I dedicate this edition of the Registrar’s message to Barry Gang, who recently retired as Deputy Registrar and Director of Professional Affairs at the end of December 2024. Prior to Barry joining the College’s senior leadership team, he was already an accomplished clinician and healthcare leader. Despite his success in the field, he chose to embark on a journey that is far less travelled, to work for the College. Barry dedicated a quarter of a century of his life to serving the public interest through ethical and dignified regulation. Barry’s 25-year career with the College started as the Director of Investigations and Hearings in March 2000. Barry went on to earn his MBA from the Schulich School of Business in 2010, and became the Deputy Registrar & Director, Professional Affairs in December 2015.
Barry’s legacy at the College will live on through his solid work and through the lives he has touched. There are too many accomplishments to list, but most recently, Barry’s leadership on the 2024 revision to the Standards of Professional Conduct and on the completion of the Ministry of Health’s College Performance Measurement Framework are two significant highlights. Barry will also be remembered as an operational leader of several College departments, with most recently, the Quality Assurance and Client Relations Committees. Many of you, however, would have come to know Barry through his leadership of the Practice Advice Service, and his reflective and ethical approach to managing professional issues.
When I joined the College as Registrar in early 2023, Barry welcomed me with kindness, professionalism, and loyalty. I personally owe Barry a debt of gratitude for his support; whether it be his listening ear or him taking on another project, Barry has been an exceptional teammate and confidant.
The consensus is that there are so many wonderful things to say about Barry, and working with him, but he is quoted by his senior leader colleagues as « …above all else, an incredibly kind and thoughtful person. He is a wonderful role model to staff in his commitment to excellence in his work. » This is how Barry and his illustrious career will be remembered.
Barry’s legacy will also be reflected in the College’s incoming Deputy Registrar, Zimra Yetnikoff. A graduate of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, Zimra obtained her Juris Doctor in 2006 prior to being called to the Ontario Bar in 2007. She first joined the College in 2009 as a case manager under Barry’s tutelage and was then subsequently promoted to Director of the portfolio in 2016 upon Barry’s promotion to Deputy Registrar and Director of Professional Affairs. The future of the College is bright!
I end my message with a call to action for the membership. In this era of incivility, dysregulation, and social conflict, let us all learn from Barry. Let us take the opportunity to reflect on our own professional lives and to take stock in whether we are conducting ourselves in alignment with our values and that of our professions. Barry will forever be remembered by his ability to maintain professionalism even when it is most challenging. Perhaps this is how many of us will want our legacies to be remembered as well.
With gratitude for Barry and his loyalty to the public interest – Semper fidelis
Tony DeBono, MBA, Ph.D., C.Psych.
Registrar & Executive Director