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Recently, Sara Gottlieb joined the VON team as General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer. Sara began her career working for a law firm on Wall Street, in New York City.  Out of a desire to work in the public service sector, she has since worked with the Ontario Ombudsman and in the post-secondary sector, including with the University of Toronto’s Health Sciences.

We chatted with Sara about her background, her personal interests and her hopes for her work with VON.

What led you to a career working in the home and community care sector?

I was working in a general counsel role with Ontario Tech University, but I really missed the healthcare practice I had at the University of Toronto. I missed the practical application of the law to healthcare-related scenarios and working with healthcare practitioners, including nurses, social workers, dentists, doctors and occupational therapists. I find that there’s a good synergy in the way I think and the way they think. When the opportunity to join VON came up, I jumped.

What are you looking forward to achieving at VON?

I want to be a trusted advisor, a first point of call to brainstorm and extremely accessible, versus a lawyer who is removed from the day-to-day and is consulted only during the most critical or risky time periods. I want to find ways of supporting VON's work and emerging initiatives, while remaining true to its core values and its extensive history.

Is there something about VON’s mission that resonates with you?

It is the sometimes overlooked and under-resourced role that home care plays in servicing the healthcare system, both in alleviating burdens and providing quality of life to people that have high needs but want to stay at home and not be at an institution. I have aging parents, and, both through adolescence and as an adult, I’ve worked and volunteered extensively with neurodivergent communities, so it is meaningful to me to get to support the work that VON does to support a diverse community.

What keeps you busy outside of work?

I have two young kids, and I like—but I'm very bad at—a variety of athletic activities. I’m trying to learn to play a new sport called padel; it’s so fun, it’s like a combination of pickleball and squash. I’m pretty extroverted, and so I look for any opportunities to meet up with friends and family. I also like to read—a combination of good literature that is plot-heavy and terrible romance/beach reads. The most recent book I read that I love is “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.” I could not put it down, it was so compelling.

How do you balance all the things?

Past colleagues have said I’m efficient. An early skill that’s helped me in life is speed reading and speed typing. And I plan out my days and activities. I’ve got to-do lists in written and electronic form—apps, calendar items, all the tools that are available.

Sara holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto and a Juris Doctor degree from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. We welcome her to VON!