Kami Kandola

Kami Kandola is a Canadian physician and the Chief Public Health Officer for the Northwest Territories, Canada. She is trained in family medicine, public health, and preventive medicine. Kandola oversaw the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Northwest Territories.

Early life and education Kandola grew up in England before moving to Montreal, Quebec when she was nine years old. She has noted that she wanted to grow up to become a doctor from an early age.

In 1992, Kandola received an M.D. from McGill University, where she specialized in family medicine. She then attended Johns Hopkins University from 1996 to 1998 where she received her Masters in Public Health and performed her residency in Preventive Medicine. During her time at Johns Hopkins, she also served in a mission hospital on the Ivory Coast of West Africa.

Career From 1998 to 2003, Kandola worked as a health specialist consultant in the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), working with international health organizations, including the World Health Organization and the World Bank During her time at CIDA, she lent her expertise in regions of Brazil, India, Côte d'Ivoire, and China.

In 2003, she moved to Yellowknife, the capital city of the Northwest Territories to become a regional medical officer under the leadership of Andre Corriveau. In 2009, she briefly rose to the role of chief medical officer to oversee the region's response to the 2009 swine flu pandemic. At the peak of the pandemic, 25 of the territory's 33 communities had identified cases of H1N1.

On October 1, 2018, Kandola assumed the position of Chief Medical Officer of the Northwest Territories, succeeding Andre Corriveau. These measures also tightened security along the border to reduce unnecessary travel out of the territory. On April 27 through May 12, she and her team tightened the rule to require that essential workers crossing the border must also self-isolate unless they have written permission exempting them. The announcement came 28 days after the territory's last active COVID-19 case. Under the first phase, select businesses and institutions, including schools, hair salons, and museums, would be allowed to reopen with appropriate physical distancing measures in place. During a press conference in April 2020, Kandola stated that her office would not identify a small community within the Northwest Territories that had a confirmed COVID-19 case to protect members of that community from being "abused, shunned, and threatened."

Selected works and publications