As a young adult, Dr. Shelly McNeil spent time as a medical volunteer in Zimbabwe and in Swaziland (now Eswatini). She saw firsthand the devastation that diseases like HIV, measles and meningitis can wreak on communities.

“It’s then I knew I wanted to be a doctor and to learn more about vaccines and infectious diseases,” said Dr. McNeil, now an infectious diseases specialist based in Halifax, and, as of June 7, the President of Doctors Nova Scotia for 2025–26.

It was a long road. As a child, Dr. McNeil followed her military father to postings across Canada, spending her summers in Kentville each year. She returned to Nova Scotia and graduated from Dalhousie Medical School in 1994, going on to complete core internal medicine training at Dalhousie in 1997.

She and her husband, also a physician, then spent three years in Michigan both completing their residencies 2000. During that time, Dr. McNeil completed a research fellowship focused on the prevention of infections in long-term care facilities.

Since returning to Halifax as an infectious diseases specialist at the QEII in 2000, Dr. McNeil has also been a clinician scientist at the Canadian Center for Vaccinology, of which she is now the deputy director. As the Chair of Immunize Canada, she led a national coalition of professional, health, government and private sector organizations with a mandate to promote the understanding and use of vaccines recommended by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI). From there, she went on to serve as a member of NACI and to chair several NACI working groups.

Dr. McNeil is also involved in healthcare leadership, initially as the Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases and later as the Deputy Head of the Department of Medicine, the Chair of the Financial Management Committee of the Department of Medicine and now as a member of the NSH’s Senior Leadership Team.

From early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. McNeil was the Senior Medical Director of the COVID-19 Planning and Implementation Network, a multidisciplinary NSH group comprised of clinical and operational leaders who guided the health authority’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That group has since been renamed the Emerging and Re-emerging Infections Network; Dr. McNeil serves as its Senior Medical Director. The network guides the ongoing NSH response to COVID-19 and to new and re-emerging infectious diseases, such as measles, and ensures preparedness for future pandemics.

Dr. McNeil’s clinical practice involves inpatient infectious diseases consultations at the QEII and IWK Health women’s services. She also works in downtown Halifax and in the new Bayers Lake Outpatient Centre.

Dr. McNeil says she struggles to balance the growing number of patients needing care with the time and resources available. She and her colleagues look forward to solutions that minimize administrative burden, allowing more time for patient care.

If she had a magic wand, she said, she would ensure all Nova Scotians had access to a team-based, family physician–led, primary care practice.

“As a specialist, I want to focus on treating complex infectious diseases, but often I’m also providing essential primary care to patients with no family doctor. Their primary care needs would be better met by a family doctor.”

Her desire to continue building trusting and strengthening relationships with system partners and DNS members led her to seek the role of DNS President.

“These are exciting, challenging times for physicians and public healthcare in Nova Scotia. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to my profession and to the health of Nova Scotians by bringing my leadership skills to DNS.”

Dr. McNeil has completed formal leadership programs offered by DNS, the Canadian Medical Association, Harvard University and more.

“I lead with a commitment to communication, honest acknowledgement of uncertainty, engagement and shared decision-making. Leading the COVID-19 Network taught me about the importance of good governance, clear roles and responsibilities, diplomacy and the value of transparency.”

During a time of great change, with patient care needs driving innovations in care delivery that often involve expanding the scope of practice for other healthcare providers, Dr. McNeil worries that the critical role of the physician as the leader of collaborative teams will be lost. Physicians have long been the most trusted source of information, and trust between a patient and their family doctor has consistently been shown to lead to better health behaviours and outcomes.

“It is critical, as we transform the healthcare system, that physicians remain trusted leaders and partners,” she said.

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