Congratulations to Roberta Watt, BSN Class of 2025 and winner of the 2025 Early Career Nurse Leader (ECNL) award!
June 17, 2025
We are proud to announce this year’s Early Career Nurse Leader (ECNL) award recipient is Roberta Watt, a recent BSN graduate who enters the Master of Science in Nursing program with nearly a decade of leadership and frontline healthcare experience.
With a strong foundation in trauma-informed, equity-focused care, Roberta brings a deep commitment to serving marginalized communities and addressing systemic health inequities. As Manager of Peer Services at RainCity Housing, she led key initiatives including overdose prevention, peer support programs, and harm-reduction services for sex workers—advocating for policy change, community collaboration, and inclusive care practices.
Roberta's approach is grounded in both professional expertise and lived experience, offering a unique and powerful perspective on the structural barriers many face in accessing healthcare. Through graduate studies, she aims to further her impact across practice, research, and policy—driven by a clear vision for lasting, systemic change in nursing and beyond.
This award recognizes Roberta's proven leadership, unwavering advocacy, and inspiring dedication to transforming healthcare from the inside out.
I am so honoured to be granted this Early Career Nursing Leadership opportunity with the MSN program funding. My intended path is to dive deeper into healthcare inequities in the forms for trauma-informed care and access to care. I am interested in these topics in both urban and rural environments, focusing specifically on marginalized and stigmatized demographics ~ Roberta Watt, BSN
The ECNL supports one student entering the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program at UBC this September with $8,000 per year for two years ($16,000 total) and recognizes outstanding early-career nurses with strong leadership potential.