Meet Shyla Aube, a Communications Officer – Flight Planner (CO-F) at Ornge and the recipient of the 2025 Telecommunicator of the Year Award. Throughout 2024, Shyla demonstrated exceptional commitment, maintaining near perfect attendance and an outstanding Quality Audit Score. Through an expression of interest, she played a key role in mentoring and supporting three new team members, despite not formally holding the Communications Training Officer (CTO) title.  

We spoke with Shyla about how Ornge’s mission, vision, and values play a role in her responsibilities.

Tell me a bit about yourself.

I’m Shyla, I’ve held the position of Communications Officer – Flight Planner for the last seven years. I was initially hired at Ornge in the Scheduling department doing short term planning which I did for a little over a year before moving to the Operations Control Centre (OCC).

Can you describe your professional and/or academic background and how you got into this field of work?

My mother went to a job fair one day and announced to me that they needed more women in aviation. Having previously quit two unrelated university programs, and not having any real direction, I chose to take the plunge with Georgian College’s Aviation Management program. Since then I’ve also gotten a Master’s in Aviation Management, and a graduate certificate in Emergency Management. All that to say is that I’ve developed a fascination with the aviation industry and how interconnected it can be to many aspects of our lives. Never once have I regretted the decision to pursue aviation as a field of work and study.

How does your role as a Communications Officer contribute to overcoming time and distance when it matters most?

Before working at Ornge, I would consider myself the average southern Ontario resident who wasn’t aware there are fly-in only communities in northern Ontario or that not everyone has the same easy access to healthcare. I’m a strong believer in equity for all and as a CO-F, my role is to organize my available resources to bridge the healthcare gap for those who don’t live in major centres. Sometimes that means flying someone over two hours to access a burn centre or a 30 minute flight to get a CT. Healthcare isn’t the same across Ontario and it’s my job to make sure we get people to where they need to go as timely and efficiently as possible because sometimes their life depends on that care.

In what ways do you prioritize patient-centred care from behind the scenes?

Patient-centred care to me is understanding that each patient is an individual and they may require different interactions or care. When you learn something important about a patient, like they are unwilling to travel without an escort or may require a female medic onboard the aircraft, it’s important as a CO-F to make sure that that information is properly noted and handed off between shifts to make sure it doesn't get lost.

What does 'health equity in motion' mean to you in your role?

Health equity in motion to me means making sure that there is equal opportunity for everyone to access healthcare. Whether that means bringing missing drugs or equipment to nursing stations when they've run out, sending paramedics, doctors or nurses to patients in remote communities and working with all levels of the medical field to get these patients to their destination and the care they need.

What keeps you inspired or motivated to do this work every day?

The return patient. It’s the patients from scene calls or who are frequent flyers that you get the TMP or medics describing poor prognoses for that you don’t expect to see come across your screen again, but they somehow end up pulling through and show up as a patient returning to their home area hospital. These patients could show up weeks or months after the initial call. It really puts what we do into perspective and keeps you motivated to continue doing your job everyday.

What advice would you give to someone aspiring to become a Communications Officer at Ornge one day?

Can you type and talk at the same time? Can you type one thing while saying something completely different on the phone? Mastering the art of multitasking I think is one of the biggest skills you need to learn to excel as a Communications Officer. A medical or aviation background is helpful, but ultimately the soft skills, good communication, multitasking, ability to work with a group, problem solving, adaptability are all extremely important to have and understand.

• Inside Ornge