Andrea Joyce is a senior paramedic leader and systems‑focused health care administrator currently serving as Director of Paramedic Services for Naotkamegwanning FN EMS. She has been with the service since its inception in 2007 and brings almost 2 decades of experience across the paramedic workforce lifecycle, including front‑line practice, supervision, and executive leadership.
Andrea’s career spans more than 18 years in paramedicine, with extensive experience navigating the operational realities of rural, remote, and stand‑alone Indigenous paramedic services. Having worked as a Primary Care Paramedic and supervisor prior to assuming her leadership role in 2018, she brings a frontline‑informed perspective to all her work.
She holds a Diploma in Emergency Health Services Management from Dalhousie University (2019) and continues to invest in leadership development through ongoing education.
Andrea is a proud Oji-Cree and Polish Canadian, with ancestral roots in Fort Albany on the coast of James Bay. Her leadership is deeply informed by her Indigeneity, her commitment to reconciliation, and her belief that health systems must be built with Indigenous communities, not simply adapted for them after the fact. Her work emphasizes Indigenous self-determination, cultural safety, anti-racism, respect for traditional healing, and care that reflects the realities of First Nations, Métis, Inuit, rural, northern, and remote communities.
Through her advocacy, Andrea continues to advance a vision of paramedicine that is relational, accountable, community-centred, and grounded in trust.
She can actively contribute to the profession and her PS via the support of her Chief and Council, Band Manager, coworkers, doting parents, and loving husband, Donald. To destress she retreats to the water, cuddles with her dogs and sings very obnoxiously in her car during her long commutes.