Nicole Yada is the Director of Vital, where she oversees strategy, operations and partnerships for the platform. Since joining the team in 2024, the program has successfully secured over $200M in federal, provincial and institutional funding. As the platform's Director, she oversees the ongoing negotiation and management of partnership and funding agreements with governments, industry and academic health sciences institutions.

Nicole has over a decade of experience in government and research leadership positions, with a focus on multi-provincial health data infrastructure, clinical trials, and research networks. Prior to joining Unity Health Toronto, Nicole was the inaugural Director of the CIHR-funded Accelerating Clinical Trials network and oversaw business development at ICES.

She holds a Master of Science in Health Informatics from McMaster University and in 2026, completed her PhD in Health Services Research from the University of Toronto on the factors that influence participation in adaptive platform trials. Nicole serves as a co-investigator on several large-scale, international platform trials and has been a member of the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group since 2021.