If anyone wanted to get a quick impression of Dr. Kami Kandola, a peek into her office ought to do the trick.
It's tidy, with a small library of health-related books. There's coffee, though the chief public health officer confessed her staff have a rule that she can't drink any after noon.
"I am a very energized person," she explained.
And then there's the office's gratitude wall. It's plastered with thank-you cards from children, associations, staff and more.
"This started from the get-go," Kandola explained, referring to the Covid-19 pandemic. "I would get all these thank-you cards and I would go, 'What do I do with them?'
"The ones from the little kids are always touching," she said of the cards. "When it comes from children and their heart, and having a young son myself at that time, there's something in your heart that makes it very touching."
Though Kandola might point to other women SA国际影视传媒� both real and fictional SA国际影视传媒� as inspirations that helped her get through the pandemic, some consider her to be an example to follow.
She started her job in August 2003. Never did she think that a prolonged global pandemic would put her in such a unique spotlight in the territory, with the public, bureaucrats and politicians alike looking to her to help steer the NWT away from the storm.
"Nowhere in my history have we ever had a two-year pandemic," said Kandola. "In all the other pandemics, the travel restrictions, the masks, the vaccines, it was never rolled out before the way we rolled it out now. It's very different SA国际影视传媒� pretty much all of society stopped, which was not something we've seen before."
She added that, for her, it was a collective approach that kept her going through tough times.
"We had a team of people who used to meet in the morning, and we would have people working epidemiology, Covid enforcement, communicable disease control, communications, and we all sat together," she said. "We're like one family."
Kandola said there's been occasions since the pandemic when Indigenous government representatives or others come up to thank her.
"Sometimes I feel really grateful that I had the ability, and that I had a life experience, that I was able to take a leadership role when the territory needed it most," she said.
Was it all smooth sailing? No. Kandola used Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities as an analogy of her experience. She also mentioned the film The Lord of the Rings as a parallel.
"I was Frodo, and I just needed to get that ring, which was the coronavirus, to Mortars and I could throw it into the fire and just be done with it. That's how I look at things," said Kandola.
Main character mojo aside, Kandola also credited other women who have served as major inspirations, namely then-premier Caroline Cochrane.
"She was a fantastic female lead at that time," Kandola recalled, applauding Cochrane for creating the Covid-19 secretariat, which took a lot of work off her and her team's shoulders. "She was a good role model."
Kandola also pointed to Indira Gandhi, former prime minister of India.
"As a woman in a very male-dominated society, I think that was really interesting because she was respected, and so she's a good role model."
And in true Kandola fashion, she couldn't help but give credit to more pop culture figures, namely Wonder Woman and a few others from the Marvel cinematic universe.
"Some of those Avengers women can kick butt," she said. "You got to look at these women with superpowers."
To any young girl who looks up to Kandola, like the many who wrote cards saying 'thank you,' and 'I love you,' Kandola's advice is no secret: be disciplined, be organized and don't be afraid of a challenge.
"I went for science, physics and math and that was a time when they said, 'Oh, women, they're not going to be good at math.' But I aced math, I love math and physics, and so have faith in yourself," she advised. "When I was in high school, I dreamt about being a doctor."
International Women's Day is celebrated on March 8.
