Crystal Phillips Wins 2025 Ted Anderson Community Leadership Award
Crystal Phillips has been an athlete and a leader since a young age. By the time she was a teenager, she had become an elite speed skater and an Olympic hopeful. Then in 2005 her life suddenly changed when she got diagnosed with an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis. At 19 years of age and the height of a very promising speed skating career, she was told she would likely never speed skate again.
It was a seminal moment for Phillips. “I was determined not to let my diagnosis mark the end of my skating story. There was only one path that felt right, do everything in my power to get back onto the ice.” she says. Through the national speed skating program, Phillips had access to top doctors, coaches, and trainers, but recovery was far from easy. In the months and years that followed, she relearned how to walk, bike, and skate. Along the way, she became deeply curious about how we optimize our thinking, eating, and moving, and was drawn to unconventional approaches to both healing and sport performance.
Four years after her diagnosis, Phillips returned to elite-level competition and qualified for the trials for the 2010 Olympics. Although she didn’t make the Olympic team, her remarkable comeback is a testament to her resilience and determination, two qualities that would serve her well in the next stage of her career.
Focused on Helping Others
After the Olympic prequalifications, Phillips became increasingly interested in using her experience navigating the healthcare system to help others. “It often felt lonely and overwhelming,” she recalls. “I was navigating a system that’s incredibly complex, with countless treatment paths, each with its own tradeoffs. And when even the experts don’t agree, the burden falls on the patient to make sense of it all.”
Over time, Phillips explored alternative ways to manage her condition and found meaningful results through a more holistic approach. But she also realized something deeper: many complementary and emerging therapies are not being sufficiently funded, not because they lacked promise, but because they didn’t fit the traditional profit model. “I realized that if I built a charitable model, I wouldn’t be bound by the same financial constraints,” she says. “That’s when I became focused on creating a foundation to fill the gap, supporting high-risk, innovative neuroscience research that too often goes unfunded.”
In 2010, Phillips co-founded the Branch Out Neurological Foundation, serving first as its Executive Director and now as its Board Chair. The Foundation was created to address what Phillips sees as a critical cap in neuroscience: the underfunding of solutions beyond traditional pharmaceuticals for neurological disorders. Driven by a commitment to innovation, Branch Out raises funds to support groundbreaking research that meets rigorous scientific standards, advancing tech-driven and non-pharmaceutical alternatives. To date, the Foundation has raised more than $5 million, funded nearly 200 research grants, and partnered with 12 Canadian universities, accelerating the development of promising, accessible solutions that aim to transform lives and reduce the global burden of neurological conditions.
Branch Out is making a real impact. The Foundation supports innovations like using transcranial magnetic stimulation to treat major depressive disorder, music and biofeedback to help Parkinson’s patients walk and regain independence, and brain-computer interface technology to enhance quality of life for children with cerebral palsy.
“Crystal is both motivating and inspiring,” says Aleia Robin, who recently stepped into the position of Executive Director at Branch Out. “She’s someone that people just gravitate toward and want to be around, so she’s been incredibly effective bringing people along on the journey we’re on to make life better for individuals and families across Canada that are affected by neurological conditions.”
Turning to Venture to Further Her Cause
Not one to rest on her laurels, Phillips’ next move stemmed from her fascination with Alberta’s tech ecosystem. After networking with people in the tech and innovation world, she started to wonder how to take the work her foundation enabled beyond the labs and into the hands of entrepreneurs and policy makers so that the research could more directly influence how patients are treated.
Phillips joined Thin Air Labs at its inception, where she helped build the firm and launch its first venture fund, a $20 million early-stage fund investing across sectors, with a strong focus on health innovation. Thin Air Labs became known for backing companies that create both human value and strong ROI potential. Now, Phillips is the senior director of OCIF (Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund) at Calgary Economic Development, extending her commitment to advancing health innovation and supporting leaders who are building the next generation of high-impact, high-value solutions.
On top of all of that, Phillips is an active mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters, a passionate patient advocate, and the co-creator of the charitable Tech Swing Golf Tournament, a fun event designed to help to unite Alberta’s tech community.
“Crystal is a community person at heart, who is always willing to do anything to help causes she cares about or that align with her values” says Robin. “I honestly don’t know how she does it all. She has overcome a lot of adversity and is an unstoppable force that has touched so many areas of our community, while expanding the way people think.”
In recognition of her hard work and dedication, Phillips is the recipient of the Ted Anderson Community Leadership Award. “It’s an absolute honor to be recognized,” she says. “I’ve spent years working across philanthropy and venture, and I’m always inspired by how generous and community-minded Canadians are. To be considered among them, that’s the gold standard for the kind of person I strive to be and the impact I hope to make.”
