The John McNeill Excellence in Health Research Mentorship Award recognizes faculty members at any stage in their academic career, in any of UBC’s health-related disciplines, who have formally been identified as mentors and who exemplify a deep commitment to fostering the professional and personal development of faculty colleagues, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows in the early stages of their academic career.  This prestigious award was established by the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences in honour of Dean Emeritus John McNeill, whose leadership helped distinguish the Faculty as one of Canada’s best graduate programs and research environments, paving the way for future excellence in research and research capacity in health at UBC.  

The 2021 recipient is Dr. Larry Lynd, Associate Dean – Research, Professor, and Director of Collaboration for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Lynd has made significant contributions to the mentorship of numerous graduate, post-graduate, and clinical trainees, and his demonstrated abilities in leadership and mentorship of junior faculty have contributed to the success of CORE. A testament to the superb training and mentorship environment that he fosters, Dr. Lynd’s trainees have been recipients of prestigious scholarship awards, published in peer-reviewed journals, and presented in national and international conferences. With the well-rounded experiences facilitated by Dr. Lynd, trainees are poised for success in their future careers—many now hold positions in academia, research, and industry. Dr. Lynd embodies excellence in mentorship, encouraging and inspiring individuals to reach their full potential.

The John F. McCreary Prize for Interprofessional Teamwork was created to recognize and promote interprofessional teamwork in the health and human service professions. The award is named after Dr. John F. McCreary, the first coordinator of health sciences at UBC, and is intended to draw attention to Dr. McCreary’s vision of interprofessional collaboration in clinical work and education and the value of a team approach in meeting the health care needs of British Columbians. 

The 2021 recipient is Genome Canada Transplant Consortium: CanPREV Precision Medicine for Renal Transplantation. The Genome Canada Transplant Consortium (GCTC) links more than 70 scientists and clinicians from 22 international universities to advance the outcomes of organ transplantation by preventing premature organ rejection. GCTC’s interdisciplinary team of partners combines expertise and resources across a broad range of technologies and treatment and applies them to discovery, translational, and delivery research. GCTC has shown exemplary interprofessional teamwork between clinicians, allied health providers, laboratory and computational scientists, epidemiologists, pharmacotherapeutic experts, and qualitative researchers to bring innovation and excellence to a novel paradigm of solutions that will transform the care of organ transplantation in Canada and around the world.

The team is led by Dr. Paul Keown and includes 84 members from UBC and around the world. View the list of team members.

The 2021 honourable mention is the Long-Term Care Interdisciplinary Research Team at Providence Health Care. The research team aims to reduce staff stress and burnout related to resident deaths in long-term care. Team members value diversity in disciplines, culture, gender, and life experience and continuously draw on each other’s individual strengths and differences to be innovative and creative with solutions. The team’s three-phase research project sought to understand interdisciplinary care team stress, identified potential strategies to help alleviate staff burnout, and implemented supporting strategies for staff emotional wellbeing. Through their commitment to research, teaching, and manuscript publications, team members are working to meet the support needs of long-term care staff to reduce burnout and provide residents and their families with the highest level of care at end-of-life.

Team members are Karen Pott (team lead), Chris Bernard, Kit Chan, Anne Leclerc, Joseph Puyat, Paddy Rodney, and Annes Song.

The Award for Excellence in Interprofessional Teaching and Learning recognizes two outstanding educators that demonstrate excellence in facilitating interprofessional groups of learners at UBC.

2021 Recipients

Dr. Philip Crowell is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC, Medical and Dental Ethics Leader/Educator for UBC, and Spiritual Health Leader/Educator for Provincial Health Services Authority. Dr. Crowell has been facilitating interprofessional learning at UBC for 10 years, and his contributions have enhanced collaborative health education. Among his many activities, he assisted with the development of healthcare ethics workshops for UBC Health’s Integrated Curriculum and the Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry. In addition, he facilitates the workshops, which are attended by interdisciplinary groups of health professional students, and provides training for facilitators from a range of disciplines. As a UBC interprofessional ethics educator, Dr. Crowell approaches ethics as an integrative and collaborative process, which enables students to better understand other healthcare professions and their values, ultimately benefitting future practice.

Dr. Kerry Wilbur is Associate Professor and Executive Director, Entry-to-Practice Education in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC. Dr. Wilbur has been committed to interprofessional education and collaboration for more than 20 years and has been an advocate in pharmacy training programs locally and internationally. She has facilitated UBC Health Integrated Curriculum workshops on professionalism, ethics, collaborative decision-making, and Indigenous cultural safety. She also worked with the Patient and Community Partnership for Education at UBC Health to develop an interprofessional patient-centred health advocacy workshop for delivery in medicine, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and pharmacy. Dr. Wilbur ensures protected time in the pharmacy curriculum for interprofessional education activities led by students and created a committee to review new interprofessional learning opportunities and evaluate the outcomes. Dr. Wilbur believes interprofessional exposure will have valuable impacts on team and patient-centred care in practice.

The Practice Education Award honours an individual or healthcare team that provides outstanding interprofessional collaborative patient-centred education in the practice setting for pre-entry to practice-level UBC students.

The 2021 recipient is Rebecca Shook, Physiotherapy Site Lead at Holy Family Hospital with Providence Health Care. She has been a preceptor to UBC physical therapy students for 22 years and supports student participation as a full member of the healthcare team. Holy Family Hospital is a tertiary interdisciplinary centre providing neurological, orthopedic, and amputee rehabilitation to geriatric patients, with a strong focus on patient-centred care delivered by a multidisciplinary team. Rebecca provides students with opportunities to attend patient care rounds, family conferences, and community case conferences and to shadow multidisciplinary team members to enhance understanding of the team member’s role in the rehabilitation setting. In addition, she supports staff members to offer quality placements that facilitate students’ learning needs while maintaining high standards of care.

The R. Paul Kerston Community Educator Award was named after long-time community educator, R. Paul Kerston to honour outstanding community educators who have made a difference to student learning in health and human service programs at UBC. 

2021 Recipients

Anja Lanz has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to student learning and professional development through her involvement with the UBC Interprofessional Health Mentors Program for the past 10 years. She has passionately educated and connected with a diverse range of students from different health disciplines on topics such as patient-centred care and navigating the healthcare system. She is an engaged teacher and strong advocate for better healthcare in BC. Her knowledge, perspectives, and insights are helping to shape the values and decisions of future healthcare professionals. Anja aims to empower students to be strong advocates for change and communicates powerfully about the impact that future healthcare providers can have in supporting patients. Her work through the Health Mentors program has inspired students to be more compassionate, knowledgeable, and optimistic about their patients’ health needs.

Lelainia Lloyd has been a patient educator through the UBC Interprofessional Health Mentors Program for more than 10 years. She was a member of the steering committee that helped shape the direction and scope of the program. Lelainia shares her lived experience as an individual with a rare disease to help students learn about patient-centred care and patient advocacy. She teaches the value of interprofessional practice by talking about her interactions with various health professionals to help students learn about their role in relation to the roles of others. For several years, Lelainia was also a patient educator in the Faculties of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Medicine. She helped first-year pharmacy students develop a foundation of patient-centred care and provided a safe space for physical therapy students to develop their skills and confidence in patient interviewing and assessment.

Bruce Raber is a health mentor with the UBC Interprofessional Health Mentors Program, where he strives to provide thought-provoking learning experiences for students in an open, encouraging, and non-judgmental environment. He has shared his experiences as a patient, posed challenging questions, and taught students about the importance of collaboration, the power of language, and the impact that healthcare providers can have on an individual with a chronic condition. Bruce was also an inaugural patient co-facilitator for the UBC Health Integrated Curriculum workshops on collaborative decision-making, helped shape how patient stories would be incorporated, and selected elements of his healthcare journey to engage interprofessional students in discussions about collaborative approaches to care. Bruce’s passion and enthusiasm has inspired many of his students to seek to improve the healthcare system and create systemic change.

The Professor Jessie Gordon MacCarthy Memorial Scholarship recognizes a student in the final year of any pre-licensure health science program who best combines academic excellence, demonstrated interest, and leadership in the field of community health. The scholarship was established through an endowment in memory of Jessie Gordon MacCarthy, long-term contributor to the development of health sciences at UBC.

The 2021 recipient is Natania Abebe, who is a third-year student in the Master of Public Health and Master of Science in Nursing dual degree program in the School of Population and Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine and the School of Nursing in the Faculty of Applied Science. Natania was recognized for her leadership in public health, anti-racism, and equity-based mental healthcare. She has worked with people with lived and living experience, researchers, and policymakers to advocate for healthy public policy that is co-created and driven by community to improve mental health. Among her many accomplishments, Natania is a co-founder of the Coalition of African, Caribbean and Black nurses in British Columbia, which works to address racism and discrimination experienced by African, Caribbean, and Black nurses in the province as well as a co-founder of Stars in a Jar, which promotes the mental wellbeing of pediatric cancer patients through community supports.

The ImpactBC Scholarships in Health Care Research and Development recognize outstanding students in a UBC health discipline who have completed a research or development project focusing on patient/client involvement in health care decision-making or in health professional education. The scholarships were established through an endowment by ImpactBC.

2021 Recipients

Ria Garg is a student in the final year of the Entry-to-Practice Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. As chair of the faculty’s suicide prevention working group, Ria successfully advocated for the provision of novel pharmacy-specific suicide prevention training as part of the Entry-to-Practice PharmD curriculum. She collaborated with faculty members to create a development, implementation, and evaluation plan to enable safe provision of suicide prevention training that was inclusive and addressed the mental healthcare needs of students. The training project will support students in their attainment of the knowledge and skills required to engage effectively with patients who present with suicide warning signs and refer them to appropriate community resources. The project is intended to improve patient access to mental healthcare services and ultimately reduce the number of lives lost to suicide.

Jennifer Murray is a PhD candidate in her third year of the Doctor of Philosophy program in the School of Population and Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine. Jennifer is engaged in a research project on preterm birth among First Nations women in BC, developed in response to a First Nations community’s concern about a high rate of preterm birth. She has a strong commitment to community-led Indigenous health research and, as a part of the community research team, helped develop extensive partnerships and collaborations with this First Nations community to co-create a project based in the local territory, grounded in cultural teachings, and led by the community. The research is looking at factors impacting pregnancy health, clinical, policy, and health service delivery issues, and predictors of preterm birth. Study results will enable the development of a model of preterm birth experiences in community, with the intention of offering insights into how to prevent preterm birth and reduce its effect in this and other Indigenous communities. Jennifer is a settler of mixed European ancestry and resides on traditional, ancestral, and unceded Coast Salish territories.