AGM & Awards Ceremony | UBC Faculty of Medicine Alumni Engagement

The UBC Medical Alumni Association (MAA) held its virtual 2021 Annual General Meeting & Awards Ceremony on May 10, 2021.

Recap of 2021 AGM

Dr. Hamed Umedaly, BSc’81, MD’86, President of the MAA, was the host of the AGM portion of the evening. The MAA reviewed its key activities and financial statements from 2020, as well as an update on the status of the MSACs which remain closed. As this was Dr. Umedaly's last engagement as MAA President, Dermot Kelleher, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, and Vice-President, Health, UBC thanked him for his years of service, and the UBC MAA welcomed Dr. Jan Christilaw, MHSc’03, UBC MAA Honorary Medical Alumna 2016 into the role of MAA President. Dean Kelleher, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, and Vice-President, Health, UBC also gave the Faculty of Medicine report where he reviewed several research highlights, the creation of the Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion: REDI to provide leadership across the Faculty in the areas of professionalism, learner mistreatment, equity, diversity, and inclusion, anti-racism, and anti-discrimination, and the creation of a draft framework for a refreshed strategic plan, Building the Future 2021-2026.

The following Board Directors renewed their positions for another term:

Vice President, Fraser Medical Program – Dr. John Edworthy
Director, MD Admissions Subcommittee – Dr. David Chercover

Dr. Umedaly expressed his gratitude to departing Board Directors for their valuable contributions and dedication to the MAA and wished them well on their future endeavours:

Dr. Thomas Kinahan, BSc’82, MD’84, Vice President, Southern Medical Program, 2012-2021
Dr. Daphne Lu, BSc'14, MD'18, President, Resident Doctors of BC 2020-2021
Billy Zhao, President, Medical Undergraduate Society 2020-2021
Rhea Ashmead, MUS Site Lead, Island Medical Program 2020-2021
Paige Murphy, MUS Site Lead, Northern Medical Program 2020-2021
Lauren Hughes, BSc-O’16, MUS Site Lead, Southern Medical Program 2020-2021

Recap of 2021 Awards Ceremony

Dr. Christilaw was the host of the awards ceremony where the MAA had the honour to present the awards to the following award recipients:

**2020-2021 alumni UBC Builder Award**

Dr. Jim Huang, MSc'11, MD'15

2020 Wallace Wilson Leadership Award

Dr. Kenneth G. Gin, MD’85

Dr. Richard J. Warren, MD’74

2020 Honorary Medical Alumni Award

Dr. Mark Hill

Dr. Adeera Levin

2019 Silver Anniversary Award

Dr. Donna McLachlan, MD'94

2020 Student Leadership Award

Rohit Singla, BASc’15, MASc’17

Vivian Tsang

2021 Student Leadership Award

Armaghan (Army) Alam

Morgan Haines, BSc’16

Recording of 2021 Awards Ceremony

Recap of 2020 AGM

The UBC Medical Alumni Association (MAA) held its 2020 Annual General Meeting on October 20, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was hosted online.

Dr. Hamed Umedaly, BSc’81, MD’86, President of the MAA, was the host of the event and welcomed all our guests, who included MAA members, Board Directors, guests, and UBC staff.

First and foremost, Dr. Umedaly thanked UBC medical alumni and members of the medical community for their dedication and contributions to the COVID-19 response. He also thanked MAA members, the MAA Board, and UBC Faculty of Medicine staff for their ongoing support. Dr. Umedaly reviewed the key MAA activities from May 2019 to March 2020: the MAA AGM and Awards Ceremony and MD Student Hooding Ceremony in May 2019, UBC Medical Alumni & Friends Golf Tournament in June, raising $35,000, and the Alumni & Friends Summer Socials in Kelowna, Prince George, and Vancouver in July. The MAA also participated in the Victoria Medical Society Student Welcome Dinner in January 2020 and hosted Wine & Wisdom in February at the MSAC Vancouver. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the MSAC Vancouver was closed in mid-March and remains closed while UBC reviews plans for safely reopening spaces across the University.

Dr. Mike Allard, BSc’78, MD’81, Past President and the Faculty of Medicine Dean's Designate, shared highlights from the Faculty over the past year. In June 2020, the UBC Board of Governors approved the extension of Dermot Kelleher's appointment as Dean of the UBC Faculty of Medicine for a second five-year term, commencing September 1, 2020. The Faculty’s Strategic Plan, Building the Future, will be refreshed to build on past accomplishments, address the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects, such as virtual care and learning, and incorporate the Faculty’s new vision (transforming health for everyone) and values (respect, integrity, compassion, collaboration and equity). The Faculty is also creating the implementation plan on the recommendations from the Dean’s Task Force on Respectful Environments.

Dr. Umedaly expressed his gratitude to departing Board Directors for their valuable contributions and dedication to the MAA and wished them well on their future endeavours:

Dr. Deborah Money, BSc’81, MD’85, Executive Vice-Dean, UBC Faculty of Medicine 2018-2020
Dr. Daryl Leiski, MD’96, Vice-President, Northern Medical Program 2018-2020
Dr. David Jones, BSc’67, MD’70, Director, Vancouver-Fraser Medical Program and previous MAA President 2000-2020
Dr. Alana Fleet, President, Resident Doctors of BC 2019-2020
Zach Sagorin, BSc’17, President, UBC Medical Undergraduate Society (MUS) 2019-2020
Aaron Baker, MUS Site Lead, Island Medical Program 2019-2020
Kian Draper, MUS Site Lead, Northern Medical Program 2019-2020
Kaitlin Toplak, MUS Site Lead, Southern Medical Program 2019-2020

Recap of 2019 AGM & Awards Ceremony

The UBC Medical Alumni Association (MAA) held its 2019 Annual General Meeting and Awards Ceremony on May 9, 2019 at the Medical Student & Alumni Centre (MSAC) in Vancouver. This incredible evening event allowed the MAA to share its successes of the past year with our honored guests and recognize members of the medical community for their outstanding accomplishments and commitment to their profession.

Annual General Meeting

Dr. Mike Allard, MSc'78, MD'81, President of the MAA, was the host of the event and welcomed all our guests, who included MAA members, alumni, family members, colleagues, and UBC staff. During the AGM portion of the evening, Dr. Allard highlighted the successes of the MAA in the past year, notably our events at the distributed sites and the annual UBC Medical Alumni & Friends Golf Tournament fundraiser. Dr. Roanne Preston, Department Head Representative on the Dean’s Executive Committee and Head, Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics, shared the Faculty of Medicine's key achievements, most notably the launch of the Dean’s Advisory Council on Rural and Remote Health and the $70 million raised by the Development team.

Looking towards the future, Dr. Allard welcomed Dr. Umedaly into the MAA President role and Dr. Preston, in turn, thanked Dr. Allard for his three years of service as the MAA President and welcomed him into his new role as Past-President. Dr. Allard expressed his heartfelt appreciation to the five departing Board Directors - Dr. Nicholas Monfires, John Liu, Nick Brochez, Jenna Erwin, and Rosie Mazolla - and thanked them for their past year's service to the medical community.

Award Ceremony

During the Awards Ceremony portion of the evening, Dr. Allard had the honour to present the MAA Awards to our medical alumni:

Wallace Wilson Leadership Award - Dr. Michael Nimmo (MD’95) and Dr. Ron Walls (BSc’75, MD’79)
Silver Anniversary Award - Dr. Videsh Kapoor (BSc’88, BEd (Sec)’92, MD’93)
Honorary Medical Alumni Award - Dr. Blake Gilks (MedRes’88) and Dr. Tamara Shenkier (MedRes'92)

The award recipients’ careers and achievements inspired us all to be as selfless and engaging towards the medical community and society as they have throughout their lives. This year, we presented our inaugural Student Leadership Award to MD undergardaute students Alec Yu and Eric Zhao (BSc'13) and wished them every success in their studies and future careers.

View photos from the event in the gallery below or visit our Flickr page.