I was the founding Director of the School of Audiology and Speech Sciences at the University of British Columbia and the Principal of the College of Health Disciplines, also at UBC. It is my privilege and pleasure to be a Senior Scholar at the WHO Collaborating Centre on Health Workforce Planning and Research, Dalhousie University, and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney. I have been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and at the National University of Malaysia. From 2016 2020 it was my great honour to hold the DR. TMA Pai Endowment Chair in Interprofessional Education & Practice, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India a program with which I count myself most fortunate to remain connected.
As Co-Chair of the WHO Study Group on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice I worked with colleagues around the world to develop a framework for action on those topics – now adopted worldwide, in innumerable education and practice jurisdictions. Our work on IPE, supported by Health Canada, led to my role as founding chair of the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative – now one of the members of the confederation – Interprofessional.Global, and its special interest group Interprofessional Research.Global. I have the joy of being accorded many honours of which I am proud - a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, appointment as a Member of the Order of Canada, the degree Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa from Dalhousie University. Together with Dr. Bud Baldwin and Dr Mattie Schmitt I was immensely honoured to be a recipient of the Pioneer Award from the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education.
My greatest joy, and a source of lasting pleasure, has been the invitations I have received to give talks (and Webinars) on IPE in 24 countries during the past 16 years. My academic background gives me a particular focus on communication between and amongst everyone engaged along the continuum of IPE. I never cease to be incredibly impressed by the ways in which our new discipline is being woven into education and practice in so many different cultures and languages. I have always been so warmly greeted in each country I have visited on the “business of IPE” and have made amazing friends and colleagues in all those places. Every day I recognize how blessed I am to be in the company of those who, around the world, are working in many new and innovative ways to embed the discipline of IPE in their health and social care education and practice programmes.
During each season of the year, you may find me pottering in my vegetable garden – amazed, always, that seeds often less than a few millimetres in size, can produce such wonderful food.
Interprofessional Research.Global Scholar Spotlight is a regular feature that highlights member research in Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice.
