NOSM Welcomes Three New Associate Deans

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is pleased to announce the appointments of Dr. David Marsh, Dr. Lisa Graves, and Sue Berry to senior positions.

Dr. David Marsh has been appointed to serve as the new Associate Dean of NOSM’s Community Engagement portfolio. Dr. Marsh brings a longstanding interest in community-based initiatives to NOSM.

His most recent posting involved the provision of clinical leadership and strategic planning at Vancouver Coast Health and Providence Health Care where he served as Medical Director for Addiction, HIV/AIDS, and Aboriginal Health Services for the Vancouver Community. Dr. Marsh has also held leadership roles at the Addiction Research Foundation and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

Community Engagement at NOSM seeks the participation of community partners which provide hands-on clinical learning experiences for medical students and help to ensure that the School’s social accountability mandate addresses community needs. Dr. Marsh’s Aboriginal ancestry, coupled with a firsthand engagement with distinct populations, ideally position him to respond to the needs of Northern Ontario’s diverse cultural groups.

NOSM is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Lisa Graves as Associate Dean of the School’s Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) portfolio. The Undergraduate Medical Education portfolio is responsible for the planning, development, and implementation of the School’s four year M.D. program. Dr. Graves’ firsthand understanding of medical education programming strongly supports the appointed tasks of this position, particularly the planning, development, and assessment of all components of the UME program.

Dr. Graves comes to NOSM from McGill University with demonstrated strengths in all aspects of medical education. While associate professor in McGill’s Department of Family Medicine, she held the position of Clerkship Chair for the Faculty of Medicine and Director of the family medicine undergraduate program. Dr. Graves has directed course components in all four years of the medical school curriculum, including the Community Health and Alliance Program (CHAP). Her broad range of interests in vulnerable populations, medical education, research, and teacher development, as well as her fluency in the French language, will support the many components of NOSM’s distributed community-engaged learning model of instruction among the region’s distinct cultural and linguistic groups.

NOSM also welcomes Sue Berry to the position of Interim Associate Dean of the Continuing Health Professional Education (CHPE) portfolio. Ms. Berry will be responsible for all aspects of planning, implementation and evaluation of CHPE, as well as continuing medical education (CME) and continuing professional development (CPD) for health-care professionals.

A physiotherapist who grew up in Kenora, Ontario, Ms. Berry’s previous position was Director of Health Sciences and Interprofessional Education at NOSM. Ms. Berry provided strategic direction for the administration of all learning opportunities designed to enhance skills and develop competencies of health-care professionals. Her achievements are well matched for the tasks she will assume as Interim Associate Dean in the CHPE portfolio, the portfolio responsible for delivering integrated and comprehensive continuing education and professional development for health professionals.

NOSM Dean, Dr. Roger Strasser, recognized the variety of advanced skills these candidates bring to their new roles.

“It is a real pleasure to welcome Dr. David Marsh, Dr. Lisa Graves, and Sue Berry to their new positions at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. The range of skills, breadth of experience, and level of commitment to distributed community-engaged learning and health research demonstrated by each of these individuals will undoubtedly contribute to the high calibre of learning experiences at the School.”