Northern Routes

Uniquely Northern

These two weeks have taken me to Thunder Bay several times and meetings around Ontario, with more plans to travel to where NOSM must be represented; including communities further north, and at the Council of Ontario Faculties of Medicine, and the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada and the Colleges. It is critical that NOSM is seen in all these places, because NOSM is truly unique. No other voice can adequately represent the Northern perspective on health-care education. If not, we risk being unheard or left out of competing province-wide decisions and national strategies in resource allocation and policy-making. No other s...

Dynamic conversations and creating a culture of kindness

Since my last blog, I’ve met an incredible number of new people. I had the honour of meeting NOSM’s Indigenous Reference Group (IRG) and Ogichidaang Gagiigatiziwin — NOSM’s Circle of Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers — on July 19. I’d like to extend my gratitude to the IRG and the Elders for the Welcome Ceremony and the Eagle Feather that they gifted me. As well, I met with Monique Rocheleau, Chair of the Francophone Reference Group on July 9. I shall cherish the trust and kinship that these meetings generated for us all. We were fortunate to host a meeting in Sudbury at our School with the Federal Minister of Healt...

Dr. Sarita Verma starts as new Dean of NOSM

Today the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) officially welcomes incoming Dean, President and CEO, Dr. Sarita Verma. July 1 marks the start date of Dr. Verma’s five-year term, succeeding Dr. Roger Strasser, Founding Dean and CEO of NOSM. As first female Dean of the School, and only the second Dean in NOSM’s history, Dr. Verma says her first priority is to engage with the more than 90 communities that make up NOSM’s wider campus of Northern Ontario. “My first order of business as Dean is to get to know the communities of the North; to learn what I can about them and their needs. It’s important to me that I hear fr...