Bienvenue dans le nouveau site Web de l’EMNO. Même si nous sommes en train de créer un site complètement bilingue, veuillez noter que seulement certaines pages existent en français en ce moment.
Dr. Caitlyn Vlasschaert, NOSM University alumna Class of 2019, was recently awarded the Emerging-Generation Award by the American Society of Clinician Investigators (ASCI). The Emerging Generation Awards recognize post-MD, pre-faculty appointment physician-scientists who are meaningfully engaged in immersive research and provide a two-year longitudinal experience for twenty early-career awardees. Dr. Vlasschaert is the only Canadian recipient of this very competitive award.
Dr. Vlasschaert is a trainee in the Clinician-Investigator Program with the ASCI and is concurrently undertaking an internal medicine residency and a PhD in Translational Medicine at Queen’s University. She holds a Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) doctoral scholarship and has published more than 20 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including 15 as first author. She aspires to become a clinician-scientist at the nexus of nephrology and genetics.
NOSM University remembers and salutes the remarkable Dr. Saint-Firmin Monestime, Haitian-born, Francophone physician who settled in Mattawa, Ontario in 1951 and made it a better place to live.
Dr. Monestime studied medicine at the School of Medicine of the State University of Haiti, and was a specialist in rural medicine, writing three books on the subject.
Before his journey to Canada, he worked as a State doctor in Haiti, and it was during that time that he met with a terrible and bloody moment in Caribbean history. The 1937 Haitian Massacre in the Dominican Republic, also called the Parsley Massacre, left tens of thousands of Haitian people dead. Incredibly, Dr. Monestime was the only doctor on duty in the area. For his efforts to help his fellow citizens, he was awarded the Legion of Merit by Haiti’s president.
It feels somehow like fate that Dr. Monestime ended up in Mattawa, Ontario. Having left Haiti for Canada in 1945, he was required to recertify his medical competencies, which he did successfully in Montreal, Quebec. Then, in 1951, en route to another life in Timmins, he and a friend stopped at a restaurant in Mattawa. It was there that a local talked Dr. Monestime into staying put.
Dr. Monestime served not only as a physician, but as a major proponent of Mattawa’s private Algonquin Nursing Home, as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in Mattawa and as the community’s longtime mayor. He is recognized, in fact, as Canada’s first Black mayor.
So great were the doctor’s contributions to the community that, according to this report, “All of Mattawa’s businesses and schools closed for his funeral.”
An article by Andréanne Joly describes Dr. Monestime and his legacy: “His characteristic and contagious laugh, his joie de vivre, his confidence, his storytelling talent, his great sense of justice, and his always neat appearance left an indelible mark on the town at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa rivers.”
The Mattawa Museum features a permanent exhibit of his life and work.
Gift to be matched by FDC Foundation, creating $200,000 endowment
NOSM University students will enjoy some financial help thanks to the Nicolas Michael Farkouh Bursary, funded by the John Carl MacIsaac Foundation of Greater Sudbury.
With this family foundation’s generous gift of $100,000, and a matching gift of $100,000 from the FDC Foundation through their $10 million matching commitment, a $200,000 endowment will be established. Each year, the Nicolas Michael Farkouh Bursary will support a student in need with a gift of up to $5,000.
“We are grateful to the John Carl MacIsaac Foundation for investing in NOSM University students,” says Dr. Sarita Verma, President, Vice-Chancellor, Dean and CEO of NOSM University. “Helping to offset the cost of tuition is the best way to recruit the most diverse and motivated future physicians for Northern Ontario. The Nicolas Michael Farkouh Bursary will afford students some peace of mind to focus on their education.”
“Nick Farkouh immigrated to Canada as a Palestinian refugee in 1956,” says Andrew MacIsaac, Trustee of the John Carl MacIsaac Foundation. “It is a great honour to recognize Nick and his life-long contributions to the community of Greater Sudbury.”
Trained as an accountant, Mr. Farkouh began his career with Denison Mines in Elliot Lake. He moved to Sudbury in 1967 when he joined the MacIsaac Group of Companies. As the Chief Financial Officer of MacIsaac Industries, Mr. Farkouh became a founding Trustee of the John Carl MacIsaac Foundation. Upon his retirement, Mr. Farkouh served on the board of Laurentian University and helped to inspire and energize the early efforts to establish the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, now NOSM University.
Since 2005, NOSM University has been delivering on its mandate. It has graduated 838 MDs, 65 of whom are Indigenous, and 171 of whom are Francophone. More than half of NOSM graduates have stayed in Northern Ontario. NOSM University estimates that about 400,000 people have been helped so far by a graduate.
NOSM University has embarked upon a mission to raise the first $50 million for its Student Endowment Fund. Read more about that effort here.
(Photo: Jennifer McGillivray, Dr. Rayuda Koka, Nicolas Michael Farkouh, Andrew MacIsaac, and Joanne Musico.)
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NOSM University is Canada’s first independent medical university and one of the greatest education and physician workforce strategy success stories of Northern Ontario. More than just a medical university, it was purpose-built to address the health needs of the region. While advocating for equitable access to care, the university contributes to the economic development of Northern Ontario. NOSM University relies on the commitment and expertise of the peoples of Northern Ontario to educate health-care professionals to practise in Indigenous, Francophone, rural, remote and underserved communities. With a focus on diversity, inclusion and advocacy, NOSM University is an award-winning, socially-accountable organization renowned for its innovative model of distributed, community-engaged education and research.
For further information, please contact: news@nosm.ca
