By: Dr. Amanda Moore, Resident, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Please allow me to express my sincere gratitude for being awarded this year’s Dr. TJ Jock Murray Resident Award for Leadership in Global Health. From a young age I have been interested in how systemic and structural inequities shape the health and lives of individuals and communities, and increasingly compelled to follow a path that would marry this interest with my aim to pursue a career in medicine.

After obtaining my undergraduate degree in international development and health studies, I served as the Canadian Program Coordinator for the African Medical and Research Foundation, a non-governmental organization that works to improve health in Eastern and Southern Africa. I have been fortunate since that time to continue to weave my passion for health equity and social justice with my medical education and career. I have successfully implemented a monthly well woman pap and contraception clinic at the Halifax Transitional Health Clinic for Refugees in response to the growing influx of Syrian refugees, which was the recipient in conjunction with the broader refugee response of the Bronze Nova Scotia Health Authority’s Quality Care Award.

Internationally, I have been a champion for the implementation of the World Health Organization’s Safe Childbirth Checklist, conducting research projects in Rwanda and, more recently, Tanzania to determine impact of the Checklist on knowledge and practice. This work has been supported by a Duchesnay International Fellowship, awarded by the Canadian Foundation for Women’s Health last year. Most recently, I have been accepted as the University of Toronto’s fellow in Global Women’s Health and Equity at the University of Toronto, as which I will serve as the team leader for their maternal health program in Eldoret, Kenya.

I believe that in tandem with the great privilege afforded to physicians in our society comes a concomitant responsibility to those who have been overlooked, oppressed or ignored. I am dedicated to combining clinical excellence with a socially conscious lens, and establishing myself as a physician, researcher and leader dedicated to improving the health of vulnerable and marginalized women, both within our country’s borders and beyond. It is a privilege to be selected as this year’s recipient of the TJ Jock Murray Award, and my warmest thanks again for this great honour.

To learn more about the TJ Jock Murray Award for Resident Global Health Leadership.

To learn more about the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology global health work.