By: Al Muktadir Munam, MSc Student, CH&E and Outreach Assistant, Office of Community Engagement
What does community engagement mean to you
Attending Community Engagement Day at Dalhousie’s Faculty of Medicine felt less like a formal academic event and more like stepping into a living ecosystem of ideas, people, and purpose. Held at the Tupper Link and Theatre A on March 26, the event brought together students, faculty, staff, and community partners, all united by a shared commitment to improving health equity through collaboration.
The afternoon opened with the poster and community partner showcase from 4:00 PM, where the space was filled with students, researchers, and community organizations sharing their work. What stood out was the strong presence of community partners alongside academic teams, reflecting a genuine shift toward collaborative, community-driven work. The projects spanned global health, social determinants of health, and local community interventions, but more importantly, they demonstrated how research can be grounded in lived experience and real-world needs. Conversations felt less like presentations and more like exchanges, with community voices holding equal weight in shaping the narrative.
The tone then shifted into a more formal program at 5:30 PM, beginning with welcome remarks and the awards ceremony. The event was hosted by Dr. Barb Hamilton-Hinch, whose leadership in equity, diversity, and inclusion was evident throughout the evening. The presence of distinguished guests, including, His Honour The Honourable Mike Savage Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, and Her Honour Ms Darlene Savage, who added significance to the occasion, highlighting the broader societal relevance of community-engaged work.
The awards segment recognized individuals and teams making meaningful contributions to community engagement. What stood out here was that the recognition extended beyond academic excellence to include partnership, impact, and sustained engagement with communities. This year’s award recipients are:
Dr. Ronald Stewart Student Award
Ms. Nicoletta Dini
Dr. TJ Jock Murray Resident Award
Dr. Kathleen MacMillan
Dr. John Savage Memorial Faculty Award
Dr. Nabha Shetty
Community Partner Award
Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS)
The evening concluded with the Dr. Tarunendu Ghose Visiting Scholar in Global Health Lecture, delivered by Dr. Teresa M. Chan, the founding Dean of the Toronto Metropolitan University School of Medicine. Her lecture provided a powerful closing to the day by shifting the focus from individual projects to systems-level transformation. She spoke about reimagining medical education through an equity-centered lens, emphasizing that community engagement should not be treated as a peripheral activity, but as a foundational principle in designing health systems. Drawing from her experience in building a new medical school, she highlighted how integrating community voices from the outset can reshape priorities, curricula, and outcomes.
By structuring the day from community-level work to institutional recognition and finally to systems-level thinking, Community Engagement Day delivered a coherent and impactful message. It showed that meaningful change in health does not begin at the top, it begins with communities, and must be carried forward through leadership, policy, and education.
To learn more about the Office of Community Engagement please visit our website.