Congratulations to Dr. Pam Roach, PhD
Congratulations to Dr. Pam Roach, PhD, for being awarded the inaugural 2021 Glenda MacQueen Distinguished Leadership Award. Named in honour of Dr. Glenda MacQueen, MD, PhD, the award recognizes a female faculty member who demonstrates leadership, mentorship and a dedication to uplifting others.
Although she and Dr. MacQueen didn’t work together, those who have worked with both women identify the same calm, thoughtful and gentle-yet-powerful leadership style. Pam is also incredibly humble about her leadership skills.
“For me it’s always been about doing good work in the right way,” she says. “I’m happy to support other people and it’s important to do so. I take what I’ve learned from people who meant a lot to me and think about how I can provide that support to others.”
Pam’s leadership has shone in activities undertaken within Graduate Studies and Community Health Sciences, the Department of Family Medicine, the Indigenous, Local and Global Health (ILGH) Office within the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) and broadly within Canadian academic medicine.
She has been instrumental in leading faculty at the CSM in navigating the path of reconciliation in response to the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She led the development, implementation and evaluation of PLUS 4: Reconciliation Leadership Foundations, a program within the Practical Leadership for University Scholars workshop series. She was recently appointed the Director of Indigenous Health Education in the ILGH Office where her leadership skills will continue to shine and do good work along the path to reconciliation.
As a Métis scholar and member of the Métis Nation of Alberta, Pam says she’s aware of what it means to be a role model and an example of a successful leader. She didn’t meet an Indigenous educator until later along her educational and professional journey. And when she asks grad students who their first Indigenous educator was, their response is often her.
“It’s important to demonstrate that you can exist in these spaces, that you can achieve things and do the work in a way that is ethical.”
Pam says she will continue to pay it forward and support others in a way that she feels it needs to be done. “I am honoured to have received this recognition and will work to be the kind of leader the community needs me to be.”
Dr. Pamela Roach is an assistant professor in the departments of Family Medicine and Community Health Sciences at the Cumming School of Medicine. She is a member of the O’Brien Institute for Public Health and Hotchkiss Brain Institute.