Anna is a recently retired physician who has had a rich and varied career in medicine. She practiced rural “cradle to grave” family medicine in B.C. as well as remote “fly in” physician work in BC and the NWT. For the last 20 years she practiced Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine in BC, followed by the NWT. There she also helped develop and coordinate Emergency Transport Medicine serving numerous fly-in communities in the NWT and western Nunavut. Along the way she also worked as a doctor near Mount Everest in Nepal and on passenger ships in the Antarctic. She received her BSc in Wildlife Biology from the University of Guelph, followed by her MD from the University of Ottawa and Residency training at UBC.
Anna has been fortunate to have held a number of leadership positions through her career. She was Medical Director at Kootenay Lake Hospital in Nelson, BC and at Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife. She was President of the NWT Medical Association and President of the Canadian Medical Association in 2012-3. During this time she was able to strongly advocate on behalf of improving socio-economic conditions for Indigenous and all Canadians, with a view to improving health outcomes. Mental health, addictions, homelessness and access to care were focuses of her practice and political work.
Environmental issues have always been of deep concern for Anna in terms of the health of the planet, but also with respect to human population health and individual holistic health. She has been a supporter of Ecojustice for years. Her passions in life include hiking, backcountry skiing and expedition wilderness paddling. She is excited that retirement in Nelson will afford her (and her partner Linda) the time she would like to put into environmental advocacy and the opportunity to participate again on the Ecojustice Board.