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Dr. Neil Arya
Dr. Arya, BASc MD CCFP FCFP D. Litt. is a family doctor and founder Director of the Kitchener/Waterloo Refugee Health Clinic in collaboration with the Kitchener Waterloo Reception Centre. He was lead physician developing the Psychiatric Outreach Project, providing mental health care in Kitchener’s St. John’s Kitchen.
Dr. Arya was also founding Director of Global Health Office at Western University and has taught global health in public health and medical schools. He served as Vice-President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), which won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize and as President of Physicians for Global Survival (PGS). He is currently President of the Canadian Physicians for Research and Education in Peace (CPREP) (www.cprep.ca), and of the PEGASUS Global Health Conferences (www.pegasusconference.ca). Neil has written extensively on Peace through Health, Global Health and health and care of underserved populations in Canada.
He received the 2009 College of Family Physicians of Canada Geeta Gupta Award for Equity and Diversity. In 2013 Neil was given an Ontario College of Family Physicians Award of Excellence. In 2011 he received a D. Litt. (Honorary) from Wilfrid Laurier University and mid-Career Award in International Health from the American Public Health Association.
Dr. Arya has a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Toronto, an MD from Queen’s University and completed his family medicine residency through McGill University He remains Assistant Clinical Professor in Family Medicine at McMaster University (part-time) and Adjunct Professor in Environment and Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo.
A more detailed CV is found at www.neilarya.com
Carolyn Beukeboom
Carolyn Beukeboom, MSc, BScN, RN(EC) is a primary health care nurse practitioner working in a Community Health Center in rural Ontario, and at the Center for Family Medicine Refugee Health Clinic in Kitchener. She has worked overseas in various capacities including nine months with Médecins Sans Frontiéres as inpatient supervisor and overseeing the malnutrition clinic in a rural surgical hospital in South Sudan; five months in a HIV/AIDS clinic in Lesotho; three weeks in Pakistan post earthquake in 2005; three years in Ecuador as a health promoter and educator in primary health care and six months as a volunteer in India. She currently is part of a health education project in Ecuador. Her main areas of interest include health care for people living in poverty, as well as new immigrants and refugees to Canada. Carolyn recently completed a Master of Science in Public Health from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Research assistants:
Helen Ala Rashi
Helen is the Director of ShamRose Refugee Support Centre, Kitchener, ON.
Rana Mohammad
Rana came to Canada as a Syrian refugee a year ago. She currently works as Coordinator and Arabic language teacher at ShamRose Arabic School, Kitchener, ON.