Prince George surgeon Dr. Nadine Caron, whose career devotion to address disparities in Indigenous health in Canada led to the creation of UBC’s Centre for Excellence for Indigenous Health, has been appointed to the Order of British Columbia.
“It’s really important when you get an award like this to recognize it’s not you, it’s not one person who comes close to warranting something like this. It’s massive amounts of people behind you. It’s everyone I work with at UBC’s Centre for Excellence Indigenous Health. It’s the team I get to work with daily as the First Nations Health Authority chair in Cancer and Wellness at UBC.
“She just turned 16 in June. It’s being an athlete, it’s being a kind humble person and seeing the world through the next generation, hearing the questions she’s asking, and being held responsible to provide answers. I think the next generation deserves answers today for what we’re doing in the health care system and in society today and how we’re addressing some major responsibilities and how we’re not.
Caron and her husband, Pat Turner, an emergency room doctor at UHNBC, passed on their athletic genes to Aliah, who excels in cross-county ski racing and biathlon. Pat won Olympic gold in the rowing eights in 1984, while Nadine was a dual-sport athlete at Simon Fraser University, playing four years with the varsity basketball team from 1988-92 and one year for the soccer team in 1993.
Now with 16 years of postsecondary education behind her, Caron was a graduate student completing her master’s degree in public health at Harvard University in 1999 when she presented her research to an audience that included future colleagues from Johns Hopkins University. Their backing encouraged her to address inequities in the Canadian Indigenous health system, especially for rural and remote patients in northern communities in B.C.