Joanne Liu
| Joanne Liu | |
|---|---|
 Liu at Chatham House in 2015 | |
| Native name | 廖滿嫦 |
| Born |
November 4, 1965 Quebec City, Quebec, Canada |
| Citizenship | Canada |
| Fields | Pediatric medicine |
| Institutions |
Médecins Sans Frontières University of Montreal |
| Alma mater |
McGill University New York University |
| Known for | International president of Médecins Sans Frontières |
| Notable awards |
National Order of Quebec Time 100 |
| Joanne Liu | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 廖滿嫦 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||
Joanne Liu is a Canadian pediatric doctor, professor of Medicine at the Université de Montréal, and the current International President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). She was elected President during MSF's International General Assembly in June 2013.[1]
Early life
Dr. Joanne Liu was born in November 04, 1965, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, to a Chinese immigrant Liu family from Taishan, Guangdong. Her family ran a Chinese restaurant called China Garden. Dr Joanne was the fifth child after David, No name (still born child), Anthony and Margaret. When she was thirteen, she became fascinated by Et la Paix dans le monde docteur, a book about the experiences of a physician working with Doctors Without Borders during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. She dreamed of becoming "a doctor without borders" one day.[2]
Education and training
During junior college, Cegep Champlain St. Lawrence, Quebec City, she travelled to Mali with Canadian Crossroads International.[1] Liu graduated from the McGill University Faculty of Medicine and completed pediatric specialty training at the Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine. She then completed a sub-specialty in pediatric emergency care at Bellevue Hospital Center of the New York University School of Medicine and an International Master's in Health Leadership degree at the McGill University Desautels Faculty of Management.
Career
Liu started her career with Médecins Sans Frontières, in 1996 when she worked with Malian refugees in Mauritania. Since then she has provided support through the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami; assisted in controlling a cholera epidemic in Haiti; helped Somali refugees in Kenya; and offered medical assistance in many conflict zones, including Palestine, Central African Republic and Sudan's Darfur region. She has also helped to develop one of the first programs to offer comprehensive medical care for survivors of sexual violence in the Republic of the Congo.[3]
From 1999 to 2002, Liu was a programs manager at the Paris office of MSF. She then went on to work as the president of the board of directors of MSF in Canada between 2004 and 2009. She has helped to create and currently co-manages the organization's telemedicine project, which connects MSF physicians in 150 remote sites with a platform of over 300 medical specialists across the globe. By communicating through the specialist network, MSF field doctors can receive critical diagnoses and treatment recommendations for their patients within hours.
From 2002 to 2013, Liu served as a full-time Pediatric Emergency Physician at Ste-Justine Hospital in Montreal and at the Health Travel Clinic of the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal. She is also an associate professor at the Université de Montréal.[4]
In October 2013, Liu commenced as International President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), in Geneva.
On September 2, 2014, Liu gave a briefing to the United Nations General Assembly, urging member states to mobilize against the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.[5]
On 7 October 2015, Liu demanded an independent investigation of the American bombing of the MSF hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan.[6] She denounced the bombing and suggested that it was a war crime.[7]
References
- 1 2 "Dr. Joanne Liu Elected President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International", McGill University: 10 July 2013
- ↑ Biography, drjoanneliu.com
- ↑ Dr Joanne LIU new International President of MSF, www.msf-seasia.org: 10 October 2013
- ↑ "Joanne Liu: doctor without borders", Université de Montréal: 4 September 2013
- ↑ MSF International President United Nations Special Briefing on Ebola, www.msf.org: 2 September 2014
- ↑ "Obama Issues Rare Apology Over Bombing of Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Afghanistan", The New York Times: 7 October 2015
- ↑ Lui presumes bombing a war crime, Washington Post, 7 October 2015