Leslie Shanks is a Canadian medical doctor who served as the president of Médecins Sans Frontières Canada, the medical director of MSF Netherlands, and who led humanitarian responses in Yugoslavia, Zaire and Sudan.[1][2]
Leslie Shanks | |
|---|---|
| Citizenship | Canadian |
| Alma mater | Queen's University |
| Known for | Humanitarian health work |
Education
editShanks graduated from Queen's University in 1988.[3]
Career
editEmployment
editShanks career started with work in northern parts of Canada providing healthcare to Indigenous communities.[1]
She joined Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in 1994[1] and was sent to Yugoslavia to lead humanitarian health responses the Bosnia War.[1] She subsequently led MSF's response in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) supporting refugees fleeing the Rwandan genocide, later managing a tuberculosis program in Sudan.[1][4][5] After her field work, she became the medical director of MSF's Operational Centre in Amsterdam[6][5][7] where she was part of a group that shifted MSF towards open sharing of medical data.[8][9] She is currently the medical advisor to the OCA council of the MSF Operational Center Amsterdam and temporary member of the International Board of MSF, https://www.msf.org/international-board
She has worked as the medical director at both the Sherbourne Health Centre in Toronto providing care to trans patients,[10] and also at Inner City Health Associates, the Toronto organization that provides care to people experiencing homelessness.[11][5]
She is one of the co-founders of Wanasah, a not-for-profit mental health association in Toronto.[citation needed]
Advocacy
editShanks been critical of the United States military, specifically their role in the Kunduz hospital airstrike,[5] and has participated in public awareness campaigns highlighting the plight of refugees.[12]
Selected publications
edit- Leslie Shanks, "To err is humanitarian", BMJ, 2013.
- Shanks L, Klarkowski D, O'Brien DP. "False positive HIV diagnoses in resource limited settings: operational lessons learned for HIV programmes". PLOS One. 2013 ;8(3):e59906. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0059906 PMID 23527284; PMCID: PMC3603939.
- Shanks L, Ariti C, Siddiqui MR, Pintaldi G, Venis S, de Jong K, Denault M. "Counselling in humanitarian settings: a retrospective analysis of 18 individual-focused non-specialised counselling programmes". Conflict and Health. 2013 Sep 16;7(1):19. doi:10.1186/1752-1505-7-19 PMID 24041036; PMCID: PMC3849884.
- Leslie Shanks, Michael J. Schull, "Rape in war: the humanitarian response", Canadian Medical Association Journal Oct 2000, 163 (9) 1152–1156;
- De Lange, Rink, et al. "Keeping It Simple: A Gender-Specific Sanitation Tool for Emergencies." Waterlines, vol. 33, no. 1, Practical Action Publishing, 2014, pp. 45–54, JSTOR 24687555.
References
edit- ^ a b c d e Jones, Kristie (July 1, 2004). "Spotlight on Dr. Leslie Shanks". Hospital News. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ Orbinski, James (2008). An Imperfect Offering. Random House. ISBN 978-1846041013.
- ^ "Dr. Leslie Shanks". North York Medical Center. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ Bortolotti, Dan (2011). Hope in Hell: Inside the World of Doctors without Borders. Firefly Books. ISBN 9781770850804.
- ^ a b c d Rammohan, Indhu (April 19, 2016). "Humanitarianism and Constant Conflict: Dr. Leslie Shanks' HHR Keynote Address". UTIHP. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ "68 HIV Cases Reported in Turkmenistan | Eurasianet". eurasianet.org. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ "Third Age Barrie's winter series to provide 'warm spark of inspiration'". BarrieToday.com. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ "MSF opens up its medical data to humanitarian ends | MSF". Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ Kennedy, Nick (January 13, 2014). "MSF pioneers opening up access to humanitarian data". SciDev.Net. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ "Becoming Ayden, The Expert Opinion". Canadian Broadcasting Company. October 13, 2004.
- ^ "COVID-19 - Novel Coronavirus: MSF Canada Resources". www.doctorswithoutborders.ca. June 25, 2020. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ "'You have 3 minutes to get out': MSF camp brings taste of refugee life to Canada". ProQuest. Retrieved January 14, 2022.