Three Faculty of Medicine members awarded 2022 YWCA Women of Distinction Awards

Dr. Andrea MacNeill, Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Surgery
Andrea is Founder and Principal Investigator of the UBC Planetary Healthcare Lab, bringing together researchers to generate data-driven solutions to the paradox of unhealthy healthcare delivery. One of a few global pioneers of healthcare sustainability, Dr. MacNeill was lead author on a study that modeled emissions from the Canadian healthcare system, which has been replicated at a global level and shows that healthcare contributes equivalent greenhouse gases to the aviation industry. The Planetary Healthcare Lab is the only entity of its kind worldwide, and its partner, Vancouver Coastal Health, recently appointed her to the newly created role of Medical Director of Planetary Health. Andrea is also an oncological surgeon at VGH and clinical faculty member with the UBC Department of Surgery.

Cheyenne Johnson, Executive Director, BC Centre on Substance Use
As Executive Director at the BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU), Cheyenne is advancing evidence-based responses to substance use harms and the ongoing toxic drug crisis to identify its root cause. Cheyenne co-developed the vision and mandate that led to the creation of the BCCSU, and oversaw the development of BC’s first clinical guidelines for treating opioid addiction and the training to support its implementation. These guidelines became a blueprint for similar national guidelines adopted by the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse (CRISM). A nurse by training, Cheyenne helped establish the Addiction Nursing Fellowship, which prepares nursing fellows to work clinically and be leaders in the field of addiction. The program is now the largest of its kind in North America and Canada’s only addiction nursing fellowship-training program.

Dr. Elizabeth Bryce, Clinical Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Elizabeth is a leader and educator in Infection Prevention and Control, a Medical Microbiologist with Vancouver Coastal Health and Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, UBC. Elizabeth co-founded the BC Provincial Infection Control Network and played a major role in developing infection prevention guidelines, performing surveillance on multi-resistant organisms, developing educational programs and providing expertise for emerging infectious events. Elizabeth’s work with the VCH Canine Scent Detection team is a Canadian hospital first as is the successful training of dogs for environmental COVID detection. She spearheaded VCH’s initiative to use photodisinfection to significantly decrease infection in high risk surgeries and introduced the use of UVC light mobile disinfection units. Her interest in environmental infection control has led to the adoption of numerous new technologies, including self-sanitizing surfaces.