The contributions of two University of Northern British Columbia alumni were celebrated recently during the university's chancellor's dinner.
Sam Milligan and Helen Domshy were presented with distinguished alumni awards for their leadership and service.
Milligan received the professional excellence award based on his outstanding professional contributions to the social, cultural and economic well-being of society.
Domshy earned the community service award for her significant volunteer accomplishments and her impact with several volunteer organizations.
Milligan is a registered nurse who earned a Master of Science degree in community health at UNBC in 2012.
He has devoted his time caring for the health and wellness of marginalized people around the world, including rural Africa, Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and rural and remote Indigenous communities in Northern B.C.
Since 2015, Milligan has worked at Carrier Sekani Family Services as an integrated care coordinator where he has been instrumental in developing CSFS integrated care teams, monitoring and analyzing quality of care to support initiatives to offer best practices that address patient safety and enhanced quality of care.
Prior to his role at CSFS, Milligan developed and implemented prevention, testing and treatment practices to improve services for blood-borne pathogens such as Hepatitis C and HIV at Northern Health.
He has worked as a HIV nurse clinician at Central Interior Native Health Society where he provided education of HIV prevention and transmission, cared for those individuals living with HIV and provided pre- and post-test counselling.
He co-developed the medication adherence support program, a partnership between Northern Health, CINHS and Positive Living North. It was a daily support program to work with heavily marginalized clients who otherwise would have not succeeded on HIV treatment.
Milligan had a similar role as a community health nurse at the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority at Insite, a supervised drug consumption site in the Downtown Eastside. There he provided wound care and overdose management, client education, psychosocial and addictions counselling and HIV and Hepatitis C prevention education.
From August to December 2007, Milligan worked in Katse Dam, Lesotho in rural Africa with the Clinton Health Access Initiative as a clinical nurse mentor.
He implemented and evaluated a number of disease prevention and health promotion programs such as prevention of mother-to-child transmission, early testing of HIV in infants and offered adult and children treatment for HIV.
Domshy, who received her Master of Arts degree in gender studies in 2001, has long been a champion for women's health and education, community service.
Prior to enrolling at UNBC for graduate studies, Domshy was a full-time mammographic technologist at the University Hospital of Northern B.C. and a clinical instructor.
Upon earning her master's degree, Domshy immediately got involved in the University's Alumni Association's executive. She initiated a development process for the Memorandum of Understanding with UNBC as well as the full-time Alumni Relations position.
She was elected to UNBC's Senate, a position she held for three years while also teaching Gender and Women's Studies 498, Women in Sacred Tradition in 2007 and 2009.
In addition to her career in medical imaging, Domshy was a popular lecturer whose presentations specialized in the link between breast cancer and mammography. The results from her thesis research were added to her existing lectures.
Domshy raised more than $20,000 in seven years for children's literacy projects in her role as the ;literacy outreach co-ordinator for Prince George.
She was the primary author for the Northern John Howard report: Spousal Abuse for Men in Prince George and the Literacy Prince George workbook for the Kitchen Table Learning Program. She wrote a history of the Highway of Tears for the Prince George Sexual Assault Centre and travelled for the Highway of Tears Travelling Art Exhibit.
Domshy trained to discuss the paper, Pensions in Canada: Policy Reform because Women Matter, through the Women Elders in Action group. She travelled extensively throughout Northern B.C. giving presentations and soliciting support for this federal initiative.
She served as emcee for charitable organizations and events, such as the Rainbows Fashion Show, Festival of Trees and AimHi.
She sat on the board of several agencies including the Learning Differences Centre, Vantage Vision and Reading and Raise-A-Reader.
She was a Lay Minister, and a general volunteer for St. Michael and All Angels Church.
