A University of Northern British Columbia professor has been named the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of B.C.'s academic of the year.
Dr. Margo Greenwood will be presented the award on Wednesday for the report "Aboriginal Health: Leaving No Child Behind."It was prepared for UNICEF Canada by the National Collaborating Centre on Aboriginal Health, which is led by Dr. Greenwood, and paints a statistical picture of the dire conditions facing many aboriginal children in Canada.The study found the infant death rate for Inuit children is more than three times the national rate, and almost on par with Sri Lanka and Fiji; the pregnancy rate of First Nations teenagers is seven times greater than that of other Canadian teenagers; the tuberculosis rate among some Inuit communities between 2002 and 2006 was 90 times higher than that of the non-aboriginal population The study also shows that 40 per cent of Aboriginal children under age 14 live in crowded homes, which is more than six times the rate for non-Aboriginal children, and on-reserve First Nations child immunization rates are 20 per cent lower than the national rate."Dr. Greenwood's report is just one of the many contributions she has made in an effort to get governments to understand and address the needs of Aboriginal communities," said CUFA-B.C. president Dr. Paul Bowles, also a UNBC professor, in a press release.Two other professors will also be honoured at the ceremony. University of British Columbia professor Dr. Todd Woodward, who developed a therapy to assist people with schizophrenia, will be the inaugural recipient of the early-in-career award.Simon Fraser University professor Mark N. Wexler will receive the Paz Buttedahl career achievement award for 30 years of applying his scholarly work on ethics to business, government health care, and other fields, and for engaging the broader community in a dialogue about ethics.
