Each year, the Faculty of Medicine recognizes faculty members who have made exceptional contributions in the areas of education, research and/or service, and who are dedicated to advancing both the Faculty’s values and vision of transforming health for everyone. Congratulations to the DMCBH members who received Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Achievement Awards for 2025.

 

Advancement of Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness

Recognizes outstanding contributions in the area of equity, diversity and inclusion through research, teaching or service.

Dr. Kurt Haas

Dr. Kurt Haas, a Professor in the Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences, has served as co-chair for the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), where he was involved in promoting science among underprivileged populations worldwide. IBRO runs approximately 12 diversity programs across North America.

In 2019, Dr. Haas founded the Indigenous Undergraduate Student Summer Internship Program at UBC, through funding from IBRO, to support three students to work in neuroscience research labs at UBC. Aiming to address the underrepresentation of Indigenous trainees and scientists, the program has expanded in recent years, thanks to additional funding from both IBRO and the DMCBH, and now includes other Canadian universities, including UBC Okanagan, University of Victoria and University of Lethbridge. In addition to gaining work experience in the lab, the program provides mentorship and tutorials on developing critical thinking skills and critiquing scientific literature, as well as on fundamentals and techniques in neuroscience. Community building is central to this experience, with structured journal clubs and discussions between participating trainees, and opportunities for their interaction with and mentorship of K-12 Indigenous students. Since its inception, 17 Indigenous undergraduates have participated in the program.

 

Service to the University and Community

Recognizes significant contributions to local, national or international communities aimed at improved health outcomes of the population.

Dr. Janice Eng

Dr. Janice Eng’s research focuses on the use of physical rehabilitation to improve recovery for people with spinal cord injury and stroke. In addition to being a University Killam Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Neurological Rehabilitation at UBC, she also co-directs the Centre for Aging SMART at Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), which is dedicated to finding solutions to improve mobility, activity, rehabilitation and health care technology.

Dr. Eng developed the GRASP Program, which has helped improve arm and hand function, and the FAME Program, which has helped improve fitness and mobility after stroke. Both of these programs were evaluated by large multi-site randomized controlled trials. They now operate at VCH and are also used in over 3000 sites across 50 countries. She also developed the freely accessible Spinal Cord Injury Research Evidence website (scireproject.com) which involves over 70 faculty and has over one-quarter million annual users, primarily clinicians seeking information to improve their care of their patients.

Dr. Daniel Vigo

In addition to being an Associate Professor at UBC, Dr. Daniel Vigo serves as the BC’s Chief Scientific Advisor for Psychiatry, Toxic Drugs & Concurrent Disorders, Provincial Medical Lead of the BC Advanced Practice for Assertive Community Treatment, Medical Lead for Tertiary Care for the Regional Mental Health and Substance Use Program at Vancouver Coastal Health, as well as a psychiatrist in an assertive community treatment team.

He has worked in multiple clinical, research, teaching, and leadership roles across the public and private sector, and has published peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and reports on public health, health systems, global mental health, psychiatric epidemiology, psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, and e-mental health. Dr. Vigo also leads several projects in BC and globally, including on E-Mental Health for University Students, Needs-Based Planning for Mental and Substance Use Disorder Services, and as Chair of the Services and Policy Workgroup of the WHO-World Mental Health Surveys Initiative, the largest global research group producing primary psychiatric epidemiology data.

 

Overall Excellence — Senior Faculty

Recognizes outstanding contributions in the areas of research, education and service.

Dr. Lynn Raymond

Dr. Lynn Raymond is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Louise A. Brown Chair in Neuroscience. She has also served as Director of the DMCBH since 2020 and is the Clinic Director of the Centre for Huntington Disease. As a clinician-scientist, she brings a unique perspective to her work on neurodegenerative diseases, bridging the gap between research and patient care, and authoring more than 190 peer-reviewed publications. Her lab investigates synaptic and cellular mechanisms that contribute to manifestations of Huntington Disease, focusing on changes in brain circuits and glutamate receptor function, with the goal of finding therapeutics that slow disease progression. In the clinic, she has served as site investigator on more than a dozen research studies and clinical trials.

In addition to her work as a clinician-scientist, she also teaches and provides mentorship to trainees in the Graduate Program for Neuroscience. To date, she has supervised 40 trainees in her lab, including postdoctoral fellows, Master’s and PhD students, while serving on committees for over 120 other graduate students. Dr. Raymond has also previously served in a variety of leadership roles, including on the DMCBH Executive Committee during the Centre’s formative years, as Director of the UBC MD/PhD Program for 12 years, and as President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience.