Spotlight on Exceptional uOttawa Graduates

Published on June 11, 2021
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Alumni Association’s Awards of Excellence banner
Alumni Association’s Awards of Excellence banner

2020 and 2021 Alumni Association Awards of Excellence: The winners

Twelve recipients were honoured Thursday night at a virtual ceremony for the University of Ottawa Alumni Association's 2020 and 2021 Awards of Excellence.

The 2020 recipients include The Ottawa Hospital President and CEO, Dr. John Jack Kitts (Faculty of Medicine and Telfer School of Management, MD ’80, EMBA ’01), who earned the Meritas Tabaret Award for Alumni Achievement, recognizing alumni who have distinguished themselves through excellence and achievement in their professional field throughout their career; have demonstrated leadership in their profession; have made a positive contribution to the prestige, influence and reputation of the University of Ottawa; and have exercised and continue to exercise a strong positive influence in the community.

As president and CEO of The Ottawa Hospital for nearly 20 years, he has guided one of Canada’s largest teaching and research hospitals (with a staff of 12,000), developing and implementing unique patient-centred care practices. He has also been influential in creating a more integrated health care system in Ontario. He has led the hospital through a period of massive change in the delivery of health care in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario. He was also the architect of a successful cultural transformation after four separate hospitals amalgamated and became what is now the Ottawa Hospital.

The Alumnus/Alumna of the Year Award, recognizing outstanding achievement by one of our members over the past year, went to Dr. Rob S.B. Beanlands (Faculty of Medicine
MD ’83).

He is Vered Chair and chief of the cardiology division at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and the Ottawa Hospital, an international leader in cardiovascular imaging and founding director of the National Cardiac PET Centre (the only PET facility in Canada dedicated to cardiovascular disease), and a professor in the cardiology division of the Department of Medicine, Department of Radiology (cross-appointment) and Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine (cross-appointment) in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. 


Among the 2021 recipients is Dr. Noni MacDonald (M.Sc. 1971, M.D. 1975), who was presented with the Meritas Tabaret Award for Alumni Achievement.

An international leader in pediatric infectious disease, development of children’s vaccines and global health research, Dr. MacDonald has been a pioneer in the medical community. She was the very first pediatrician to be certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in the emerging field of pediatric infectious disease, in 1983. After studies in medicine, she joined the faculty of the departments of Pediatrics and of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Ottawa. She also practised medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), where she founded the Division of Infectious Diseases in 1981.

The 2021 Alumnus of the Year Award was presented to Harley Finkelstein (LLB ’09, MBA ’09).

A leading figure in the Canadian business community, Harley Finkelstein is president of the most high-profile company in the country, Shopify. While the pandemic was raging around the world, he ceaselessly invested both time and money to help others. He quickly sought to provide tools, expertise, support and funds for small independent businesses so that they could stay in contact with customers, provide work for employees and offer valuable services to the community. He and his wife made a significant donation to the DMZ Black Innovation Fund to encourage Black-founded businesses. Under his leadership, Shopify took the idea further and donated $130 million to promote the creation of a million new startups run by Black entrepreneurs.

 

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