Nadine Caron


Nadine Rena Caron FACS, FRCSC,, is a Canadian surgeon. She is notable for being the first Canadian female general surgeon of First Nations descent as well as the first female First Nations student to graduate from University of British Columbia's medical school.

Early life and education

Caron was born and grew up in Kamloops, British Columbia to Ojibwe mother, a teacher, and a father, a mason, who emigrated from Italy. She completed her BSc in Kinesiology at Simon Fraser University in 1993, where she was also a star basketball player and the winner of numerous awards, including the Shrum Gold Medal, awarded to the top undergraduate student. While completing her MD at the UBC Faculty of Medicine, Caron was again recognized as being the top ranked student. Caron also completed an MA in Public Health from Harvard University, while completing her surgical residency, as well as a postgraduate fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, focused on endocrine surgical oncology. In June 2017, she received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of the Fraser Valley. In October 2019, she received an honorary degree from Simon Fraser University.

Career

Caron works as a general endocrine surgeon at Prince George Regional Hospital. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery, UBC Faculty of Medicine, and was appointed Co-Director of UBC's Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health in 2014. She received the 2016 Dr. Thomas Dignan Indigenous Health Award from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Caron was rewarded for public health studies concerning Rural and First Nations populations. Caron leads the Northern Biobank Project, which will improve patients' access to participate in personalized medicine research in northern British Columbia. Caron currently works as an associate faculty member at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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