2021 Academic Gown Ceremonies

Dr. Steidl, Professor, tenure track, is the Research Director of the Centre for Lymphoid Cancer at BC Cancer and Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He has specific expertise in clinical malignant hematology, molecular pathology, genomics and lymphoma biology. Dr. Steidl’s translational research group focuses on the pathogenesis of B cell lymphomas, tumor microenvironment biology and applied genomics. Dr. Steidl has contributed to the discovery of novel somatic gene mutations in B cell lymphomas using next generation sequencing and establish microenvironment composition, and tumour-associated macrophages and normal B cell in particular as novel biomarkers for outcome prediction in Hodgkin lymphoma.

Dr. Gilks is a Professor Emeritus in the Dept of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver Canada, and does clinical service work in the Division of Anatomic Pathology at Vancouver General Hospital, the site of the largest gynecological oncology program in the province of British Columbia. Dr. Gilks leads a research program focused on gynecological cancers and is co-founder of the Genetic Pathology Evaluation Centre, a laboratory that uses tissue microarrays of human tumor samples for cancer research, and OvCaRe, a multidisciplinary team studying ovarian cancer. He is also co-founder and co-director of the Canadian Immunohistochemistry Quality Control program, which provides proficiency testing for Canadian diagnostic immunohistochemistry laboratories.

Dr. Côté is a Professor with tenure in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia and the Director of the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine’s Graduate Studies Program. Her research concentrates on the mitochondrial toxicity of drugs, primarily antiretroviral drugs used in HIV therapy.

She is an Associate member of the Women’s Health Research Institute, an Investigator of the UBC Centre for Blood Research, and serves on the CANFAR Scientific Advisory Committee. As well, Dr. Côté plays a key role within the Department assisting with obtaining faculty and staff awards and advocating for resources for students.

Dr. Mattman, is a Clinical Professor with a patient focused chemistry lab at Providence. As well, he works at Vancouver General Hospital where he has a weekly clinic treating adult patients with inborn errors of metabolism. He is passionate about teaching as well as being actively engaged in research. Dr. Mattman is returning as the residency training program director for the medical biochemistry residency program, a role he previously held for 11 years. He is the vice-chair for the national specialty committee. Dr. Mattman is the co-investigator for a number of research projects involved with inborn errors of metabolism, including mitochondrial disease, alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency, and IgG4 related disease.

Dr. McFadden is a Clinical Professor Emeritus and the former Department Head for the Children’s and Women’s Health Centre. Dr. Deborah McFadden was an outstanding Dept Head at the BC Children’s Hospital and BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre. She joined C&W in 1985, specialized in pediatric pathology, cytogenetics and embyropathology.

For more than a decade, Deborah was Head of the Dept of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at C&W. In this role, she advocated for excellence in lab medicine and built a cohesive team of talented pathologists and clinical scientists.

Dr. Lowe is a Clinical Professor at St Paul’s Hospital in Medical Microbiology and Infection and is the Program Director for the Medical Microbiology Residency Program at UBC. In addition to his clinical and teaching roles, Dr. Lowe is the principle investigator or co-principle investigator on a variety of research grants. His latest COVID-19 research will help clinicians and scientists better understand which factors play a role in PCR testing for COVID-19 specifically. It will also allow to potentially identify any pitfalls with the current testing process, and improve upon these processes. As well, It will also lead the way to developing a method for researchers to better measure viral load in patients. This will help medical professionals determine which therapeutic interventions are effective during the course of infection. In the management of other virus-based diseases such as HIV, information around viral load has been invaluable. Ultimately, his research will be able to examine the diagnostic performance of COVID-19 tests and determine viral loads of patients which will improve the way that people are treated. His research will leverage local expertise in both viral quantification and precision medicine to help control the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Rasmussen is a Clinical Professor at Vancouver General Hospital and has a joint appointment with the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. He has expertise in head and neck pathology and is very active in teaching the pathology and ophthalmology residents. His research collaboration is focused in the field of ocular pathology.

Dr. Myles is a Clinical Professor and an anatomical pathologist with an interest in breast surgical pathology. He has a strong interest in evidence-based medicine in respect to efficiency of medical interventions and accuracy of diagnostic procedures. He has experience teaching a wide spectrum of topics in pathology in university settings for small and large classes, residency training, medical and non-medical students, graduate, postgraduate and undergraduate levels.

Dr. McManus is a Professor Emeritus. Dr. McManus’ investigative passion relates to mechanisms, consequences, detection and prevention of injury and aberrant repair in inflammatory diseases of the heart and blood vessels. He currently leads a diverse team of scientists devoted to trans-omic biosignature development.

Dr. Berean is a Clinical Professor Emeritus who worked at Surrey Memorial Hospital. Dr. Berean contributed significantly by teaching of numerous University of British Columbia undergraduates and medical residents throughout his 30 years as a Clinical Faculty member. He spoke at many UBC affiliated and Courses, and Workshops and Invited Presentations.

Dr. Thompson is a Clinical Associate Professor Emeritus who worked at as a cytopathologist at the BC Cancer Agency. Dr. Thomson was an active member of his profession, holding many offices with the BC Cancer Agency, and was an active member on Scholarly Committees including the Pathology Resident Committee as Site Representative for BC Cancer Cytology. Dr. Thomson published 32 journal publications, 13 abstracts, and 1 book chapter and has presented at numerous conferences.

Dr. Kelly is an Associate Professor Emeritus who has taught in the Faculties of Medicine, Science and Education. She was engaged as Director of the Foundations of Medicine course, tasked with designing the delivery of the basic sciences in UBC’s distributed medical education program. As well she was engaged with UBC’s Community Service Learning initiative, bringing science students into the community to teach science to children and educating adult audiences about science education.

Dr. O’Kusky, is a Associate Professor Emeritus who taught in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine’s undergraduate program. His major research interests included developmental neurobiology and the pathogenesis of developmental disorders of the central nervous system. Dr. O'Kusky and his research team were interested in the role of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) in the control of neurogenesis, naturally occurring neuron death and both the progressive and regressive phases of synaptogenesis in embryonic, fetal and adolescent brains.

Dr. Doyle is a Clinical Professor Emeritus who worked at the BCCDC as a medical microbiologist and infectious disease specialist. Dr. Patrick Doyle is a Clinical Professor Emeritus who worked at the BCCDC as a medical microbiologist and infectious disease specialist. He has a wealth of knowledge about clinical microbiology and infectious diseases and was incredibly dedicated to the care of patients with a meticulous eye to ensure every detail was considered. As well he did an outstanding job of overseeing the Medical Microbiology residency training from 2001 to 2015 and he loved to teach.

Dr. Diane Roscoe is a Clinical Professor Emeritus who worked as a medical microbiologist at Vancouver General Hospital and was the co-founder of the Infection Prevention and Control certificate program which was established over twenty years ago in response to SARS. This program has advanced the education for infection prevention and control professionals across the country.

Dr. Filipenko is a Clinical Associate Professor Emeritus and worked at St. Paul’s Hospital. Dr. Filipenko contributed significantly by teaching numerous University of British Columbia medical residents throughout his 30 years as a Clinical Faculty member. He was the Medical Lead for Anatomical Pathology from 2008 – 2018. He participated in all activities associated with Anatomical Pathology Resident training at St. Paul’s Hospital from 1998 to 2018. He was an active member of the profession, and received numerous awards for teaching. Dr. Filipenko published 24 journal articles, and 2 abstracts, and has served on numerous Committees.