Page 9 - Thirty-Fifth Conovcation - June 18, 2014

HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENT
JAMES ORBINSKI
June 18, 2014, 1:30 p.m.
James Orbinski is a humanitarian practitioner and advocate, as well as a leading scholar in global health.
In 1986-87, Orbinski lived in Sub-Saharan Africa researching HIV/AIDS in children under a Canadian Medical Research Council Fellowship. He has extensive field experience with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), having worked as a medical doctor in Peru (’91) and Brazil (’92), and as MSF’s medical co-coordinator in Baidoa, Somalia during the 1992-93 civil war and famine, and in Jalalabad, Afghanistan in 1993-94 during the civil war. He led MSF’s mission in Kigali, Rwanda during the 1994 genocide and civil war and in Goma, Zaire during the 1996-97 civil war and refugee crisis.
After completing a master’s degree in international relations, he was elected MSF’s international president from 1998 to 2001. He launched MSF’s Access to Essential Medicines Campaign in 1998 and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to MSF in 1999. From 2001 to 2004 he co-chaired MSF’s Neglected Diseases Working Group, which in 2004 launched the not-for profit Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi).
In 2004, Orbinski co-founded Dignitas International, which now supports more than 200,000 people with full HIV treatment, and is scaling up its primary health care treatment model to serve three million people in Malawi. Dignitas has also established an extensive research capacity focused on improving health systems in the developing world.
As of September 2012, Orbinski is research chair in global health at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, and professor of international policy and governance at Wilfrid Laurier University. At the University of Toronto, he is full professor of medicine at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and senior fellow at both Massey College and the Munk School of Global Affairs.
Orbinski has served on the founding boards of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, the Stephen Lewis Foundation and Canadian Doctors for Medicare. He is a founding member of the editorial boards of Open Medicine and Conflict and Health. Orbinski is a member of the Climate Change and Health Council and the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Health Care Systems and Cooperation.
He is the author of An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarianism in the 21st Century and the subject of the award-winning 2008 documentary film, Triage.
Orbinski is a member of the Order of Ontario and an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was the recipient of the 2011 Tarnopolsky Human Rights Award, in recognition for his outstanding contributions to domestic and international human rights. He was also awarded the 2012 Canadian Civil Liberties Award of Excellence and the Meritorious Service Cross, Canada’s highest civilian award.
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