Life Membership

Current recipient(s): Dr. Khalid Aziz

Dr. Khalid Aziz is receiving Life Membership to recognize his contributions to neonatology, both on behalf of the CPS and further afield, and especially for his contributions to the Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) and ACoRN: The Acute Care of at-Risk Newborns.

Dr. Aziz has been a CPS member since 1998, and he served on the Board of Directors, representing Newfoundland and Labrador, from 2000 to 2006. He was an author of the ACoRN First Edition published in 2005 and he joined the ACoRN Executive and Education Committees in 2014, ending in 2019 with a term on the ACoRN Steering Committee. He was a skilled and conscientious reviewer of the revised ACoRN textbook, and his input was much appreciated. Dr. Aziz was Vice Chair, then Chair of the NRP Steering Committee, and also served on the Healthy Generations Board.

Dr. Aziz is professor emeritus of paediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where he recently retired after 16 years as staff neonatologist in the Edmonton Neonatal Program and Stollery Children’s Hospital. He was educated at Guy’s Hospital Medical School, London University, and at Cambridge, where he received an MA in neurophysiology. He completed family practice and paediatrics training in the U.K. before moving to Edmonton, where he trained further as a neonatologist. Dr. Aziz was a general paediatrician in Lethbridge before moving east to work in neonatology at the Janeway Children’s Health and Rehabilitation Centre in St. John’s. He joined the faculty at Memorial University, where he received an MEd in information technology.  Dr. Aziz received the CPS Distinguished Neonatologist Award in 2022.

Dr. Aziz’s academic interests lie in interprofessional medical education and knowledge translation, and he was an assistant editor on the Editorial Board of Paediatrics and Child Health for 10 years.

Current recipient(s): Dr. Kimberly Dow

Dr. Kimberly Dow is receiving Life Membership to recognize her CPS leadership and contributions over many years. She chaired the Canadian Paediatic Surveillance Program during a formative period. As well as being a study co-investigator herself, she oversaw the transition to online reporting, helped re-set program priorities, strengthened physician engagement and response rates, and increased knowledge translation and advocacy activities based on surveillance results.  Dr. Dow represented Ontario on the CPS Board of Directors from 2017 until 2023 and has served on the Awards and Human Resources Committees.  

Dr. Dow received her MD from Queen’s University, then completed residency training in paediatrics there and a neonatology fellowship at Harvard Medical School. She became a professor at Queen’s and has held several academic and clinical leadership appointments since, including terms as Head of the Department of Paediatrics and Medical Director of the NICU at Kingston Health Sciences Centre.

Dr. Dow’s neonatology work has included attending and on-call responsibilities in the NICU, antenatal consultations, and normal newborn care. Her care of dyads and relationships with colleagues have been consummately skillful, empathetic, and warm.

Dr. Dow’s research and published work have focused on cellular mechanisms of neuronal growth during development, mechanisms of hypoxic neuronal injury and, more recently, quality improvement initiatives in the NICU and interventions to improve feeding in preterm infants. Her work in education included being a resident mentor and research supervisor and establishment of neonatal fellowship for trainees from the International Neonatal Training Program in collaboration with Fudan University.

Current recipient(s): Dr. Glen Ward

Dr. Glen Ward is receiving Life Membership to recognize his engagement with CPS work over many years. Dr. Ward was educated in New Brunswick, Montreal, and Toronto. He rounded out his MD with a fellowship in paediatrics and a PhD in physiology before heading west with his wife Andrea to set up home and practice in Surrey, B.C., where twin daughters soon joined them.

Dr. Ward started a general consulting paediatric practice in two communities, providing on-call services to two local hospitals at the same time. He was invited by Dr. Judith Hall to assist with developing the B.C. Pediatric Society, an experience that has guided and informed his many roles in local and provincial organizational medicine.

He became a CPS member in 1990, joined the Board of Directors in 2002 to represent B.C., and has been an active and steadfast member ever since. He has chaired the Public Education Advisory Committee since 2008, but also served on the Executive and Leadership Development Committees, the Healthy Generations Board, and the Vaccine Hesitancy Project Advisory Group. A voice for balance and reason, Dr. Ward is an unstintingly supportive colleague and friend to the CPS.