Recipients
2017
2016
2022
Ray Baker
MD, FCFPC, FASAM, ABAM
Associate Clinical Professor – UBC Faculty of Medicine
After 12 years of rural family practice and 30 years in Addiction Medicine serving as a medical educator, consultant in occupational addiction and medicolegal expert, Ray retired from clinical practice to focus on Recovery Medicine.
In 1990 he developed and directed AMIR, the University of British Columbia undergraduate Addiction Medicine program, for which he received teaching awards from UBC and the Association of Medical Colleges of Canada. He was the principal author of the medical guidelines for fitness for duty of safety-critical railway workers with substance use disorders implemented from 2004 to 2020 by the Railway Association of Canada. In 2003 he won the Nyswander-Dole award from the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence. He served on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the editorial board of the Journal of Addictive Diseases. As a member of Canada’s CCSA National Recovery Research Expert Advisory committee, he participated in designing and interpreting Canada’s Life in Recovery Survey (2016).
In 2019 he served as an expert consultant to Alberta’s Mental Health and Addiction Advisory Committee as Alberta Health shifted toward a Recovery Oriented System of Care. He has developed a Canadian Recovery Coach training curriculum currently being implemented by several organizations in educating several hundred recovery coaches. He recently authored Recovery Coaching: Knowledge and Skills, a training manual scheduled for release in the fall of 2022.
Ray is a person in long-term recovery from addiction.
2019
Dr. Meldon Kahan
MD, CCFP, FRCPC
Dr. Kahan has worked in the addiction field for many years. When he received the lifetime achievement award, he was Medical Director of the METAPHI program in Ontario. METAPHI (Mentoring, Education, and Tools for Addiction: Primary Care-Hospital Integration) provides oversight and education for the province’s sixty-five RAAM (Rapid Access to Addiction Medicine) clinics. At the time, Dr. Kahan was also the Medical Director of the Substance Use Service at Women’s College Hospital.
Dr. Kahan has written a number of peer reviewed articles on addiction, and has been a principal or co-principal investigator on various research studies, including several randomized trials and observational studies. He has been extensively involved in policy and advocacy; for example, he helped convince the Ontario government to add buprenorphine, naltrexone and acamprosate to the public drug formulary. He has helped write several guidelines on opioid agonist treatment and opioid prescribing for chronic pain, and has co-authored several handbooks and guidance documents on addiction medicine. He has given numerous presentations for local, provincial and national conferences. His main interest is the integration of addiction medicine into primary care, EDs and hospitals.
2018
Dr. Nady el-Guebaly
MD, FRCPC, DPH, DPsych, DFASAM, DFAAAP, EFACP, DFCPA, CSAM (Certificant), ISAM (Certification), ABAM (Diplomate)
Dr. el-Guebaly’s introduction to mental health and addiction medicine dates back to 1969 during initial psychiatric training in the United Kingdom, followed by training in Canada and the United States. Addiction-related work includes currently being Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry at the University of Calgary, and the founding past Medical Director of the Calgary Health Region Addiction Centre and Program.
Dr. el-Guebaly is the past President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association and the Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine, Founding Past President of the International Society of Addiction Medicine, its Executive Medical Director for another six years, and was at the time of this award the Chief Examiner of the International Certification Examination and Senior Editor of the Textbook of Addiction Treatment: International Perspectives (2nd edition, Springer Nature 2020).
Dr. el-Guebaly completed three three-year terms as Board Chair of the Alberta Gaming Research Institute, and then Research Director of the Alberta Gambling Research Institute. At the time of this award, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Addiction for eight years. These interests have resulted in over 280 peer-reviewed papers, 80 chapters, 591 presentations, and 60 past and current grants totalling $7 million. At the time of this award, he was a member of the Provincial Addiction Curricula and Experiential Skills Training for Alberta Health Services, and of the ISAM-CSAM Conference Committee.
2017
Dr. Juan C. Negrete
- Medical degree from the University of Tucuman (Argentina)
- Psychiatric training at McGill University (Montreal)
- Certified specialist in Psychiatry by the Quebec
- College of Physicians
- Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
- Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, McGill University
- Formerly, full Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
- Founding Director of the Griffith Edwards Addictions Centre, McGill University Health Centre/Montreal General Hospital
- First Head of the Addiction Psychiatry Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
- First Medical Director, Concurrent Disorders Program, Addiction Research Foundation Division, Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, Toronto
- Former Director Area IX (Canada and International), American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry
- Former Chair, Addictions Section, Canadian Psychiatric Association
- Former President, Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine
- Former Consultant in Mental Health, Alcoholism and other Drug Dependence, Pan American Health Organization and World Health Organization
- Former Member, Editorial Boards: Addiction (London), Jornal Brasileiro de Dependencias Químicas (Rio de Janeiro), Psiquiatría Pública (Madrid), PSIQUIS (Madrid), ERADICCIONES (Argentina)
- Member Emeritus, Société des experts en évaluation médico-légale du Québec
2016
Rita Notarandrea
M.H.SC., C.H.E., ICD.D
Rita Notarandrea has a passion for improving the health of Canadians. She became CEO of the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction in 2015 and under her leadership, CCSA’s work helped address alcohol- and drug-related harms for Canadians.
Rita’s expertise is in demand from all levels of government and from stakeholders in the field. She is driven by the need to increase the public dialogue on substance use and overall understanding of the harms of substance use, given the significant toll it takes on the lives of people in our communities and the health, social and economic impact it has on our society. She is inspired by the fact that the journey to wellness for people with a substance use disorder is both attainable and sustainable.
Rita has demonstrated her dedication to Canadian health care through the senior roles in which she has performed throughout her career. Prior to joining CCSA, she was Chief Operating Officer of the Royal Ottawa Hospital. At the time of this award, she also served as a member of the Clerk of the Privy Council’s Contact Group on Mental Health. Rita holds degrees from Carleton University in Ottawa and the University of Toronto, where she earned a master’s degree in health sciences and health administration.
