BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY ON DR. RUTH COLLINS-NAKAI 2003
Ruth Collins-Nakai, affectionately known by many of her patients as “Dr. Ruth”, is a physician, mother, wife, educator, scientist and community volunteer. She completed her undergraduate, medical school, and postgraduate education at University of Alberta, McGill and Harvard Universities. Dr. Ruth established the Heritage Pediatric Cardiology Program, the precursor to the successful congenital heart program at the University of Alberta, which now serves Western Canada. She introduced ultrasound of the heart there more than two decades ago and helped establish an infant heart surgery program. Having spent nearly 25 years as a full-time academic at the University of Alberta, Dr. Collins-Nakai left her academic position in late 2000 to pursue private clinical cardiology and part-time consulting work.
Always willing to serve her profession, Dr. Collins-Nakai has worked at provincial, national and international levels in such roles as President of the Alberta Cardiovascular Society, Commissioner on the Premier’s Commission on Future Health Care for Albertans, President of the Alberta Medical Association (first woman), Chair of the Board of Governors of the American College of Cardiology (first woman and first Canadian), the President of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (first woman), and most recently as the President of the InterAmerican Society of Cardiology (first woman). She has been elected as the President-elect of the Canadian Medical Association for the year 2005. She has worked on national and international projects ranging from physician resource planning, and health care financing in the country, to federal-provincial surveillance systems, and establishment of academic health provider facilities.
Dr. Collins-Nakai’s penchant for excellence in whatever she does is manifest through her numerous awards over the years: as a teacher of the year in 1988 & 1997, a nominee for “Woman of the Year” in category Science and Technology, YWCA, Edmonton, 1991, nominee for a Service Award by Premier’s Council in Support of Alberta Families 1991, the Woman of Vision Award, ITV, Connecting Women magazine for professional & community service & leadership, February, 1997, as Woman of the Year Award in 1999 from the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Edmonton and Northern Alberta and a Distinguished Achievement Award (for promoting cardiovascular education and research throughout the world) from the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences in 2001.
The energy, compassion, intellect, and leadership Dr. Collins-Nakai generates are not confined to Medicine. She has been a strong supporter of the need for education and science in Alberta and has worked to increase research funding overall in the province and in Canada. She has encouraged and helped young entrepreneurs, and through her work on the Board of Management of the Alberta Science and Research Authority has helped to promote a knowledge-based industry in the province. She contributed to an action research project on Women in Leadership, the results of which were released publicly in early 1999. She served on the founding Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and routinely reviews grants for institutions as diverse as the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the National Institutes of Health. Whether chairing a committee for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada or serving a major charity such as the Muttart Foundation in its quest for better lives for children and a more effective charitable sector, or in her role on the Board of Governors for Grant MacEwan College, Ruth contributes to her community.