±Ę´Ç˛őłŮ±đ»ĺ:ĚýJanuary 28, 2025
µţ˛â:ĚýEmily Brown
When Dr. Miranda Lees (MD’22) learned that her mother, a physics scientist and a fierce community advocate, was seriously ill, she had just completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto.Â
Dr. Lees’ older brother was a family doctor, and she envied his medical knowledge as the family rallied to cope with their mother’s illness.
“He had that knowledge to interpret a bit better the things the doctors were telling us, and make more of those informed decisions,” Dr. Lees remembers.
That desire to learn more, and to be close to her mother, led Dr. Lees to enter Â鶹Íř Medical School New Brunswick in her hometown, Saint John.
During her first six months at medical school, Dr. Lees juggled the demands of medical school’s fast-paced environment and the difficulty of being her mother’s primary caregiver. She has vivid memories of running down the street to the hospital between lectures, to see her mother, before her mother died during that first year of med school.
Her mother, who was a dedicated leader within the Asian Heritage Society of New Brunswick, was her greatest inspiration, Dr. Lees says.
“If it weren't for her, I probably would not be involved in as many leadership and advocacy pursuits as I am,” Dr. Lees says. “I think a lot about the idea of looking after your own and giving back to your community, which stems from the work that my mom did.”
Dr. Lees has served as the Associate Chief Resident at the Â鶹Íř Family Medicine Saint John site, liaising between the residents and the New Brunswick recruitment team. She has also  been involved in the New Brunswick Medical Society’s Family Medicine Specialty Council Executive and Primary Care Task Force, advocating for better compensation for physicians in the province.
A family legacy in community leadership
As she carries on her mother’s legacy of giving back to those around her, Dr. Lees views family medicine as centred around community. Family doctors are “caretakers for the greater population,” she says, considering it a privilege to help patients.
“What I really value the most is being able to take care of the people who surrounded and raised me,” Dr. Lees says. “It is what makes practising medicine the most rewarding.”
Dr. Lees believes every patient interaction is an opportunity to provide compassion and empathy, traits her mother nurtured in her, and which keep her mother’s memory alive in Dr. Lees’ corner of the world.
Â鶹Íř the Resident Leadership Award - Family Medicine
This award, instituted in 2020, recognizes a Â鶹Íř Medical School resident in a Family Medicine or Family Medicine Enhanced Skills program who has demonstrated outstanding leadership. Areas of leadership could include, but are not limited to, advocacy, research, community engagement, mentorship of students and/or other residents, or administration. To be eligible, nominees must be in a residency program at the time of the nomination.