Mrs. Elisabeth Almeida: 2019 Program Administrator Award for Excellence recipient
Mrs. Elisabeth Almeida, University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada)
Mrs. Elisabeth Almeida is the program administrator and division administrator for the University of Alberta Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Program.
In her 12 years of service to the residency program and the division, she has been the unifying foundation of stability, understanding, and progress that has built the program and division to a state of excellence. While her title encompasses a plethora of tasks and responsibilities, it is through Mrs. Almeida’s passion for the program, exemplified by her qualities of industrious work ethic, perseverance towards innovation, and empathy for others that emanates throughout the University of Alberta Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Division and Residency Program.
As she holds positions of administration for both the Program and the Division, Mrs. Almeida works diligently to ensure staff and residents are both accommodated and organized to meet their clinical, mentorship, and research demands and interests. She not only manages the entire academic schedule for each of the seventeen individual residents, but also organizes the program director and associate program directors’ academic responsibilities, and aids in the administrative management of the division director’s scheduling and responsibilities.
Mrs. Almeida is also committed to innovation and improvement of resident education as evidenced by her regular attendance at national conferences and workshops dedicated specifically to program administration. This initiative has directly enhanced the learning environment for medical students, residents, and staff through efforts such as the implementation of a nationally-coordinated CaRMS interview schedule to ease medical student travel, an annual joint interprovincial Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), and a semi-annual Canada-wide Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Review Course.
Most importantly, Mrs. Almeida is a thoughtful, caring, and empathetic advocate for her residents and staff physicians. Her understanding of the pressures placed upon those in the program translates into an open-door policy, an attention to detail for events and individuals, a maintained connection with graduated residents, and a constant striving for improving the resident program experience.
Please join us in congratulating Mrs. Almeida on this wonderful honour.
