With maternal-fetal medicine specialist and Associate Professor Dr. Alice Benjamin beginning to contemplate retirement, the time to thank her is now. Let’s ensure that her lessons—of gratitude, humility and resourcefulness—forever live on at McGill.
In so doing, you will be carrying some of that special Dr. Benjamin touch into the future… for the benefit of mothers and babies at home and around the world. THANK YOU!
A committee of grateful families has already raised more than $500,000 for the Dr. Alice Benjamin Fund. To meet their $1 million target, they are appealing to other families, as well as to Dr. Benjamin’s former students and residents, her past and present colleagues, as well as friends of McGill Global Health Programs and of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The Dr. Alice Benjamin Fund is an endowed fund, meaning that it will last in perpetuity, generating an annual income of 4%, for the priorities described below.
- McGill Student and Trainee Support: Provide travel support and/or stipends for one or more outstanding students or trainees at McGill University who are pursuing an elective, research project or practicum focusing on reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health in a low- or middle-income country, in Northern Canada, or amongst underserved communities in Montreal. Open to medical residents, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduate students enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. To fully fund this first priority would require $500,000 in gifts.
- Global Maternal and Child Knowledge Exchanges: Create even more opportunities for mutually beneficial collaboration. One example would be to bring medical students, medical residents and nurses from low-resource areas to McGill for short training sessions to improve their clinical skills in such areas as resuscitation, pediatric ultrasound and repair of obstetric fistulas. Another would be to bring guest speakers to lectures or Grand Rounds in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. To fully fund this second priority would require an additional $500,000 in gifts.
If the campaign continues into a second stage, the priorities will become as follows:
- Dr. Alice Benjamin Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship: Encourage postdoctoral fellows at McGill who pursue research related to women’s, maternal and child health. To fully fund this third priority would require an additional $1 million in gifts.
- Seed Grants for Innovation in Women’s, Maternal and Child Health: Launch new, interdisciplinary research projects and make them competitive for sustained external funding. (N.B.: There are currently no dedicated internal seed grants for McGill faculty working in women’s health.)
- Dr. Alice Benjamin Chair in Women’s, Maternal and Child Health: Attract the best and brightest in the field to McGill, to carry the Dr. Benjamin torch for years to come, by ensuring a focus on women’s, maternal and child health.
No gift is too small. Each and every one is an important “thank you” to Dr. Benjamin.
To make a one-time donation to the Dr. Alice Benjamin Fund, please give online.
Or, if you prefer to make your donation by cheque, please make it payable to McGill University with "Dr. Alice Benjamin Fund (Allocation 06954)" in the memo, and mail it to the following address:
Donation Services
University Advancement
McGill University
1555 Peel St, 9th Floor
Montreal QC H3A 3L8
Canada
For other ways of giving, or for any questions, please contact Gareth Black, Advancement Officer, McGill Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, at gareth.black [at] mcgill.ca or 438-865-4058.