Alumni Profiles: Jan Christilaw ’81
2018 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient for the Sciences
Jan Christilaw is a leader in women’s and newborn health in her home province of British Columbia, across Canada and internationally. After graduating from McMaster’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine in 1981, Dr. Christilaw began a distinguished career as an obstetrician-gynaecologist. Known for her ability to improve public health outcomes, she has championed provincial efforts to enhance breast screening and perinatal health while also working extensively in Africa, in particular by spearheading obstetrical training in countries including Ethiopia and Tanzania. She played a key role in establishing a landmark partnership between BC Women’s Hospital and Makerere University in Uganda to help train physicians in emergency childbirth.
In 2008, Dr. Christilaw became the president of BC Women’s Hospital + Health Centre and vice-president of Provincial Women’s & Newborn Health for the Provincial Health Services Authority. Since the conclusion of her tenure in that role in 2017, she has continued her clinical work and is a clinical professor with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. She is also director of Women’s Health with the Canadian Network for International Surgery.
Dr. Christilaw has served as the president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, as an expert advisor to the Canadian Institute for Health Information for Maternity, and she was the founding chair of the Aboriginal Maternity Committee of the BC Perinatal Health Program. She is also a member of the editorial board of JOGC — the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada.
A member of the Order of Canada, Dr. Christilaw has also received the University of Waterloo’s Distinguished Alumni Award, the YWCA Women of Distinction Award, the British Columbia Community Service Award, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the National Leadership Award of the Federation of Medical Women, the Canadian International Surgery Volunteer of the Year Award and she was named an honorary alumna of the UBC Faculty of Medicine.
