Dr. Glenn Benoit was recently granted the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics. The annual award honours outstanding women’s health educators from each of the association’s members including the UBC Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Dr. Benoit is an obstetrician and gynecologist based in Kelowna and Clinical Assistant Professor with the UBC Faculty of Medicine. For the past five years, he has played an integral role in the development of the obstetric/gynecology rotation at Kelowna General Hospital for the Southern Medical Program. He is also actively involved with teaching first year family medicine residents.
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Dr. Benoit completed his medical degree at the University of Manitoba followed by a rotating internship in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He returned to the University of Manitoba for his residency and practiced in Winnipeg for six years before relocating to Kelowna in 1990.
“I am very committed to women’s health and feel it so important for the well-being of families,” says Dr. Benoit. “I’m biased, but I believe that understanding women’s health issues is one of the most important components of a medical student’s education”.
Dr. Benoit’s passion for women’s health has taken him on humanitarian trips to third world countries. For past five years, Benoit and a team of physicians, nurses and support staff have travelled to Nicaragua as part of a surgical mission. “Initially the project focused on performing surgery on needy populations without any teaching component. Recognizing the importance of sustainability, surgical education has now become our primary focus,” says Dr. Benoit.
With the Nicaragua project complete, the team now know as the Surgical Training Education Partnership (STEP) has just started a new project in Paraguay with their first mission to take place in September, 2013. To learn more about the team and their work, visit www.step-canada.com.