Bob Woollard | Social Accountability

Robert F Woollard is Emeritus Professor of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia. He has extensive national and international experience in the fields of medical education, social accountability of medical schools, ecosystem approaches to health, and sustainable development.In this he has or is holding leadership roles in the CFPC, CMA, AFMC, AMEE, and The Network TUFH. He is actively involved in Nepal with a national medical school, school of public health and a nursing school founded on the principles of social accountability established through his initial feasibility study. He Chairs the International Advisory Board (IAB) for the newly established University of Nepal (Dec. 2024) a new public liberal arts university. His work in East Africa and Asia is centered on matters of social accountability, primary care, rural health and accreditation systems.Dr. Woollard co-chairs the Global Consensus on Social Accountability for Medical Schools (GCSA) and does extensive work in this area with many international bodies. He was a lead organizer for the World Summit on Social Accountability that led to the Tunis Declaration  and recently chaired the Scientific Committee for TUFH2022 the annual conference  of this network devoted to social justice and health, leading to the declaration https://thenetworktufh.org/tufh-2022- declaration/He has engaged in a range of grant supported work including the establishment of CoPEH-Canada and the five year ECHO project on watershed scale integration of environmental, community and health. As an Associate Director of the Rural Coordination Centre of BC (RCCbc) he provided central leadership in the development of a Canadian national strategy for addressing educational and service needs for surgical and obstetrical services in rural Canada in particular Aboriginal service access for birthing. And, has worked in many areas to reduce racism in BC’s health system. Above all he is a husband, father, and grandfather.