Anita Balakrishna BA LLBBA (Hons) LLB MEd

Miriam Rossi Award for Health Equity in Undergraduate Medical Education

MD Program Awards

Anita Balakrishna
Send Applause39

Sign the Guestbook

All messages are held for moderation.

Biography

Anita Balakrishna is currently serving as the Director, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. Anita is a lawyer and educator with a human rights background. She recently completed her Masters of Education in Adult Education and Community Development at OISE, U of T. Anita has consistently strived to maintain a social justice based practice in all that she does. In the past she has provided legal advocacy, education, and law reform activities alongside low-income and other underserved communities through her work at the Human Rights Legal Support Centre, the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario and the Rexdale Community Legal Clinic. Anita is also a trained yoga teacher and yoga therapist interested in exploring ways to incorporate diverse yoga practices into healing and wellness with individuals, workplaces and organizations.

I believe in the power of education as a key driver to facilitate and push forward systemic changes in our institutions to ensure equity for all.

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” – Arundhati Roy

About the Award

The Miriam Rossi Award for Health Equity in Undergraduate Medical Education aims to recognize University of Toronto MD Program faculty members for their commitment to diversity and health equity in undergraduate medical education. The award is named after Dr. Miriam Rossi, a pediatrician, teaching faculty, and former Associate Dean of Student Affairs in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, and a strong advocate and mentor for minorities. It was established in 2017 in recognition of Dr. Rossi’s outstanding contributions to health equity in medical education. Dr. Rossi led several initiatives to improve diversity in the U of T medical school, in particular the creation of the Summer Mentorship Program (SMP), established to encourage young Black and Aboriginal students, who are under-represented in medicine, to pursue careers in the health sciences. Like many of her contributions, the SMP was developed to help improve equity in the field of medicine, healthcare and society as a whole.