What is the Faculty Advancement Board (FAB)?
“This is a group of outside professionals who have had very different experiences in their lives. We come together to provide the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences with the best possible advice in terms of what's going on in the world and what we are hearing in the community,” says FAB Chair Eddie Leschiutta, BCom’76, DPA’78.
The group of 14 are passionate about Ă山ǿĽé, and draw on their networks and backgrounds, which run the gamut, from space exploration to accounting, and cosmetics to foreign policy. Their philanthropic work, which has brought much-needed funds to other key educational and health institutions, is welcomed by Ă山ǿĽé as it prepares to embark on its third century, with, notably, the Made by Ă山ǿĽé campaign launched in September 2019.
Leschiutta loves Ă山ǿĽé for what it gave to him as the son of Italian immigrants. “I was on an equal footing with everyone. There was no distinction. I was there to learn.” His Management and Public Accounting degrees set him off on a career in risk management and corporate governance. Now a retired partner at Deloitte, he has been dedicating himself not only to chairing both the FAB and its governance and nominating committee, but also to the Ă山ǿĽé Health Centre (MUHC) Foundation.
FAB Fundraising Committee Chair Michael Corber, BCom’85, DPA’86, has not let the pandemic stop him from keeping in touch with his fellow alumni, as well as those giving to the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre (GCRC) and both the Maimonides Geriatric and Montreal Children’s Hospital foundations, organizations where he also gives his time.
“Life is all about relationships and communication,” says Corber, who says alumni and donors want to be kept informed.
The group has not only made relationship building and outreach their priorities but they are also putting a new emphasis on youth mental health and hearing from students on their needs. For FAB member and former astronaut Dave Williams, BSc’76, MSc’83, MDCM’83, DSc’07, communicating with students is vital. “We’re trying to determine different areas of needs for the students, and that information will be brought back to the advancement board and help support the Faculty.” He has also been tasked with reaching out to alumni in Toronto, where he resides.
Before he became a veteran of two space shuttle missions, logging nearly 700 hours in space, Williams was a Ă山ǿĽé-trained emergency room physician. He says medical students today will face different challenges than he did, but feels confident that even in the pandemic, they and their peers in the other health professions schools and programs will learn the skills that will help society get through these difficulties. “That's really what the medical schools of today and the specialty training programs are trying to do: provide the knowledge and skills that the students need to be able to adapt to new situations.”
FAB member Rachel Schwartz, BA’90, has an especially important connection to the Faculty, with two sons in the MDCM program and she the Chair of the Ă山ǿĽé Faculty of Medicine Parent Committee. She recently wrote as part of the Made by Ă山ǿĽé campaign: “I chose to attend Ă山ǿĽé because of my father’s stories about his time as a student. Only over time I have learned, by daily walks through campus and conversations with my sons’ medical school cohort what an exceptional institution Ă山ǿĽé is, and understand that indeed it is part of my own fabric.”
President of real estate lender RCB Capital Corporation, Schwartz co-founded Schleeh Design. She also works with Facing History and Ourselves (Canada), the Roel C. Buck Family Foundation and Save a Child’s Heart (Canada).
For FAB member Valeria Rosenbloom, BSc(PT)’74, Ă山ǿĽé showed her the importance of excellence in all endeavours. “I knew that every lecture, every instructor, every professor represented the best in the field. That is a reputation that has never faltered, especially in Medicine, and that is why I am proud to serve as one of our ambassadors,” wrote the Board Director, Mike and Valeria Rosenbloom Foundation.
The other FAB members are
- Lawrence Bloomberg, MBA’65, Chairman, BloombergSen Inc.
- Ambassador Paul D. Frazer, BA’70, President, PD Frazer Associates
- Mitch Garber, BA’86, Chair, Invest in Canada
- Raymond Hakim, MDCM’76, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
- Jonathan Sigler, Co-President, Prével
- Martine Turcotte, BCL’82, LLB’83, Governor Emeritus, Ă山ǿĽé Board of Governors
- Gary Wechsler, BCom’80, DPA’81, Director, Safdie & Co, Director, CIUSSS du Centre-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal
- Francesco Bellini, DSc’04, Chairman, Picchio International Inc (Honorary Co-Chair)
- Marisa Bellini, Managing Director, Domodimonti s.r.l. (Honorary Co-Chair)
They have a wide range of backgrounds and considerable collective history with the University; they listen to students and alumni, and talk to the Dean and each other about what will help the Faculty thrive. ThisĚýSeptember, they'll again be bringing together that knowledge, via a virtual meeting, and be there for the Faculty, as our FAB 14.
Are you interested in learning more or in putting your name forward for consideration as a member of the Faculty Advancement Board? Please email ManLi Que, Associate Director, Advancement Programs, atĚýmanli.que [at] mcgill.ca (subject: Faculty%20Advancement%20Board%3A%20enquiry)
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