Dr. Zach Sagorin Awarded MCC’s Dr. M. Ian Bowmer Award

Dr. Zach Sagorin is a PGY1 Resident in General Surgery. Throughout his training, he has been inspired by leaders committed to justice and solving big problems through empathy and relationships. Accordingly, social accountability has been a pivotal component of his leadership style and aspirations. He served as the President of the UBC Medical Undergraduate Society during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This role led him to help represent the interests of all medical students in the province when navigating the upheaval that the pandemic wrought on medical education. During this time, he also contributed to founding of the British Columbia (BC) COVID-19 Medical Student Response Team and worked alongside a small team to set up physician support projects and public health initiatives for medical students in BC. Serving as President allowed him to develop new leadership roles within the Medical Undergraduate Society to address issues related to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion as well as Planetary Health. He contributed to various faculty committees throughout medical school, but one that stood out to him as particularly meaningful was the UBC Faculty of Medicine Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME) Curriculum Review Working Group, which involved consultation with numerous stakeholders in order to review and update the social accountability framework of UBC UGME. During his medical school training he was invested in research projects that explored advancements in medical education, quality improvement in opioid agonist therapies, and gender equity in general surgery. Since starting general surgery training, he has been fortunate to be elected to sit on the Department of Surgery Resident Education Committee as well as represent residents throughout the province as a Board Member of Resident Doctors of BC. He is privileged to continue to develop as a leader and carry forward the values of the Dr. M. Ian Bowmer Award for Leadership in Social Accountability. Read about the award here.