Department promotes four part-time faculty members

The department is excited to announce four faculty member promotions — Dr. Amanda Bell to the rank of clinical professor and Dr. Greg Rutledge, Dr. Alim Nagji and Dr. Marcel Parent to the rank of associate clinical professor, effective July 1. 

Bell has been expanding scholarship and contributing to the academic mission of the department and Faculty of Health Sciences since 2002. A graduate of McMaster’s medical school, Bell has been practising as a small-town family doctor in Niagara since 2000. Her clinical interests include adolescent medicine and women’s health.  

Academically, Bell serves as the Regional Assistant Dean of the Niagara Regional Campus at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine since 2017. This role allows her to fully immerse herself in the academic leadership and the educational decision-making process at the site.   

Bell completed a master’s in Health Science Education at McMaster. Her research interests include distributed medical education, professionalism, student mistreatment and experience and leadership development.

Bell is the recipient of the John C. Sibley Award for Excellence in Education from the Faculty of Health Sciences, as well as a Certificate of Merit from the Canadian Association for Medical Education and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario Council Award.  

Rutledge has been a member of the department since 2006. He has dedicated his career to becoming a respected clinician while developing the leaders of tomorrow and nurturing exceptional clinical learning environments. He has successfully progressed through these roles, contributing to direct teaching, program delivery, program development, and academic and clinical leadership — all of which have impacted clinical care and educational scholarship. 

Rutledge is an emergency doctor who works out of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH). He served as Deputy Chief of the Emergency Department (ED) at SJHH from 2014 to 2018 and then transitioned to Chief of the ED in 2018. In 2022, he was appointed as Deputy Chief of Staff at SJHH. Through these roles, Rutledge exemplified a consultative and equitable leadership style.  

Academically, Rutledge’s contributions are far reaching. He served as the Program Director for the Emergency Medicine (EM) Fellowship Program from 2009 to 2017, where he made an impact on education by expanding the training capacity for family medicine residents seeking a certificate of added competency in EM.    

Rutledge is the recipient of serval teaching awards, including the St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, Dedication to Education Award, Department of Psychiatry in 2021 and the McMaster University Division of Emergency Medicine Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 2018. 

Joining the department in 2015, Nagji shows a strong commitment to medical education and leads academic programs focusing on clinical scholarship, educational leadership and innovation.  

He is a well-respected clinician within the local health-care systems and is committed to advancing the mission of EM through patient-centred care and mentorship to learners. Nagji practices out of Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital (JBH) in Burlington and SJHH. He has been the Director of the EM Clinical Teaching Unit at JBH and SJHH, where he supported faculty development initiatives. He is also the Director of Simulation Learning at JBH and the Simulation Lead for the Mac-Care Burlington CEC, where he facilitates regular in-situ simulation programs for staff and learners.  

Nagji has also made significant contributions to the medical school as the Director of the Emergency Medicine Clerkship, including updating curriculum and integrating innovative virtual teaching modalities during the pandemic. He is well known for his expertise in curriculum design and health-care simulation training. This expertise has garnered him certification from the Royal College Clinician-Educator Diploma Program and the Harvard Simulation Essentials Program. 

Nagji is the recipient of several teaching awards, including the Undergraduate Community Teacher of the Year Award in Emergency Medicine and the Joseph Brant Hospital Medical Staff Association Excellence in Teaching Award. 

Parent joined the department in 2013 and has since demonstrated his passion for clinical education in pursuit of clinical excellence and leadership.  

Parent is located at the Waterloo Regional Campus (WRC), where he provides a high volume of clinical care and teaching. Parent serves as Educational Lead at WRC and shows commitment to innovative ideas that significantly change the overall learning environment. He has demonstrated his strength as a leader through his role as Chief Hospitalist at the Guelph General Hospital since 2021. There, Parent implemented a program that improves care and contributes to the overall work-life balance of family doctors.    

Parent is the recipient of several teaching awards from McMaster University, including the Postgraduate Medicine Specialist Preceptor of the Year Award in 2021, the Undergraduate Medicine Internal Medicine Clerkship Program Faculty Award in 2020 and the Postgraduate Medicine Specialist Preceptor of the Year Award in 2017.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Bell, Dr. Rutledge, Dr. Nagji and Dr. Parent on this well-deserved honour!