This week's Vitals: Welcome back, Alumni!

Counting the days until Alumni Weekend, the FoMD is ready to celebrate in style.

FoMD Communications Staff - 20 September 2016

Celebrating our people: FoMD launches new White Coats, e-newsletter for alumni and friends

September is traditionally back-to-school time. At the University of Alberta, it's also the time of year when the previous generations return to their alma mater for Alumni Weekend. This September, the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry launched our first issue of FoMD White Coats, a monthly e-newsletter to bring alumni closer in conversation all year long.

"We stand as one of the leading academic health science centres in Canada because of our people and the great things you do to serve the public good," said Richard Fedorak, dean of the FoMD, addressing alumni in the inaugural issue. Read the first issue.

With our alumni base reaching more than 15,000 worldwide, Dean Fedorak aims to meet with more of our community members face-to-face by hosting a series of alumni receptions this fall in the cities of Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton and Toronto.

Did you know our School of Dentistry has two alumni newsletters? Check out the latest issues of UAlberta Dentistry Alumni News and Dental Hygiene Alumni News.

Enterprise Square wrapped in green and gold

To mark the indispensable contributions alumni have made to our city, Alberta, Canada and the world, the University of Alberta wrapped the windows of its historic downtown Enterprise Square building in green and gold.

The window panels lead with the alumni association motto to "Do Great Things," and highlight accomplishments of notable alumni such as the FoMD's own Ray V. Rajotte, '71 BSc(Eng), '73 MSc, '75 PhD, for his pioneering work related to diabetes research in islet transplantation.

School of Dentistry welcomes historian and writer Taylor Lambert

In 2017, the U of A's School of Dentistry will be 100 years old!

To help mark this historic occasion, historian and writer Taylor Lambert has joined the department to write and publish a book that shares the stories of the School of Dentistry's first 100 years.

A Calgary journalist and bestselling author of Rising - Stories of the 2013 Alberta Flood, Lambert will be settling into office spaces in ECHA and reaching out to many people including the FoMD staff, faculty, students, and alumni. He will gather facts, stories, memoirs, and a sense of our culture-all for the purpose of crafting a story like no other.

-files by Cheryl Deslaurier

Taylor Lambert

Alumni weekend: Sept. 22 to 25, 2016

All alumni are invited back to campus-to reconnect with friends and the campus, to celebrate the remarkable accomplishments of the alumni community and, of course, to have fun.

Thursday, Sept. 22: Alumni Awards, 6:30 - 9 p.m. Jubilee Auditorium

Register for tickets.

Five FoMD alumni will be receiving awards:

● Norgrove Penny, '71 BSc(Med), '73 MD, and Donald C. Fletcher, '80 BMedSc, '82 MD, will receive Distinguished Alumni Awards. Read more about Donald C. Fletcher.

● Carlo Panaro, '99 BSc, '03 MD, and Jeffrey Zorn, '08 BMedSc, '09 MD, will be inducted onto the Sports Wall of Fame.

● Andrea Johnson, '16 BMedSc, is the recipient of The Honourable Dr. Lois E. Hole Student Spirit Award.

Friday, Sept. 23: Green and Gold Day, U of A's premiere school spirit event

It's easy to participate in Green & Gold Day:

● Wear your school's colours with pride. Snap a photo and share on social media.

● Join the parade. The Medical Students' Association and the FoMD invite all faculty, staff, students and alumni to walk with us. Meet at CCIS patio at 11 a.m. The parade will take off at 11:15 a.m. and weave its way across North campus to finish in the Quad.

● Be in Quad at noon for the Green and Gold Day Pep Rally, free popcorn, ice cream and cotton candy. Join the U of A's largest outdoor dodgeball game and celebrate the vibrancy of our university.

Saturday, Sept. 24: Festival on Quad, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Food trucks, family fun, cultural performances and tethered hot air balloons.

Here is a rundown of the FoMD special events:

● Medicine Alumni Luncheon & Tour, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Foyer, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health Research Innovation

● School of Dentistry Tours, 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., level 1, ECHA

● School of Dentistry Memory Lane Reception, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. 8th floor, Kaye Edmonton Clinic

● Dental Hygiene Alumni Chapter Reunion Reception, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., patio, Faculty Club

Click here for details and registration.


Sunday, Sept. 25: 57th Annual Turkey Trot, 10 a.m., Butterdome

● UAlberta Music Live in Concert, 1 p.m., Convocation Hall