Each year, Caldwell Partners International chooses 40 Canadians who were under 40 in the past year to honour for their outstanding achievements. Click here to learn more about the program, and find more winners in the list below.
Imagine being in your 20s, never having camped before and suddenly being dropped into the middle of a disaster zone and being tasked with helping survivors. This is what Kirsten Johnson aims to avoid by preparing humanitarian aid workers.
The travel bug bit Dr. Johnson early: “I remember begging my mum to go to Europe when I was 12.”
She was about 18 when she finally did hit the road; her first trip was to Europe. Then it was North Africa, Southeast Asia, Israel and Nepal, where she worked among the people in a Nepali village: “I saw that if I wanted to help in a really effective way, medicine was the best route.”
Dr. Johnson came back to Canada and to school, first biochemistry at the University of Victoria and medicine at the University of Calgary, and then McGill in a program that combined emergency and family medicine. She followed that with a master’s in public health at Harvard University.
She says she “had no idea” the commitment level med school would require, but adds: “I’m a hard worker, so I’m usually able to do whatever I put my mind to.”
Dr. Johnson is currently an assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill, as well as an affiliate faculty member at McGill’s Institute for Health and Social Policy; part of the appeal of Montreal was the chance to speak French: “At least one language other than English is really required to work effectively overseas.”
She’s also an affiliate at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) and Program Director of the McGill Humanitarian Studies Initiative (HSI).
The HSI is where Dr. Johnson teaches humanitarian aid workers the nuts and bolts of disaster response. The program trains graduate students and mid-career pros in the “core competencies” for critical scenarios. Dr. Johnson says two-thirds of the personnel sent to help in Haiti were under 30 and for 90 per cent, it was their first mission. “That kind of humanitarian response requires skilled co-ordination … We shouldn’t be sending kids who don’t know how to manage in a crisis – it’s inexcusable.” And counterproductive to effective aid delivery.
The three-day disaster simulation program facilitated by Dr. Johnson and her HHI/HSI colleagues takes participants from all over the world and puts them in what she characterizes as a “mini-residency” for humanitarian responders.
“Some of these people have never even camped, and we take them into the forest to cope with a disaster scenario. They have to live in tents, dig latrines, and come up with a service delivery plan while living under the threat of violence and kidnapping – and they have to eat military rations!”
Dr. Johnson also started her own company recently, The Humanitarian Training Initiative, which provides training to academics, aid workers and non-governmental organizations.
While humanitarian work is challenging, Dr. Johnson enjoys “being outside my comfort zone. I love working in the field, out of my own element … I love that life is real and in the moment.” It allows her to be a part of “the human experience” and makes her part of people’s stories of survival in unbelievable circumstances.
She is the eldest of three. Her father was a doctor (he died when she was 1) and her mother a nurse. She was born in Kelowna, B.C., and grew up in Calgary and Victoria, B.C.
Mother to a 2 1/2- year-old toddler, she’d like to take him along some time, when she’s working in the field. “I want him to experience the simplicity of life, to know what it’s like not to have.”
Dr. Johnson is passionate about the need for continued funding for research into the best ways to create and sustain effective programs. “There is so much corruption in some countries, it often precludes the help getting to the people who need it. We need to be able to offer a model for good governance. We can’t be complacent; there’s an international responsibility.”
“It can be done,” she adds.
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