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2025 - Ray Baker and Paul Farnan |
| In 1976 Dr. Ray Baker began working as a family physician in a central BC mining community. After ten years, he retrained in addiction medicine and spent the next 30 years practicing primary care addiction medicine and occupational addiction medicine. In 1990 he developed and then directed University of British Columbia interdepartmental addiction medicine curriculum. He served on the Board of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the editorial board of the Journal of Addictive diseases. He helped design, conduct and interpret the CCSA, Life in Recovery Survey (2015). In 2016 he retired from clinical practice to focus on the rapidly growing science and practices community-based recovery. In 2022 he received the Lifetime Achievement award from the Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine. Ray developed and published Recovery Coaching Knowledge and Skills, a training curriculum used in educating over 250 Canadian recovery coaches. He has consulted with organizations, workplaces and communities, assisting them in developing recovery-supporting resources, becoming more recovery friendly. After many years of personal recovery from addiction, Ray became a late-life marathoner (8 consecutive Boston Marathons), an endurance triathlete (Ironman Whistler 2013, World Long-Course Triathlon Championships 2017) and outrageously proud grandfather of 8-year-old twins and a 2-year-old multilingual princess. |
| Dr. Paul Farnan has devoted more than 30 years to advancing the fields of occupational and addiction medicine in Canada. With a career spanning clinical practice, research, education, policy, and leadership, he has become widely recognized for his expertise at the intersection of workplace health, impairment, and recovery. In recent years, Dr. Farnan’s work has increasingly focused on an innovative and forward-looking vision: the Recovery-Inclusive Workplace. Drawing on recovery science, occupational health, and lived experience, he has worked with employers to design systems that not only address impairment, but also reduce stigma, foster psychological safety, and support sustainable recovery for workers affected by substance use and mental illness. By reframing addiction and recovery as workplace issues—and not solely personal struggles—he has opened new pathways for organizations to balance safety with compassion, and productivity with human well-being. He was one of the authors in the publication of an important article related to workplace-supported recovery - Recovery Friendly Workplaces: Recommendations for Employers, Employees, and the Occupational Medicine Community. His work has advanced our understanding of impairment, reduced stigma in the workplace, and expanded the conversation from risk and liability to recovery and inclusion. Dr. Farnan is a Fellow of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and holds certification in addiction medicine from the Canadian and American boards, and he is a long-standing member of the Occupational and Environmental Medical Association of Canada. |
OEMAC Meritorious Service Award Recipients
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2024 Itua Iriogbe 2023 Deborah Hellyer Allen Kraut Deborah Parachin 2022 No recipient 2021 No recipient 2020 No recipient 2019 No recipient 2018 Susan Tarlo 2016 Doug Hamm 2015 Maureen Cividino | 2014 Martine Baillargeon Nicola Cherry Louis Patry 2013 Steven Martin Oscar Howell Howard Hamer 2011 Jeremy Beach 2010 Suzanne Arnold John Quinn 2009Joel Andersen 2008 Gilles Theriault 2005 J. Donald Johnston David Dunham 2004Robert Kosnik Sol Sax | 2003 Lily S. Cheung 2002 Tee Guidotti D. Linn Holness 2001
Ciaran O’Shea Pat Mills 2000 Jean Anne Farmilo Bernard Gascon W. Keith C. Morgan 1999
Albert Cecutti Ernest Mastromatteo Walter F. Prendergast 1998
Ian M.F.Arnold Alice Dong James R. Nethercott 1997
C.F. Muir 1996John R. Martin | 1994 MacDonald Caza 1993 John Markham Rodney May John L. Weeks 1992 John W.F. Cowell Elizabeth R. Dawson, R.N. Edward S. Gibson James P. Gracie Peter Pelmear 1990 James W. Charters Fred C. Mills 1989 Franklyn Hicks Blair Orser 1988 J.A. David Brunet Serge Donati 1987 J.H Baillie Douglas R. Warren |
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