Montreal Doctor is President of Médecins sans frontières

"I've never managed to get used to seeing people die." - Dr. Bernard Rieux, from The Plague by Albert Camus (and one of Joanne Liu's favourite books)

She has treated people near death from a cholera epidemic in Haiti. She was quick to respond to injured tsunami survivors in Indonesia in 2004. She braved war conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan's Darfur region.

And nearly every time Joanne Liu returned to Montreal to resume her job as a pediatric ER doctor at Ste-Justine Hospital, some of her colleagues would say: 'Oh Joanne, you'll grow out of this phase.' " Yet 17 years after she first volunteered for Médecins sans frontières (MSF) — assisting Malian refugees in Mauritania — Liu's commitment to humanitarian aid has never wavered. This month, her colleagues elected Liu president of the international board of MSF, a three-year mandate that the McGill University-trained physician will assume in Geneva in October.

Read full article: Leader Post, July 24, 2013