Leslie Shanks


Leslie Shanks is a Canadian medical doctor who served as the president of Médecins [Sans Frontières] Canada, the medical director of MSF Netherlands, and who led humanitarian responses in Yugoslavia, Zaire and Sudan.

Education

Shanks graduated from Queen's University in 1988.

Career

Employment

Shanks career started with work in northern parts of Canada providing healthcare to Indigenous communities.
She joined Médecins Sans Frontières in 1994 and was sent to Yugoslavia to lead humanitarian health responses the Bosnia War. She subsequently led MSF's response in Zaire supporting refugees fleeing the Rwandan genocide, later managing a tuberculosis program in Sudan. After her field work, she became the medical director of MSF's Operational Centre in Amsterdam where she was part of a group that shifted MSF towards open sharing of medical data. She is currently the medical advisor to the OCA council of the MSF Operational Center Amsterdam and temporary member of the International Board of MSF, https://www.msf.org/international-board
She has worked as the medical director at both the Sherbourne Health Centre in Toronto providing care to trans patients, and also at Inner City Health Associates, the Toronto organization that provides care to people experiencing homelessness.
She is one of the co-founders of Wanasah, a not-for-profit mental health association in Toronto.

Advocacy

Shanks been critical of the United States military, specifically their role in the Kunduz hospital airstrike, and has participated in public awareness campaigns highlighting the plight of refugees.

Selected publications