Guelph’s Dr. Dorothy Bakker has been named regional family physician of the year for Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant and Waterloo Wellington. The award was announced Thursday by the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP) [1].

Bakker, who has been practicing family medicine for 30 years, was nominated and selected by her family physician peers. Since 2001, she has been a student health physician at the University of Guelph. She is also an associate clinical professor at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster, where she has also held various leadership roles, including Director of Student Affairs at the Waterloo Regional Campus, Director of McMaster Community & Rural Education (Mac-CARE) and Professional Competencies Domain Planner for the self-awareness and self-care curriculum. Bakker also leads workshops for the OCFP’s Leadership Development Program and recently volunteered on the medical teams for the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games.