Call for Nominations
The Jane Gillett award will be bestowed on a professional from any discipline that provides diagnosis, treatment or support to children and young people with ABI. This professional will be recognized for his/her outstanding contribution to and his/her continued work to make improvements to the lives of children and youth living with the effects of brain injury. This individual should document a history of working in the field of paediatric ABI and be able to demonstrate one or more of the following attributes:
- Contributions to long-term, client-and family-centred, community based interventions that make a difference for young people with ABI and their families.
- Participation in team building and interprofessional work in the field of ABI
- Creative thinking in working with clients and their families
- Understanding and use of research that provides a basis for treatment representing best practice in the field.
- Recognition within his/her home country as an individual who has promoted prevention and advocacy for persons with ABI and their families.
Please send a copy of the applicant’s CV/resume, an outline of her/his contributions, and any additional supporting documentation to Margaret Roberts at mjroberts@internationalbrain.org.
Please have “Jane Gillett Award Nominee” in the subject of the email.
Applications must be submitted by the end of the day, June 27, 2022
The Jane Gillett award will be presented at the 2022 Joint Conference on Brain Injury, September 21-24, 2022, in New York City, NY.
About Dr. Jane Gillett
Dr. Jane Gillett was a paediatric and adult neurologist who was at the forefront of brain injury treatment. She was the medical director of the Acquired Brain Injury Program at Hamilton Health Sciences in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and an Associate Professor at McMaster University. Prior to this appointment, she was the Medical Director of the Paediatric Acquired Brain Injury Community Outreach Program (PABICOP) and a consultant paediatric neurologist at Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario in London, Ontario.
Dr. Gillett was known as a caring physician who worked closely together with patients, families, teachers and other caregivers. She was a strong supporter of an inclusive team approach to rehabilitation and was renowned for her ability to bring people together. Dr. Gillett was one of the first to recognize that the impact of an acquired brain injury in youngsters may continue to emerge for many years post-injury, often arising or changing with developmental stages. She stressed that long-term rehabilitation and care of the child or youth with a brain injury must occur within his or her own community. She believed that care has to be comprehensive because brain injury affects so many different areas of the brain, and the effects of the injury can vary through one’s life. Embracing these beliefs, Dr. Gillett developed the Paediatric Acquired Brain Injury Community Outreach Program (PABICOP) in London Ontario, serving five counties throughout southwestern Ontario. PABICOP continues today as an international model for serving children and youth with acquired brain injury and their families.
Dr. Gillett was always willing to share her expertise with others, within Canada as well as elsewhere. It was her dream to establish an international consortium of brain injury experts in various disciplines in order to spread awareness and enhance treatment of paediatric brain injury world wide. She has made that dream come true by founding the International Paediatric Brain Injury Society (IPBIS) at a meeting of like-minded professionals in Magnetewan, Ontario in 2009. Jane Gillett served as the first President of IPBIS until she died on February 16, 2011 in Brantford, Ontario at the age of 55 from a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
In order to honour and always remember this outstanding woman and to stimulate others to provide services using her philosophies, the Board of Directors of the International Paediatric Brain Injury Society created the Dr. Jane Gillett Award.