TRU hosts free talk by Doctors without Borders Canada founderKAMLOOPS – As part of its President’s Lecture Series 2007, TRU will host a free talk by the founder of Doctors without Borders Canada, Dr. Richard Heinzl, at 7 pm Thursday, Mar. 1 in the university’s Grand Hall, located in the Campus Activity Centre.

Dr. Richard Heinzl began the work of creating a Canadian chapter of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Doctors without Borders in 1985 while still a resident at the University of Toronto’s Women’s College Hospital. In 1988 his dream became a reality shortly after he graduated from McMaster University’s medical school, and upon receiving a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University in 1990, he became the organization’s first field volunteer, working in Cambodia, Turkey, Iraq and Mozambique.

Dr. Heinzl, who speaks five languages, has travelled to 45 countries. He has received numerous awards and citations, including being named to Report on Business Magazine’s prestigious Top 40 Under-40 List. Since its inception, Doctors without Borders Canada has sent more than 650 medical and non-medical volunteers, including nearly 200 physicians, overseas to the world’s most vulnerable people, and has volunteer-staffed offices in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Halifax and Ottawa.

The former CEO of Toronto-based CardioView Inc., an information technology company in the field of cardiology, Dr. Heinzl is also Vice President of Vivid Health Solutions which creates motion picture and new media solutions for the health sciences. His latest venture, MediSpecialist.com, is a project involving the creation of a web site linking doctors around the world.

The public is invited to hear this inspirational speaker as he relates “The Doctors without Borders Story.” Admission is free (no tickets required), but seating is limited.

For more information, please contact Maryanne Bower at 250-828-5318.