Department of Surgery

Faculty of Medicine

Fellowship

Dalhousie University Department of Surgery (DOS) currently oversees over 30 clinical fellowships. These fellowships are a variety of Dalhousie University-based and NSH/IWK Hospital-based fellowship programs that span the breadth of surgical specialties and subspecialties at Nova Scotia Health and IWK Health. Programs are generally 1 or 2 years. Applications are made to each program directly, and information on individual programs is available by clicking links for each specialty on the sidebar.

Fellowship programs have been under the umbrella of the Dalhousie University Department of Surgery Fellowship Committee since 2013. This departmental committee was created in large part through Dr. Brock Vair’s efforts in his role as Dalhousie University DOS’s Director of Education. Dr. Vair helped develop Dalhousie medical school’s Fellowship Education Advisory Committee (FEAC) with goals of creating standards for training, evaluation and accountability; standardizing the recruitment and application processes; stabilizing a funding base; structurally aligning our fellows with other medical learners; and creating infrastructure support for all fellowship candidates regardless of training ‘stream’ or funding source.

Dr. Mark Glazebrook led the Fellowship Committee from 2013-2023 as Chair, and was successful in implementing these goals. His leadership, and that of Dr. Ron El-Hawary who led the committee from 2023-2024, was instrumental in further developing the effectiveness of the Committee in overseeing clinical fellowships. The current chair is Dr. Matt Rigby, who has been in the role since 2025. The committee is supported, organized and kept running by Lesli Smith who has been a critical part of the committee’s successes since its inception.

Since 2013, the DOS Fellowship Committee has implemented standardized assessments and assessment frequency of fellows, set minimum salary and benefits for fellows, reviewed all proposed incoming fellows, and provided guidance and mediation for fellows and fellowship programs. The governance within the committee has also expanded with standardized fellowship application forms, review of proposed new fellowships, and terms of reference for the Committee.

2024 – 2025
Fellowship Directors Department of Surgery

Chair – Dr. Matt Rigby (mhrigby@dal.ca)

Admin – Marcia Morin (marcia.morin@nshealth.ca)

Admin Support Fellowship Committee – Lesli Smith (lesli1.smith@nshealth.ca)

Director of Education – Dr. Gerard Corsten (Gerard.corsten@iwk.nshealth.ca)

Admin – Heather Lunn (heather.lunn@iwk.nshealth.ca)

Cardiac Surgery – Dr. Roger Baskett (rjfbaskett@icloud.com)

Admin – Tausha Coffey (tausha.coffey@.nshealth.ca)

General Surgery (Advanced GI MIS Surgery) – Dr. James Ellsmere (james.ellsmere@dal.ca)

Admin – Kathy Smith (kathym.smith@nshealth.ca)

General Surgery (Pediatric) – Dr. Christopher Blackmore (christopher.blackmore@iwk.nshealth.ca)

Admin – Shalini Pundhir (shalini.pundhir@iwk.nshealth.ca)