Amazing alumni named Outstanding Community Service recipient

Sep 13th, 2016

Lisa Pendergast

Christopher Nolan
Amazing alumni named Outstanding Community Service recipient

Congratulations to School of Nursing (SON) alumni Christopher Nolan, recipient of the Outstanding Community Service Award in this year's 2016 Alumni Tribute Awards.

Mr. Nolan, originally from Duntara, N.L., is currently employed by the Government of Nunavut and is the supervisor of a health centre in Hall Beach, a small fly-in community in one of the most remote places in Canada's Arctic. In addition to his bachelor of nursing and master of nursing degrees, he is currently working on a post-master's nurse practitioner graduate diploma at the SON, which he expects to complete in spring 2017.

Since 2009 Mr. Nolan has volunteered with an Ottawa-based organization called Canada-Africa Community Health Alliance (CACHA). He has travelled to Tanzania each year for the past eight years, spending two weeks providing treatments and services, such as HIV diagnosis, primary health care, emergent health-care services, women's health and antenatal care and health education. During the intense two-week period, Mr. Nolan works in mobile clinics where more than 400 patients are assessed and treated each day free of charge. The needs presented by this population are wide-ranging and critically important, spanning everything from malaria prevention to basic hygiene. This work also includes providing education to local Tanzanian doctors and nurses. For the past three years, Mr. Nolan has been a co-medical team lead with CACHA, leading a group of physicians, nurses and pharmacists from across Canada.

Mr. Nolan has a lifelong record of community service. As a teenager, he volunteered every Saturday at a senior citizens' home in Bonavista, N.L. He has a passion for helping others both locally and internationally. In addition to his work in Africa, he has put together Christmas shoe boxes for the citizens of Belize and operated eye-glass clinics in Mexico and Paraguay.

Whether it is involvement at a local food bank, professional committee work, union activities to improve work life and patient care or his extensive volunteer work in Tanzania and other developing countries, Mr. Nolan serves as a humble example of an individual committed to outstanding community service. He has a desire to improve the quality of life in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada and beyond.

Every year the university recognizes four outstanding Memorial alumni who contribute to their communities in a variety of ways. The 35th annual Alumni Tribute Awards ceremony takes place Thursday, Oct. 13, at 6 p.m. at the Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland in St. John's.