Celebrating DFCM’s Retiring Patient Partners: Four Years of Impact and Insight
At the end of June 2026, the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) recognized the first cohort of patient partners on the Patient and Family Advisory Committee (PFAC) as they concluded their terms and joined the PFAC alumni community. These 10 individuals are believed to be among the first-ever patient partners in family medicine education globally.
Over the past four years, Amadou Barry, Sherree Clark, Gerald Crowell, Eleni Gilligan, Liz Kazimowicz, Michelle Ataides Leppington, Cate Mann, Trudy Penny, Tricia Thomas, and Atif Zia have shared their diverse experiences and perspectives as patients to help improve training for family doctors and strengthen care in our teaching clinics.
“It only makes sense to be working with the people we are serving; it doesn't make sense otherwise,” says Dana Arafeh, Patient & Family Engagement Specialist at DFCM. Looking back to how PFAC started, she says, “We consulted all our program leads and quality improvement leads to see what types of support they need. One of the recurring things people wanted was a centralized pool of patient partners that could support various initiatives.”
From those consultations, the Patient Partner Pool (comprising 150 patients) and the smaller PFAC (comprising 15 patients representing each of the DFCM teaching sites) were born.
Since their establishment in 2022, PFAC has been involved in numerous projects, including the “Role of the Resident” campaign. After patient partners raised concerns that many patients did not understand what resident doctors are, the Committee worked with DFCM clinics to improve patient awareness. The Committee has also contributed to residency curriculum development, provided meaningful patient engagement strategies for researchers, participated in senior leadership selection processes, contributed to conferences and scholarly articles, and helped design patient-friendly, wheelchair-accessible waiting rooms.
“There has been a culture shift within the department over the last four years,” says Dr. Melanie Henry, Vice-Chair of Community and Partnerships, speaking about the impact of patient engagement. “Patient partners change the way we communicate. Their presence enforces accountability to the communities that we serve, bringing fresh perspectives and keeping the focus on the impact of care.”
In being a part of this culture shift, retiring patient partner Sherree says, “PFAC very much allowed me to feel confident in expressing myself again, which is something I had lost.”
Sherree has a disability that makes it hard for her to get around, often keeping her at home. Combined with having countless interactions with the healthcare system, including many ableist experiences, she had much to discuss about care but few opportunities to be heard. That changed when PFAC came along.
One of her standout PFAC moments was presenting at a family physician conference. She shared a hypothetical story drawn from her experience as a patient who uses a mobility device, highlighting the additional challenges folks with disabilities have when accessing care. The story followed a woman who uses a wheelchair as she prepared for her doctor’s appointment. She arranged child care, organized Wheel-Trans, dealt with Wheel-Trans delays that frustrated the physician, and ultimately arrived only to find the clinic lacked the proper equipment needed for someone with a physical disability to do the procedure.
Sherree remembers that the story prompted one of the physicians in the audience to immediately text her clinic to ensure they had appropriate equipment to accommodate individuals who use wheelchairs.
“I just thought, ‘OK, these docs really want to do better,” she says, remembering the reaction to her presentation.
Liz Kazimowicz echoes this sentiment.
“Initially, I thought, they're going to run things by us, and we're just going to go, ‘Yes, sounds good.’”
Instead, to her satisfaction, she says, “They really wanted to know what we thought.”
As a former teacher, principal, and superintendent of schools, Liz has found many parallels between education and medicine, and notes that DFCM faculty have recognized the value of that perspective. From finding ways to “stretch the dollar” to maintaining a strong focus on clients (students/patients) to strategic planning and quality improvement, she has been able to highlight these connections and help medicine draw parallels from education where appropriate.
While patient partners have helped strengthen family medicine education, the retired educator says the work has been mutually beneficial.
“It became my passion, quite honestly,” says Liz of being a patient partner. “I've learned a lot, and I absolutely loved it.”
Sherree agrees.
“Socially, it has been so good. I'm really proud of the members who made it a safe place, who've made it non-judgmental,” she says, thinking specifically about the PFAC meetings that she looked forward to every month. “We are a truly diverse group, and I've met some great people and learned different stories, which I totally appreciate.”
To continue getting diverse perspectives, patient partners can only serve on PFAC for four years, which is why Liz, Sherree, and the other eight retirees have now wrapped up their time on the Committee.
Though they understand why their time needed to come to an end, both Sherree and Liz have expressed sadness at turning the page on such a great chapter. For this amazing experience, they give much credit to Drs. Melanie Henry and Noor Ramji, the DFCM faculty members who’ve worked closely with Dana to initiate and facilitate patient engagement at DFCM. And they both especially share their gratitude for Dana.
“I really do believe that one thing that should be stressed is how all patient partners value Dana,” says Liz. “Anything that comes up, you can connect with her, and she's right on it. I think she's probably spread very thin, but she's the glue that keeps us together.”
“She created such an amazing environment for us,” agrees Sherree. “I’m so proud of her.”
Liz and Sherree both hope to find new ways to stay connected with Dana and the broader DFCM community. In the meantime, they remain grateful for the past four years and hope their contributions will continue to shape DFCM for years to come.
Congratulations to Liz, Sherree, and all of the other retiring PFAC members!