Humans of DFCM—Dr. Joan Cheng

Dr. Joan Cheng, associate professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) at the University of Toronto, was recently honoured with the Canadian Medical Association’s prestigious May Cohen Award for Women Mentors.

“It’s really meaningful and a huge honour to win this award named after Dr. May Cohen. She’s such a trailblazer for women in medicine, who compelled the medical community and society at large to recognize women’s health, women’s rights, and women’s leadership,” says the award winner.

Cheng’s continuation of Cohen’s legacy of building up women and addressing inequities is exactly why she was chosen as the recipient of this achievement.

In addition to teaching medical learners as a DFCM faculty member, Cheng is the GTA’s first East Asian woman to be chief of an emergency department, serving at Unity Health Toronto’s St. Joseph’s Health Centre. In this role, she’s helped increase the percentage of women emergency physicians at the hospital from 25 per cent to 41 per cent. Prior to her time at Unity Health, she was the inaugural director of medical education at Markham Stouffville Hospital, where she coauthored and executed their Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy Plan.

At U of T, Cheng co-founded the Anti-Asian Racism Working Group at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and contributed to the development of anti-racism and anti-oppression content within business education curricula across other faculties. She also teaches on topics such as overcoming the confidence gap for women, internalized misogyny, calling out microaggressions, and how to advocate for yourself and other women.

“The system wasn’t built for all of us equally,” says Cheng, explaining the drive behind her equity and mentorship work. “Mentorship can help us navigate that reality. And it's a form of resistance. It says, ‘We're not just here, but we're thriving. And we're pulling others up with us.’”

While the emergency medicine chief is committed to uplifting other women, she acknowledges that it’s not easy to push back against systems that aren’t accustomed to seeing women at the top. Among many obstacles, she highlights the social pressures women leaders face.

“We have to navigate the expectations of competence and likeability,” she says. “We’re constantly walking this line of being assertive, but not too assertive because then you’re not going to be likable. But if you’re too likable, then you can be viewed as not strong enough.”

With this pressure to be likable comes an expectation to be humble. And while Cheng says there certainly are times for humility, when it comes to women and minorities in leadership, successes need to be “trumpeted” because it allows future generations to see themselves and know that they can lead, too.

For women who have trouble advocating for themselves, Cheng offers this “mental gymnastics” tip: Make it about somebody else.

“Speak up because you're doing it for your junior colleagues who are watching you and listening to you. Do it for your children, because we'll always do stuff for our kids,” she says. “If I’m worried about speaking up, I remember that I’m not just doing this for me, I’m doing it for somebody else. And that gives me the courage to go ahead.”

As Cheng helps to light the path for those who will follow her, she has much gratitude for the other women leaders who’ve walked alongside her—particularly those who nominated her for the May Cohen Award—and a deep appreciation for those who’ve mentored her.

Cheng recognizes the late Dr. Donald Low, who was one of the first people to believe that she could be a physician; her administrative assistant, Joanna, who showed her the ropes in her first formal leadership role; and her figure skating coach, Monica, who taught her how to foster potential in others and communicate in ways that help people thrive. Cheng says that these and other mentors, both within and outside of medicine, have played a significant role in her success.

As she goes above and beyond in paying it forward, she offers this piece of advice to the women in medicine who wish to pursue leadership roles like she has: “You belong here, just as you are. You don’t have to wait to lead. I know we’ve been socialized to wait our turn, and it’s not easy. But the system’s not going to make space for you—so just take it. You can do it!”

Humans of DFCM is a monthly news series profiling the department’s faculty, staff, and learners. If you know someone who you think should be part of this series, please email dfcm.commsasst@utoronto.ca.