Each year at the International Conference on Residency Education (ICRE), exceptional medical educators and resident leaders are celebrated for their groundbreaking contributions to residency training, advocacy and clinical practice.

It is with great pleasure that we announce the recipients of the 2025 International Residency Education Awards.

International Medical Educator of the Year Award

This award recognizes an international residency educator who has shown exceptional dedication to advancing residency education through innovative practices and meaningful contributions that extend beyond their own program. The 2025 recipient is Benjamin Kinnear, MD, MEd, whose work exemplifies these values.

Dr. Ben Kinnear is an associate professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics in the Division of Hospital Medicine at both the University of Cincinnati (UC) Medical Center and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. He serves as program director for the Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Program and leads the IMSTAR Medical Education Fellowship.

Dr. Kinnear obtained his master of medical education from the University of Cincinnati in 2018 and completed a one-year research fellowship with the Education Research Scholars Program at Cincinnati Children’s in 2020. Subsequently, he was selected for the Macy Faculty Scholars Program, during which he piloted competency-based time-variable training in the UC Internal Medicine Residency Program. He recently completed his PhD at Maastricht University’s School of Health Professions Education where he studied validity argumentation and argumentation theory.

International Resident Leadership Award

This award honours an international resident who exemplifies leadership in specialty education and actively fosters the growth of future medical leaders. The 2025 recipient is Majd Marrache, MD, recognized for his outstanding contributions and dedication to advancing medical education.   

Dr. Majd Marrache is an orthopedic surgeon and current adult reconstruction fellow at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital. He completed his orthopedic surgery residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he held several key leadership roles, most notably serving as president of the House Staff Council. In this role, he represented over 860 resident physicians across the institution, advocating for fair compensation, work-life balance and improved educational resources. He also served as chief of Orthopedic Surgery program strategy and leadership, helping to shape institutional policy and championing resident wellness and curricular innovation.

Dr. Marrache’s academic contributions include more than 65 peer-reviewed publications and numerous national podium presentations. He has been recognized with multiple honours, including the Ronald Byank Resident of the Year Leadership Award. His clinical interests focus on hip and knee arthroplasty, surgical education and value-based orthopedic care.

A proud Lebanese-American, Dr. Marrache is a lifelong athlete. During his time at the American University of Beirut, he was captain of both the rugby and football teams. He remains passionate about mentorship, leadership development and delivering high-quality, patient-centred care.

Kristin Sivertz Resident Leadership Award

This award recognizes a resident who exemplifies leadership in Canadian specialty education and inspires the next generation of medical leaders. The 2025 recipients are  Paul Barber, MD, MBA and Justin Boyle, MD.

Currently in Pediatrics training, Dr. Paul Barber is a graduate from the University of Alberta with a passion for social advocacy and creating healthier work environments.Before medical school, he was diving into quality improvement (QI) projects and immersing himself in Institute for Healthcare Improvement courses. He’s especially interested in how policies and procedures shape health care workers’ experiences and how they can be redesigned to reduce burnout.

In medical school, Dr. Barber launched a program to teach QI skills to students eager to improve the system they were entering. He also helped start one of Canada’s first medical student peer support programs, training students in suicide safety skills and crisis support. During his MBA, he focused on project and change management skills while consulting for the Glenrose Hospital and Stollery Foundation. He later chaired a student committee that developed recommendations for Edmonton’s Emergency Operation Centre during the COVID-19’s pandemic. In Pediatrics residency, he continues to use his love of QI and change management to improve the health care learning environment. Clinically, he’s drawn to caring for more socially vulnerable children or those exposed to adverse childhood events.

Dr. Justin Boyle is a recent graduate of the General Internal Medicine Subspecialty Program at the University of Toronto. He earned his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from McMaster University and obtained his medical degree from the University of Toronto. He trained in core Internal Medicine at Queen’s University, where he served as chief medical resident and received the Professor’s Award for leadership and contributions to the program.

Dr. Boyle is deeply committed to medical education, advocacy and research. During subspecialty training, he helped revise the undergraduate medical education trans and gender-diverse health curriculum and served on several committees, including the Learner Experience Advisory and First-in-Family Physician groups. He received the MD Program Teaching Award of Excellence for his dedication to teaching.

He co-created Medicine Pods, a platform for evidence-based Internal Medicine education, and managed The Rounds Table Podcast. His work has earned educational grants from The Canadian Society of Internal Medicine Mount Sinai Hospital and the University of Toronto’s Department of Medicine.

His research focuses on professional identity formation, exploring how safety, struggle, and socialization shape medical learners. His publications appear in Medical Education and BMC Medical Education. He is a research fellow at the Wilson Centre and he is pursuing a master of health professions education at Maastricht University, where his thesis examines the tension between safety and struggle in clinical learning.

Dr. Boyle aims to build a career as a clinician educator, integrating social medicine with research in identity safety and professional development.

Program Director of the Year Award 

This award recognizes a program director who has demonstrated exceptional commitment to advancing residency education through innovation and impact that extends beyond their own program. Up to two recipients are selected annually. The 2025 honorees are  Jessica Foulds, MD, FRCPC, MEHP, and Sarah Jones, MD, FRCSC, PhD .

Dr. Jessica Foulds is a transplanted Nova Scotian who now calls Edmonton home. She currently practises as a general pediatrician at the Stollery Children's Hospital and she is an associate professor and clinician educator in the Division of Pediatric Hospital Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics, within the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta.

She received her bachelor of science in neuroscience from Dalhousie University and her medical degree from Western University. Dr. Foulds completed her Pediatrics residency at the University of Alberta and her master of education in health professions (MEHP) from Johns Hopkins University. 

She has been in educational leadership as the program director for the General Pediatrics Residency Program at the University of Alberta through the pre-implementation, launch and operationalization of CBME and now CBD 2.0. Working within her program and more broadly with both the PGME CBME Oversight and Access, Community and Belonging Committees she loves to think of the why and support continuous quality improvement initiatives in postgraduate medical education.

Dr. Sarah Jones was born in the United Kingdom and completed a PhD in physiology before moving to Canada to pursue a research career at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto. Her research experience sparked a deep interest in medicine, leading her to earn a medical degree from McMaster University. She subsequently completed residency training in General Surgery and a fellowship in Pediatric Surgery at Dalhousie University.

Dr. Jones has held pediatric surgical appointments at Queen’s University and Western University, where she combined clinical practice with a deepening commitment to resident education. Her surgical career was interrupted by a significant injury to her dominant hand. Although she was able to return to practice for an additional 10 years, the lasting effects of the injury eventually led her to step away from the operating room. This transition created an opportunity to focus more fully on surgical education.

Currently, Dr. Jones serves as the program director for General Surgery and the director of postgraduate education in the Department of Surgery at Queen’s University. In these roles, she has become actively involved in the residency accreditation process with the Royal College and continues to explore innovative approaches to training and assessment in surgical education.

Program Administrator Award for Excellence

This award honors a Residency Program Administrator who exemplifies innovation, leadership and a dedication to advancing residency education beyond the boundaries of their own program. We are proud to announce this year’s recipient is Allison Coutts.

Allison Coutts is a highly experienced health care administrator and medical education professional with over 25 years in hospital and academic settings. Her career began at The Ottawa Hospital, where she held a variety of operational and administrative roles that shaped her deep understanding of health care systems. This practical foundation informs her current work as program administrator for the General Internal Medicine (GIM) Subspecialty Program at the University of Ottawa—a role she has held since 2012.

Known for her empathy, dedication and tireless advocacy for both residents and colleagues, Ms. Coutts plays a vital role in shaping program culture and operations. In 2024, her completion of the University of Ottawa’s Health Education Scholar’s Program—a rare achievement for a non-clinician—sparked her interest in qualitative research and resident wellness. This has led to her involvement in several GIM-based initiatives focused on program improvement and administrator recognition.

As a self-described ”MedEd nerd,” Ms. Coutts brings both professional and lived insight to her work. She is currently part of a research team exploring resident wellness and the evolving role of the program administrator, in addition to providing administrative support for a social medicine rotation.

Now that her daughter Sage has graduated with her university degree, Ms. Coutts is turning her focus to completing her own studies—proof that it’s never too late to keep learning.

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These awards will be presented at the 2025 International Conference on Residency Education on Saturday, November 1, 2025.  Learn more and register.

(L-R) Jessica Foulds, Paul Barber, Sarah Jones
(L-R) Ben Kinnear, Allison Cloutts, Majd Marrache, Justin Boyle