Changemaker: Building a healthy, prosperous community
Author: Development and Donor Relations
Posted on Jan 8, 2024
Category: News and Events
If you are a successful tech entrepreneur who wants everyone in your community to share in a more healthy and prosperous future, what do you do?
For Innovatia co-CEO Dr. Roxanne R. Fairweather CM, ONB (DLitt’18) and her husband, Pat, the answer was clear: you invest in UNB’s Integrated Health Initiative (IHI) to drive improvements in health care, boost economic development and fuel social innovation.
“It’s very important for me to see the potential of every child being realized,” Fairweather says. “For our region to be successful, economically and socially, we need a juggernaut that both creates opportunities and gives people the skills to seize those opportunities. I see IHI as providing that moonshot for Saint John and the region.”
Roxanne and Pat have committed $250,000 to IHI to support the construction of UNB’s landmark Health and Social Innovation Centre; the Roxanne (Smith) Fairweather Bursary, which supports a student enrolled in UNB’s new bachelor of health program; and UNB’s soon to be established Chair in Digital Transformation of Health Care. Their gift to the Chair will complement work undertaken through the McKenna Institute in support of the digital transformation of New Brunswick. Their gift is expected to help UNB leverage additional money for the Chair from external funding bodies.
Fairweather sees these gifts as part of the continuum of IHI, which is combining interdisciplinary education with collaborative research to fuel social and economic innovation.
“Pat and I love Saint John, we love UNB, and we see this as a huge opportunity to create great opportunities for kids who are struggling and trying to figure out their path, while helping the university research what the next generation of health care will look like.”
She is especially enthusiastic about the ways in which IHI is bringing together community efforts in social pediatrics and after-school education programs to empower students to escape from generational poverty into today’s high tech knowledge economy. For this reason, her bursary will be awarded to students in financial need with preference to students who participated in Pathways in Education Saint John programs.
“Driving the economy helps to solve so many of our current issues, if we also focus on building children’s ability to evolve out of the trauma created by poverty and engage in school in a way that is productive for them to learn. This is all part of the integrated solution that IHI is working towards.”
“Today, we don’t even know what all of the next-generation jobs in health care or social development will be,” Fairweather says. “How exciting it must be for students to see themselves in that future and helping to solve these problems with audacious solutions.”