On the recommendation of Dean Jane Philpott, Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Matthew Evans has appointed Dr. Peggy DeJong as Assistant Dean, Admissions, MD Program effective September 1, 2023, until June 30, 2028.
Dean Philpott extends her sincere gratitude to Dr. Hugh MacDonald for his leadership guiding the MD program admissions portfolio over the past 15 years. Dr. MacDonald held the role of Director of Admissions in 2008 and then moved into the role of Assistant Dean, Admissions in 2019. Over his many years of service, he has made tremendous reforms to the admissions policies and procedures to create one of the most robust and unbiased admissions process in Canada.
Dr. DeJong is a cardiologist who has dedicated much of her career to her academic interests of medical education and Indigenous healthcare. As a strong proponent and early adopter of competency-based medical education (CBME), Dr. DeJong implemented CBME curriculum in the Queen’s Health Sciences Cardiology training program five years before it was implemented nationally. Her work also greatly influenced the documentation for Cardiology CBME issued by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. She was the Director of the Cardiology Residency Training Program from 2015 to 2019 and has delivered talks on CBME in Cardiology at a number of institutions across the country.
She co-created the Master of Health Professions Education course on Indigenous health education and introduced an assessment framework for the module based on Indigenous ways of knowing, contributing to the goal of decolonizing curriculum and assessment at Queen’s.
Dr. DeJong received her BSc (honours) from the University of Waterloo and her medical degree from Queen’s University. She earned a Master’s of Medical Education with Distinction from the University of Dundee, Scotland. Her clinical training consisted of internal medicine and cardiology at Queen’s University with an additional year at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver General Hospital in echocardiography. Her clinical interests include general cardiology, valvular heart disease, and aortopathies and she is the Medical Director of the Echocardiology Lab at Kingston Health Sciences Centre.
As the Assistant Dean, Admissions, MD Program, Dr. DeJong is responsible for all policies and processes relating to admissions through all streams and sub-streams of the MD Program. She will also Chair the MD Program Admissions Committee.
Please join Dean Philpott in congratulating Dr. DeJong on her appointment.