Joanne Liu

Joanne Liu is a Canadian doctor and the current International President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders. She was elected President during MSF's International General Assembly in June 2013.

Early life

Joanne Liu was born in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, to a Chinese immigrant family from Taishan, Guangdong. Her family ran a Chinese restaurant. When she was thirteen, she became fascinated by Et la Paix dans le monde docteur, a book about the experiences of a physician working with Doctors Without Borders during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. She dreamt of becoming "a doctor without borders" one day.

Education and training

During junior college, she travelled to Mali with Canadian Crossroads International. Liu graduated from the McGill University Faculty of Medicine and completed pediatric specialty training at the Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine. She then completed a sub-specialty in pediatric emergency care at Bellevue Hospital Center of the New York University School of Medicine and an International Master's in Health Leadership degree at the McGill University Desautels Faculty of Management.