Dr Woollard is Royal Canadian Legion Professor and Head of the Department of Family Practice, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia in Canada. He currently chairs the Committee on the Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools (CACMS) and the Committee on the Accreditation of Continuing Medical Education (CACME) and sits on the Executive of the international Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). He has chaired senior committees, councils and task forces for the BC Medical Association, Canadian Medical Association and the College of Family Physicians of Canada in the areas of medical education, environmental health and ethical relations with industry. His primary research focus is the study of complex adaptive systems as they apply to the intersection between human and environmental health. His book, “Fatal Consumption: Rethinking Sustainable Development” details his work in this regard. His background in the full continuum of the life-long-learning of physicians has informed his commitment to understanding the links between medical education and health outcomes. He is Co-Chair of the UBC Task Force on Healthy and Sustainable Communities and has provided leadership in a number of major initiatives grant-funded through the Science Council of British Columbia, the Tri Council Research Fund and is currently a co-investigator in a Major Collaborative Research Initiative (MCRI) grant being administered through the Sustainable Development Research Institute. He is a member of the SDRI, Centre for Health Services and Policy Research and the Institute of Health Promotion Research. He is Chair of the Board of the CHF Partners in Rural Development, an international development organization. He has completed a five year, five university CIDA project on Localized Poverty Reduction in Vietnam.

He has assisted in the development of a rural practice undergraduate program, the design and development of the distributed expansion of UBC Medical School, and continues the active practice of medicine.

During his first term as Department Chair he led a Faculty initiative on Integrating Study & Service which contributed to the success of the Strategic Teaching Initiative, a substantial, targeted increase in resources for the Faculty of Medicine to help focus its research and educational capacity on the priority health needs of British Columbians. He currently chairs a Task Group of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) charged with implementing the policy paper Social Accountability: A Vision for Canadian Medical Schools. At these various levels he is leading the development of five-way partnerships (policy makers/health managers/communities/ professional organizations/academy) to build responsive and responsible academic systems in support of responsive and responsible health care systems.

He is currently working in a number of venues. These address issues relevant to social responsibility of the profession and range from local (Departmental pilot initiatives) through regional (BC Academic Health Science Initiative on Towards Unity for Health) through provincial (Steering Committee for the Primary Health Care Transition Fund, BCMA Board of Directors, BC Cancer Agency Primary Care Oncology Network, etc.) and to national (Primary Health Care Transition Fund National Envelope initiatives with AFMC) and international realms (World Federation of Medical Education and Localized Poverty Reduction in Vietnam initiatives).

He has worked on the development of primary care electronic networks in the rural undergraduate program at UBC and has been part of an interdisciplinary team looking at community preparedness for information technology and telemedicine.

He is married to Erlene; they have three sons, a granddaughter and a grandson.