Dorothy Jill Konkin was pre-deceased by her parents, Peter and Irene (née Carss) Konkin. She is survived by her brothers Dan (Leslie) and Doug (Mary), nieces and nephews Taylor (Kandace), Blaire, Katie, David and Colleen, and grandnephew Charlie.
She began university at Glendon College of York University, and graduated from Carleton University with an Honours degree in Political Science. A highlight of her undergraduate experience was a one year exchange at Leningrad State University, where she studied Russian civil government and perfected her spoken and written Russian.
On her return to Canada she entered graduate studies in Political Science at the University of Alberta. After six years of having her supervisor "move the goal posts", she gathered some friends around a fire and burnt all of her notes and materials. Nonetheless, this was a positive and important time in Jill's life. She was a leading figure in the establishment and construction of the Sundance Housing Co-op project to provide affordable housing, serving as the founding president. She was also deeply involved in the Scona Foods co-operative. These activities created lifelong friends and began a career of effective advocacy, community organizing and project delivery in service of social justice.
In 1979 Jill was accepted into the intensive three year medical degree program at the University of Calgary. While at medical school she spent two electives in Black River, Jamaica, creating a lifelong love of Jamaica and the Caribbean, further fuelling her drive for social justice. After residency she took advanced training in Obstetrics to better serve rural patients, then "headed for the hills", starting rural practice with a year long locum in Sundre, Alberta.
After a short period back in Calgary, she packed her bags and headed for Jasper, where she was to spend two decades in family practice. She was an active member of the community, a fierce advocate for her patients and for community-based health care, and an enthusiastic cross country skier. Jill formed many enduring friendships during these years.
Jill began her association with academic medicine in 2000 supervising medical students and residents in Jasper. In 2003 she joined the team creating the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), serving as the founding Associate Dean of Admissions and Student Affairs, championing the development of socially accountable admission standards in a program focussed on training generalist physicians attuned to the needs of rural communities. She returned to the West in 2005 as the Associate Dean of Rural and Regional Health in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta, attaining full professorship in 2017.
Her talent for building the rural physician workforce was shared with colleagues across the globe, from Australia to Nepal, where she helped establish a teaching hospital to train rural doctors. She was one of the 'bright lights in the chandelier' of advisors to fellow rural medical educators and social justice practitioners.
Jill had a passion for serving the Indigenous peoples of Canada. She worked tirelessly as an advocate for Indigenous health within the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, leading a working group to design an Indigenous health curriculum for all health profession learners. One to lead by example, she was part of a group that took turns flying into the remote community of Fort Chipewyan to help close the gap in health care to underserved people.
Jill epitomized life-long learning, as the many academic journals, conference papers and hardcover books ever-present in her house would attest; as would attaining a Master's degree in Clinical Sciences at Western University in 2015; as would her international research group, to which she contributed until weeks before her death.
Jill travelled extensively, both for work and pleasure. Her research and outreach activities took her to conferences around the world. Her travel pleasures included the cruises she arranged for each of her five nieces and nephews. Upon high school graduation, Jill and her mother took the lucky graduate to see some part of the world: the Baltic, Greece, Turkey, North Africa, Italy. She loved travel, and wanted to open their eyes to the magic of foreign lands. She succeeded.
Jill was an accomplished sailor, attaining her certification to skipper sailing yachts in coastal waters. Aside from the challenges and exhilaration of sailing, it was also a wonderful reason to return to her beloved Caribbean. One memorable sailing trip in the British Virgin Islands included Grandma, her sister-in-law and three of her nieces and nephews.
Jill loved her students, and cared greatly for their learning and success. She loved her patients, and worked tirelessly, not only to provide care, but also to shape the health care system to better meet the needs of rural communities. Most of all, she loved her friends and family, accumulating over the years the close relationships that accrue to those who care deeply. She was a great woman, a loving sister and aunt, and a true friend. Jill left this world a better place.
We would like to thank the staff of the University of Alberta Hospital, who cared for Jill in a kind and compassionate manner.
If you wish to honour Jill's memory, a donation to Poundmaker's Lodge Treatment Centres, CASA Mental Health or a charity of your choosing that works to address social justice and inequality would be dear to her.