Dr. Kaiser graduated medicine from the University of Pretoria Medical School in 1994 and did her residency at the HF Verwoerd Hospital in Pretoria. She began her career in private practice in Empangeni — KwaZulu Natal, South Africa and worked at a TB Clinic and Cardiac clinic at a rural Ngwelezana Hospital. In 2000 she moved to Canada to work in private practice. She worked at the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba for 7 years as their in-house physician and was trained in Methadone for Addictions and recently completed a course in Methadone for Palliative Care. Since moving to Brandon, Dr. Kaiser has started the Methadone Clinic, becoming the first physician in Manitoba to prescribe Methadone for addictions outside of Winnipeg.

In 2008, she started working as a part-time hospitalist, but in 2010 left AFM to work exclusively as a hospitalist specializing in internal medicine in Brandon. With many family physicians in Brandon and surrounding areas without hospital privileges, hospitalists are responsible for these patients.

Dr. Kaiser joined the board to advocate for family physicians and hospitalists. Both, she believes, are undervalued. She sees that we are heading towards a crisis in family medicine as fewer and fewer graduates want to practice family or hospital medicine. Family physicians and hospitalists are the constant in patient care, pulling together all of the different pieces and making sure that nothing is forgotten or missed. 

In her spare time Dr. Kaiser does cross fit four or five mornings a week with her husband. She enjoys skiing, gardening, boating, and fishing with her husband, but her biggest passion is reading. Any chance she gets, her nose is in a book. She and her husband have three daughters and a son, ranging in age from 12 to 23. As the general handy-person/accountant/gardener/pool person/​organizer/​finder of lost things of her family, there is not much Dr. Kaiser cannot do. If she finds there is something she has not done before, she does her research and gives it a try!

Fun Fact: Her daughter’s horse, named CJ, is Dr. Kaiser’s ​“therapy animal” and she finds it relaxing to visit the barn. 

Our District Representative for Concordia, Dr. Tunovic, works in primary care as a Family Physician at Concordia Community Clinic and as a consultant at Bethania and Pembina Place personal care homes. He spent part of his career as a hospitalist at the Concordia Hospital. 

The significant health care restructuring that involved Concordia Hospital prompted Dr. Tunovic to join the Board at Doctors Manitoba. Dealing with regional politics and seeing the effects of experienced physician opinions being disregarded made him realize just how valuable a role family doctors can play in their community and at all levels of healthcare. He decided to take his passion to a place where he could make a difference for his colleagues.

He grew up in Winnipeg and studied medicine at the University of Manitoba. In his spare time, Dr. Tunovic plays soccer and basketball and whenever possible he loves to travel and spend time outdoors with his wife. 

FUN FACT: Dr. Tunovic enjoys daily Jeopardy competitions with his wife.

Dr. Heather Diamond graduated from medical school at the University of Western Ontario in 1997, and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Manitoba in 2002. She has a full-time practice at the Manitoba Clinic and has worked as a surgeon at the Women’s and Grace hospitals since the beginning of her career 19 years ago. 

Dr. Diamond is a clinical educator at the University of Manitoba and the past site director of the Grace Hospital, section of Gynecologic Surgery. She is chair of the Gynecologic Surgery Audit at the Women’s Hospital and is an active member of the Grace Hospital Gynecologic Surgery audit. She has been an examiner for the Royal College Fellowship Examination in Obstetrics and Gynecology for the last 7 years. She is also a clinic advisor/​mentor for graduating Ob/​Gyn residents, helping them transition into practice. 

Her current practice focuses on General Gynecology, Colposcopy and Minimally Invasive Surgery.

Dr. Diamond has also been providing gynecologic care to remote communities in Northern Manitoba and Nunavut since 2007. She has a passion for helping underserviced communities, ensuring they receive the care they deserve.

In recent years, Dr. Diamond has incorporated medical aesthetics into her practice on a part time basis. She has combined her years of experience as a surgeon and her knowledge of anatomy with her artful eye for aesthetics to help people achieve optimal results. 

Outside of medicine, Dr. Diamond and her husband are busy with their 3 boys, 2 dogs and 1 cat. She enjoys working out, taking long walks, having Zen time at the lake, and watching the Jets.

Dr. Shauna Brinkman is a radiologist working out of Selkirk Hospital, and reads for Selkirk, Thompson and The Pas. Growing up on a farm has instilled in her a unique perspective on rural living, while her husband’s profession as an anesthiologist has provided her with insights into Manitoba’s overall healthcare system. Dr. Brinkman is committed to supporting and advocating for rural physicians.She completed her undergraduate degree, medical school and residency all here in Winnipeg. She and her husband are parents to four school-age children.

Dr. William Li is one of two District Representatives for Health Sciences Centre. He was born in Beijing, China, but grew up in Edmonton. After attending Medical School at the University of Alberta, he decided to move East (but not too far East) to do his Residency in Pediatrics at the University of Manitoba. He loved Winnipeg so much, he decided to stay. 

He works as a Community Pediatrician at the Winnipeg Clinic and at the Women’s Hospital as a Newborn Hospitalist. He is pediatrics-trained with interests in Population Health.

When he is not busy with work he enjoys hockey, food (cooking and eating it) and technology. His partner is a Pediatric ID-trained physician in Winnipeg.

FUN FACT: During his residency, Dr. Li had an active food blog that became nationally ranked on a list of food bloggers.

Dr. Creek practices comprehensive community-based family medicine at Tuxedo Family Medical in Winnipeg. After completing her BSc at the University of Winnipeg and her MD at the University of Manitoba, she completed her family medicine residency at the University of Toronto/​Women’s College Hospital. 

After completing her residency, Dr. Creek started a family practice in downtown Toronto where she served a predominantly inner city, marginalized population. She has been back home in Winnipeg since 2016. She has a special interest in gender affirming care, women’s health, and medical assistance in dying. She has been a member of the provincial MAID team since 2017. 

Dr. Creek is currently completing a Masters in Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. She has trained and worked in Africa, South America, and Japan. When she is not practicing medicine she enjoys spending time with her husband Josh and their three children Miles, Archie, and Stella. Kristen is an avid runner, gym enthusiast, traveler, and gourmand. She is excited to be on the board of Doctors Manitoba to help give back to our inspiring medical community.

Born in Nigeria and educated at the University of Calabar, Dr. Chukwuma Abara is a family physician in Thompson where he works in primary care, provides healthy newborn care at the hospital nursery, and works as a hospitalist medical officer on the Internal Medicine ward. Dr. Abara also travels to other Northern remote hospitals and health centers and works part time as Medical Director for Primary Care clinics for Thompson and area at the Northern Health Region. Before moving to Canada, he completed his residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology. He is passionate about helping to bridge the gap in health inequity in the North. 

Dr. Abara became involved with our board because his experiences working in the North as a frontline family physician and as the Physician Champion for the Physician Health and Wellness Community of Practice have highlighted the unique needs of Northern physicians. He wants to ensure they don’t feel left behind because of their geographical isolation, scope of practice and other unique needs.
Outside of medicine, Dr. Abara love to spend time with his wife and two children studying the bible, gardening, and nurturing indoor plants and he enjoys fishing- especially for trout. 

FUN FACT: Dr. Abara is a devout Christian.

Dr. Bittoo Malik is a diagnostic radiologist at the Dauphin Hospital. Originally from the Parkland Region, she moved home to develop and advance the diagnostic imaging program. She obtained a Bachelor of Science degree and Doctor of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Malik completed a residency in Family Medicine at the University of Toronto and a residency in Diagnostic Radiology at the University of Ottawa. 

Dr. Malik is an advocate and champion for health equity, particularly as it applies to individuals living in rural Manitoba, and is deeply committed to her colleagues and community. She is honored to serve as a board member for Doctors Manitoba, an organization supporting physicians as they provide essential medical care for their patients. 

When not working at the hospital, she can be found nurturing a garden or two, or practicing a new-found interest of yoga flow and tai chi qigong. An outdoor enthusiast, kayaking and skiing are among her favorites. She enjoys classical and jazz music, and architecture and design. 

Dr. Eric Lane has worked in Southern Health for almost 35 years, and currently serves at the C.W.Wiebe Medical Centre and Boundary Trails Health Centre as a full service rural family doctor.

Dr. Lane graduated from the University of Cape Town and he took further training in Oslo, Norway as a Norwegian international medical graduate Dr. Lane is married, has three adult children and two granddaughters. Dr. Lane enjoys the outdoors, golf and curling, runs for exercise, including having done 12 full marathons (including the Athens Marathon) and more than 25 half-marathons. 

Dr. Alexis Botkin is a dermatologist who is originally from Manitoba, growing up partly in Winnipeg, and partly in Springfield, where her family has a small farm and apiary.

She completed a Bachelor of Sciences at the University of Manitoba after taking a small wandering break to become certified as a Primary Care Paramedic, as well as Ski Patrol and Rescue, in British Columbia. She returned to the University of Manitoba for medical school and subsequently went on to complete the 5 year dermatology residency at the University of Toronto. She now practices general medical dermatology spanning across all age groups. 

She recently was appointed to the Examination Board for the Royal College Dermatology exams and as the lead for dermatology for the undergraduate medical education at the University of Manitoba. 

In her spare time, Dr. Botkin enjoys the magic that is being at lake Winnipeg, where she can mostly be found under a very large​“Supra-brella” wearing a big hat and a lot of SPF. She has two children whom she is actively encouraging to take up triathlon, a covid puppy named Ella-snore (Eleanor), a boxer/​catahoula cross who is a daily motivation for setting land speed running records, and is married to the world’s most wonderful person imaginable.

Dr. Botkin is humbled to be a part of an outstanding group of physicians here in our province and has a particular interest in physician wellness.

Fun Fact: Dr. Botkin turned whole food plant based (WFPB) just over a year ago, and is now certified in Plant-based Nutrition from Cornell University.

Dr. Betty Jean (BJ) Hancock is an associate professor in the Departments of Surgery and Pediatrics and Child Health at the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. She has been a pediatric surgeon and pediatric critical care physician at Children’s Hospital since 1993. As an academic surgeon, she is involved in clinical research, undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and professional development for physicians in practice. Her areas of focus have been trauma, critical care and all aspects of Pediatric General Surgery. Outside medicine, Dr. Hancock enjoys spending cottage time with her family at Caddy Lake. 

Tristan Rohatynsky was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba and completed her Bachelor of Science Major in Microbiology at U of M prior to starting medical school. Outside of medicine, she enjoys doing puzzles, biking, reading, and cross-stitch. Tristan is a foodie who loves trying new things — some of her favourite foods are inspired by her Chinese and Ukrainian heritage.

Dr. Wightman is a first year resident in Internal Medicine. He spent his first year of residency as a Rural Family Medicine resident in the Parkland program in Dauphin, then transferring to Internal Medicine. He has served as the PARIM Board Member Delegate for Rural and Remote Family Medicine, and Internal Medicine. Recently elected to the role of PARIM President, Dr. Wightman feels privileged to serve his fellow residents, and I hopes to advocate effectively for his peers. 

A born and raised Winnipegger, Dr. Wightman completed his undergrad degree (political science and biology) and medical school at UM. He feels at home in Manitoba and plans to spend his career here. During the past few years he has honed his POCUS and airway skills, and completed residency electives in Anesthesiology and Emergency Medicine. When not busy with his residency, Dr. Wightman enjoys weightlifting, canoeing and reading. He looks forward to his term on the board, working with the Doctors Manitoba team, and representing his fellow residents among some great leaders and advocates from diverse medical fields.