Roger Pilon
Diploma, Outpost & Community Health Nursing (1991)
Education and clinical experience
Roger Pilon completed his original education in nursing from Laurentian University in 1989 and has worked in primary health care since he graduated. He is currently a board member and, since 2012, Vice Chair with the Espanola Family Health Team. Roger continues to practice as a NP at a local francophone Community Health Centre in the Sudbury region.
During his tenure as a community nurse with First Nations & Inuit Health Branch, Health Canada, he obtained a Diploma in Outpost and Community Health Nursing from Dalhousie University in 1991. was awarded the Anna Trenholm award for clinical excellence.
Nurse Practitioner pioneer
In 1996, he accepted a position as one of the first Nurse Practitioners (NP) in the North Shore Tribal Council's Community Health Access Centre program in Northern Ontario, where he provided primary health care services to First Nations communities. One year later, he was licensed as one of the first Primary Health Care Nurse Practioners (PHC-NP) with the College of Nurses of Ontario.
PhD candidate
Mr. Pilon completed a Master’s of Science in nursing degree at Laurentian University and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Interdisciplinary PhD in Rural and Northern Health at Laurentian. He expects to defend his dissertation on the topic of the impact of colonization on the experience of living with type 2 diabetes for Aboriginal peoples living along the North Shore of Lake Huron in 2014.
Sharing knowledge
In August of 2008, Roger left full time practice as a NP to pursue an academic career in the School of Nursing at Laurentian, where he had been a part time instructor in the School of Nursing (in the PHCNP program) since 1998. His research interests include Type II diabetes, men’s health and primary health care.
Contributing to community
Professor Pilon’s community contributions include providing health care services during humanitarian aid trips to Kyrgyzstan in 2006 and twice to Haiti shortly after the devastating earthquake of 2010. He was a member of the inaugural Board of Directors and the President of the Board of Directors of Canada’s first NP led primary health clinic in Sudbury District, between 2006 and 2013.
“We can do no great things, only small things with great love” (Mother Teresa)