Dr. Melissa Lem is a Vancouver family physician who also works in rural and northern communities within Canada. President of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and Director of PaRx, Canada’s national nature prescription program powered by the BC Parks Foundation, she is an internationally recognized leader in the field of nature, biodiversity and health. She has also engaged in advocacy and policy work on a broad range of other issues, from extreme heat and hydraulic fracturing to sustainable health care and low-carbon transportation.
A widely published writer, her work has appeared in media including the CBC, Vancouver Sun, Toronto Star, Montreal Gazette, The Narwhal and National Observer. As a biweekly climate change panellist on CBC Radio’s Early Edition and in-house medical columnist for CBC TV Vancouver, and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, one of her major priorities is knowledge translation.
Dr. Lem was the inaugural winner of University College’s Young Alumni of Influence Award at the University of Toronto, recipient of the 2022 Adult Nature Inspiration Award from the Canadian Museum of Nature, a 2021 World Parks Week Ambassador, and sits on the Advisory Committee of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Health and Well-being Specialist Group.
