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Join us on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016 to hear from a truly inspirational man, Martin Spriggs, CD, RN, MA(DEM).

• First Presentation: 11:30 a.m. in the Commons
• Second Presentation: 6 p.m. in Room 339

Cost: This is a free event open to students, staff and community members.

Bio: Martin has done some incredible humanitarian work and is truly an adventurer. Martin served 15 years as an infantryman and paratrooper in the Canadian Army. While in the military, Martin served on United Nations peacekeeping missions in Cyprus, Croatia and Bosnia and was a member of the allied coalition during the first Gulf War. During the Cold War, he served five years in Canada’s contingent to NATO in West Germany and, in 1992, his unit was awarded the Commander in Chief commendation for their work while under hostile fire in Sarajevo.

Following his military service, Martin began a career in healthcare in 1999 as an emergency medical technician for the City of Calgary Emergency Medical Services. His past experience in healthcare includes frontline nursing in emergency departments and intensive care units in Calgary, Alberta and providing primary health care in remote nursing stations across the Canadian arctic. Following a brief stint in public health, Martin transitioned into emergency/disaster management with Alberta Health Services where he researched, developed and implemented a hospital based response for hazardous material incidents now a mainstay in 114 emergency departments and urgent care centers across Alberta. In 2013, the online eLearning component of this program won a national silver award from the Canadian Society for Training and Development and, in 2015, the entire emergency/disaster management team was awarded the Alberta Health Services President and CEO Award of Excellence in Health and Safety for delivering the program to the corporation.

Martin left Alberta Health Services in 2014 to pursue his passion for international humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. Martin completed two humanitarian aid missions with International Medical Corps in worn torn South Sudan, as primary healthcare officer in Gendrassa refugee camp and as emergency team leader during the ethnic violence in Malakal, Upper Nile State. In the fall of 2014, Martin was recruited for emergency medical coordinator for GOAL’s response to the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone and, in 2015, Martin returned to South Sudan with the American Refugee Committee to design and implement a referral pathway for women to access emergency obstetrical and newborn care in remote East Equatorial State. In 2015, ARC sent Martin to coordinate delivery of primary healthcare to the Burundi refugees in Mahama refugee camp, Rwanda, and then to establish a referral system for infectious diseases in rural southeastern Liberia.

In between humanitarian missions, Martin embarked on a 7,174km solo bicycle ride across Canada to raise awareness for suicide prevention among Canada’s veteran population.
Martin holds a master’s degree in disaster and emergency management from Royal Roads University, a post graduate diploma in tropical nursing from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, a nursing diploma from Lethbridge College, and certificates in advanced critical care nursing, trauma nursing and emergency medical technician from Mount Royal University and Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, respectively. His master’s degree research on preparing the business community for the next pandemic influenza was published in a peered reviewed journal.