Nurse to Speak on International Medical Aid

03/11/2019 

Patricia Carrick spent decades as a family nurse practitioner working with under-served populations in Southwestern Montana.

In recent years, she has taken that spirit around the globe as the director of the board of directors for Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres USA (MSF), assisting in Ebola hot zones, HIV/AIDS-ravaged communities and conflict-torn countries on the verge of famine.

Carrick will share her stories of helping those in need through two lectures at SUNY Cortland on Tuesday, March 26.

Her first talk, “Careers in International Studies: Medical Humanitarian Aid,” begins at noon in Van Hoesen Hall, Room B103. Carrick will speak on “Doctors Without Borders Around the World: When Emergencies Won’t Go Away” at 6 p.m. in Moffett Center, Room 2125. Both events are free and open to the public.

"I am really excited to welcome Ms. Carrick to our campus as her international work can become a source of inspiration for SUNY Cortland's students,” said Alexandru Balas, chair of International Studies and director of the Clark Center for Global Engagement.

“Here at SUNY Cortland, we have, for example, international studies majors who specialize in international health and complete international public health internships overseas in developing countries, with the hope of one day working for MSF. Now they can meet one of the directors of MSF and get advice about what work with MSF entails.”

Carrick has served with Doctors Without Borders since 2007, completing overseas missions in Malawi, South Sudan and Sierra Leone.

She served as medical team leader at an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone in 2015. This outbreak of the highly-infectious disease killed more than 11,000 people between 2014 and 2016 in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

She previously traveled to Malawi for HIV-related work in 2007 and went to South Sudan in 2010 and 2012 for malnutrition work.

Doctors Without Borders is a medical humanitarian aid organization that responds to millions of patients around the world every year. The organization was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 for its efforts to bring care to people in need regardless of race, religion, gender or political affiliation.

Carrick spent 30 years working in acute care hospital nursing and home-based hospice services as well as in community health centers that provided care to under-served populations in her home state of Montana.

Both of Carrick’s talks are part of SUNY Cortland’s Women’s celebration of History Month. This year’s theme is “Visionary Women: Champions of Peace and Nonviolence.”

For more information, contact Balas at 607-753-4823.