Dr. Dan Poenaru – Paediatric Surgeon

Dan is a pediatric surgeon working at Montréal Children’s Hospital in Montreal, Canada.

Following medical school studies in Toronto, Canada, he trained in general surgery at McGill University, then in pediatric surgery at the Université de Montreal. He has earned Masters degrees in Health Professions Education (University of Illinois in Chicago, IL) and International Development (William Carey International University, Pasadena, CA) and a doctorate in Health Strategy & Management (Erasmus University, Rotterdam). He has practiced academic surgery for 10 years in Kingston, Canada, then for 12 years in East Africa, and since 2015 in Montreal. His local responsibilities include divisional research director, trauma team activation lead, and director of the Jean-Martin Laberge Fellowship in Global Pediatric Surgery.

His current roles in Africa include: medical and education consultant for BethanyKids, Research Committee chair for the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS), dean of Université Shalom Faculté de Medicine, director-at-large of the Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery (GICS), and educational consultant in Somaliland. His areas of interest are academic global pediatric surgery, equity in provision of surgical care for children in low-resource settings, patient-centered care, faith issues in clinical practice, and medical education.

Dan is married to Dita who is a nursing clinician and educator, and the Poenarus have two adult sons.