Skip to content

2021-2022 Dr. Margaret Becklake Fellowship

2021-2022 Margaret Becklake Fellowship Ben Geboe

Recipient of the 2021-2022 Dr. Margaret Becklake Fellowship: Dr. Ben Geboe, PhD

Ben Geboe, LMSW, PhD, is an Indigenous postdoctoral fellow in the Translational Research in Respiratory Diseases Program at the Research Institute of the MUHC and the 2021-2022 recipient of the Dr. Margaret Becklake Fellowship in Respiratory Research.

Ben Geboe, tiospaye wakankdiduta (family unit Redlightning) is an enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, which has affiliations in the Dakota First Nations of Manitoba. Ben worked with Dr. Nicole Ives at the McGill School of Social Work to complete his PhD conducting a qualitative research project interviewing Indigenous Healthcare providers (RNs and MDs) across Canada using Indigenous research methodologies and constructivist grounded theory. Ben is a member of Indigenous Access McGill (IAM) at the School of Social Work, Stop TB Canada Network and the International Indigenous Peoples’ Working Group on HIV and AIDS (IIGWHA). Ben will be working as a postdoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Dr. Faiz Ahmad Khan. Ben has many years of experience working with Indigenous community organizations in rural and urban settings in Canada and the United States focusing on identifying barriers to Indigenous health services and advocates for Indigenous participation in all levels of healthcare services. Ben, like many community healthcare workers helping Indigenous peoples and refugees, was exposed to TB (ppd+) while working at an Indigenous community centre and underwent prophylaxis. Ben participates in many Indigenous spiritual and cultural activities including drumming, and recently organized a drumming observance of mourning in Montreal at Jeanne Mance Park in response to the announcement of the 215 children found in a mass grave at the Residential school in Kamloops, BC. Ben published two policy briefs for the McGill Institute for the Study of International Development focusing on Indigenous reconciliation and community development. Additionally, Ben is working on an Indigenous student paper focusing on Indigenous TB for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples in July 2021.

Ben is honored to join Dr. Faiz Ahmad Khan and the RI-MUHC. As a Becklake Fellow, he will be leading work to understand how TB prevention and care can be delivered in a culturally safe framework for urban Indigenous populations in Montreal. He will also be contributing to CIHR-funded work to incorporate Indigenous educational approaches in the development of training programs for tuberculosis for community health workers.

Read More

About the Margaret R. Becklake Fellowship in Respiratory Research

Meet Dr. Ben Geboe, the new Dr. Margaret Becklake Fellow. MUHC Foundation. October 14, 2021

Listen to the MUHC Foundation’s Health Matters Podcast

MUHC Foundation’s Health Matters Podcast. August 22, 2021. Ben Geboe is this year’s recipient of the Dr. Margaret Becklake Fellowship. Learn about his mission to eradicate tuberculosis in Indigenous communities. (Time on podcast: 11:53)