CHEPA remembers former Research Coordinator Barb Jawszewski
CHEPA was saddened to learn of the death of Barbara Ann Jawszewski. Barb served CHEPA as its Health Economics Research Coordinator in the 1990s, helping to shape many programs within CHEPA as it developed, and contributing her expertise to applied health economics projects and activities.
Barb earned an MBA in Health Economics at McMaster in 1986, after which she led a group which was instrumental in founding the Hamilton Urban Core Community Health Centre for the Underhoused.
Barb joined CHEPA in 1991 to support the health economics program. She brought, in particular, expertise in the methods of economics evaluation and a strong community, policy orientation.
CHEPA co-founder Greg Stoddart says “as Research Coordinator for Health Economics from 1991- 1997, Barb made important research and administrative contributions to the early days of CHEPA. She was an excellent researcher in economic evaluation of health services and provided numerous consultations in this area to local health care providers, community groups and government officials on behalf of the Centre.
“Always cheerful, upbeat and positive, she was a strong daily presence in the Centre, eventually becoming the Assistant Coordinator of CHEPA,” he added.
Former CHEPA Coordinator Jeremiah Hurley, now Dean of McMaster’s Faculty of Social Sciences, recalled “Barb’s quick mind, thoughtful approach to her work, commitment to excellence in all that she did, and desire to have real impact through her work.”
Emeritus Professor George Torrance, a founding member of CHEPA and a former Dean of the DeGroote School of Business, said “I knew Barbara before her CHEPA days. While she was an MBA student, she was assigned to me as a research assistant for several terms. I put her to work on a disease model I was developing with David Sackett. I would write detailed, precise notes to her on what to do next. One day, using pen, I wrote such a note and then, needing to change part of it and wanting to keep the note neat and tidy, I used white-out to make the small change. Well, Barbara couldn’t get over it. ‘Why did you not just scratch it out and change it like any normal person would do?’, she asked. And much to my chagrin, she delighted in telling this story to others, in my presence, with her impish grin on her face. I haven’t used white-out since. Barbara was not intimidated by anyone or anything, she was smart and quick, she was a delight to work with, and it’s no wonder she was so successful in her career.”
After leaving CHEPA to work for Bayer in Germany, Barb went on to become a vice-president at the biopharmaceutical company Lundbeck in Copenhagen, Denmark. She eventually returned to Ontario, founding her own pharmaceutical consulting company, Kewa Consul Ltd.
Barbara was a marathon runner and triathlete, and also completed the Madison Wisconsin Ironman. She is survived by her sons Sean (Karolina) and Benjamin Markham.
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