Gail Attara’s 26 years of service and counting!
Message from the CSIR and GI Society Boards of Directors
Gail Attara’s first day as executive director of the Northwestern Society of Intestinal Research (SIR) was March 14, 1996. She was a single mother of four who signed on to work from 9 am – 2 pm Monday to Thursday so that she would have time to drop off and pick up her kids from school and daycare each day. SIR was based out of an old wing of Vancouver General Hospital, where Gail worked as the only paid staff member for several years, then moved to full time work and gradually added new members to the team.
Although SIR had been around since October 1976, little had changed over the twenty years. It was a very small charity with fewer than 300 contacts that was focused on printing pamphlets on a few key gastrointestinal topics, hosting annual lectures in Vancouver, and funding small research projects.
Gail has worked tirelessly to add numerous programs and expand the Society to national and even international renown.
In 1996, the newsletter was a four-page document that primarily consisted of snippets reprinted from medical journals. It went out six times per year, photocopied on coloured paper. Gail began writing original articles and invited guest authors for the newsletter, increasing the number of pages per edition to its current 24, and switching to a quarterly release schedule. Later, Kwynn Vodnak, who celebrated 20 years with the Society on June 24, 2022, took over as the newsletter designer and Morgan Amber, who joined the team in 2009, as the assistant editor, and it keeps getting better.
“What a pleasure it has been to watch Gail lead the GI Society. Gail has vision, passion, and foresight, making her a leader and a builder. While many of us board members have come and gone through the years, Gail has provided a constant stable strength that is the envy of any organization. More than 26 years of service is indeed a rare milestone these days. On behalf of the board of directors, congrats and thanks for all your wonderful service, Gail.” ~Ron Goetz, Board Chair, Gastrointestinal Society
In 1997, Gail suggested that SIR create a website for its educational materials, but the Board members at the time wondered “what charity would ever need a website?” and would not allocate funds to the project. Gail saw it differently and knew it would offer the Society an advantage in the new, ever-changing online world. Remember, Google wasn’t even founded until September 4, 1998!
On her own time, she learned HTML and worked at home to create a website for the Society while her young children did their homework. Later she came up with the www.badgut.org url. Now, millions of people around the world use the English and French websites to find accurate information about a variety of gastrointestinal diseases and disorders. It has undergone various revisions over the years and Gail has passed the design and management of the website to Kwynn and Morgan. In 2021 alone, the websites had 7.8 million page views by 5.8 million unique users, which is a fantastic uptake for a small charity based in Canada.
With the help of Dr. James Gray and the medical advisory council, she increased the range of pamphlets from a handful to the current 37 topics. She also spearheaded the expansion of the BadGut® Lectures, so we have held many public education events in each province and one territory so far. Brittany Moretti, who has worked for the GI Society since 2017, has been key in ensuring the event details are on track and that healthcare professionals and patients receive the pamphlets they order.
“Being involved with the Society since before Gail started (when newsletters were mimeographed with fuzzy blue ink), I have had the privilege to watch Gail develop, innovate, and mold the Society from its humble provincial beginnings to a national powerhouse of education and advocacy for those with GI disorders and their families and friends. I stand in awe of her energy and countless ideas to develop new programs from print newsletters and brochures to videos to live speaker programs that meet the needs of so many. She demonstrates compassion for her audience and leadership for her team and the Board. I firmly believe that the GI Society would not exist without her.” ~James Gray, MD, Chair, Medical Advisory Board
Over the years, Gail continued to expand the Society’s reach. Healthcare professionals throughout the country were interested in having SIR’s pamphlets to distribute to their patients. However, due to SIR’s mandate, they were only available for those within British Columbia. In 2002, Gail led the change from SIR to the Canadian Society of Intestinal Research (CSIR), so that it could serve patients all across the country, and extra-provincially registered the organization in each Canadian jurisdiction. Then, in 2008, along with board members Dr. James Gray, and the late Dr. Frank Anderson, she created CSIR’s partner organization, the Gastrointestinal Society, which now runs most of the Society’s services. She also maintained connections with other organizations, so that in 2010, when Quebec-based L’Association des maladies gastro-intestinales fonctionnelles was winding down, she arranged for the GI Society to acquire its assets, including its membership base and residual financial resources. Since then, she has made sure that the Society offers its services throughout Quebec in French.
During her time with the CSIR and GI Society, Gail has diligently focused on advocacy. In 2003, she led a campaign to get April recognized as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Awareness Month. Throughout the years, she has been active in fighting against any government policies that would harm patients, such as mandatory therapeutic substitution for GERD medications. For this, she co-authored a paper1 published in a medical journal and has since gone on to co-author many others. Among other invitations, she is reaching international audiences, as in October 2018, she presented at the World Health Organization in Geneva, and in January 2020 she spoke at the Health Technology Assessment International meeting in New Orleans. She expanded her reach to represent patients through working with other organizations. She was chair of the Best Medicines Coalition for seven years and is a current board member of the MedAccess BC coalition. The newest Society employee, Jaymee Maaghop, joined the team in 2019 and has been an asset with the Society’s advocacy efforts.
“Since meeting Gail in 1999, I have watched her develop CSIR and the GI Society to the positions they hold today. She has always looked out for others and their organizations. She gives back whenever she can, sharing opportunities, knowledge, and resources with other charities and community organizations.” ~Gwen Ellert, CSIR Board member
Gail created fun ways to raise money for the Society, including the Golf Marathons, which she organized yearly throughout the late 1990s and the 2000s, the Elements Gala in 2008, and the Inside Affairs in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2019.
Gail Attara has taken the Society from a small, Vancouver-based charity to the national success it is today, and individuals involved in healthcare at all levels recognize and appreciate everything that she has done to improve the lives of individuals living with digestive diseases and disorders. The CSIR and the GI Society are proud to have had Gail at the helm for the past quarter century; we wouldn’t be where we are without her dedication and hard work.