Medical Director
MOSAIC Refugee Clinic, Calgary, AB
Expertise: Immigration in Canada, Health (Canadian Health care system, impact of culture, physical health, research studies, social determinants of health, mental health), Settlement (trauma informed services), Special Newcomer Populations (temp foreign workers, asylum, disability, rural, young children, youth, women), Professional Development Skills (service delivery, educational , system advocacy)
Dr. Annalee Coakley has dedicated her medical career to caring for marginalized and vulnerable patients, including refugees who often arrive in Canada dealing with myriad health issues after enduring unimaginable trauma. As the medical director of the Mosaic Refugee Health Clinic in Calgary, she not only provides compassionate care to new Canadians, but also advocates for her patients locally, nationally and internationally.
Dr. Coakley received her medical degree from Queen’s University in 2001 and completed her residency in 2003 in the university’s Department of Family Medicine. Over the next several years, she practiced emergency and outpatient family medicine throughout Ontario and Nova Scotia, often working in remote, rural communities. In 2008, she relocated to Calgary, working as a hospitalist locum at the Peter Lougheed Centre and practicing outpatient family medicine and urgent care at the Sheldon Chumir Urgent Care Center. In 2009 she began practicing as a family physician at the Mosaic Refugee Health Clinic where, in 2012, she became medical director. She also practices at the East Calgary Family Care Clinic.
Dr. Coakley is a passionate advocate for programs that are crucial to her patients’ health and wellbeing. She was part of a team of concerned citizens who spoke out about cuts to the Interim Federal Health Program, and spent countless hours working directly with patients who had been declined status or lost their health care privileges. In instances when patients faced overwhelming bills for uncovered hospital stays or procedures, she fought to reduce these costs.
Her concern for vulnerable patients transcends borders and has led to her involvement with a charitable organization that provides medical care to a refugee camp in Kenya. That concern has prompted her to pursue additional training in tropical medicine and to teach about immigrant and refugee health at the University of Calgary. In 2016, Dr. Coakley marshalled the community to welcome and care for the influx of Syrian refugees coming to Calgary, establishing satellite clinics and caring for those who arrive battling illness, injury or trauma. Most recently, over the course of 2017 and 2018, Dr. Coakley has helped welcome the Yazidi refugees to Calgary, providing health care to this highly traumatized population.