Honouring a friendship and supporting new generations of Black medical students

Sep 30, 2022

Tracy Barber and Marjorie Sorrell smile together, sitting in a restaurant booth. — *The firm friendship of Tracy Barber (left) and Marjorie Sorrell (right) led to support for Black medical students.*

Tracy Barber (BA 1986 UTM) has always wanted to have a positive impact on her community.

It’s a commitment that has shaped everything she does, including her career working in digital communications at climate action and health-care organizations, as well as founding and running a pilates studio for 12 years. Today, she works as a staff member at the University of Toronto, advising students in the Masters of Mathematical Finance program.

Recently, Barber decided to expand her impact in a new way: making a monthly gift in support of an award for Black medical students in U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“This is a small way that I can support somebody who might not have had the same opportunities that I had growing up,” says Barber. “I just want to see people be successful, as they are, for who they are”.

Dr. John Douglas Salmon’s story inspired Tracy Barber to give

This is a small way that I can support somebody who might not have had the same opportunities that I had growing up. I just want to see people be successful, as they are, for who they are.

Her commitment came about thanks to a cherished friendship. Just over 20 years ago, Barber was introduced to Marjorie Sorrell at a ballet class and the two became fast friends. Barber would regularly attend lunches with Sorrell, and one day Sorrell’s sister Beverley and Beverley’s husband, pioneering surgeon, Dr. John Douglas Salmon (BA 1951 UC, MD 1955), joined them.

Barber remembers her lunch with Dr. Salmon well.

“Doug was an incredibly charismatic individual – so kind and welcoming.” said Barber , who is also an alumna of the University of Toronto Mississauga. “He had a smile that could light up a room.”

As one of only four Black students in his U of T medical school class, Dr. Salmon worked part time as a draftsman and a pianist to pay his way through school. Thanks, in part, to a scholarship awarded for Black medical students, he completed his medical degree and went on to pursue training as a general surgeon. Not long after, he became Canada’s first Black physician to obtain a surgical fellowship and went on to have a decades-long impactful career at Scarborough’s Centenary Hospital and Toronto’s Rudd Clinic before retiring in 1997.

Following his passing in 2005, his family established the Dr. John Douglas Graham Salmon Award for Black Medical Students at U of T. Since 2006, the award has provided financial aid to Black MD students.

This is a small way that I can support somebody who might not have had the same opportunities that I had growing up. I just want to see people be successful, as they are, for who they are.

“I can’t forget that I am a part of something larger”

Barber is quick to point out that monthly giving isn’t only convenient for her, but also helpful to the University.

“Organizations rely on sustaining gifts,” says Barber. “It makes giving easy – I don’t have to think about it – but I also can’t forget that I am a part of something larger. This one small gesture can have a great impact on someone’s life.”

By Deanna Cheng