Dr. Robert W. Buckingham joined PHHS after having previously been appointed as the Jack W. Thompson, M.D. Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan-Flint in 2013-14. A Yale graduate, Dr. Buckingham was appointed inaugural Executive Director/Dean of the School of Public Health with the University of Saskatchewan, in 2009. He has authored more than 12 books and many scientific referred papers, with the most recent being a textbook entitled, “A Primer on International Health” published by Allyn & Bacon, and five books on hospice care, including, “Care of the Dying Child” published by the Continuum Publishing Company, which was translated in seven languages.

Dr. Buckingham, helped pioneer the development of the first Hospice in the U.S. and is considered one of the “Founding Fathers” of hospice in North America. He was the first Director of Research of hospice in Connecticut in 1974, and subsequently founded another 81 hospice programs worldwide, including a hospice for children afflicted with HIV/AIDS in Thailand. Dr. Buckingham has developed new collaborative research and scholarly exchanged programs with Mahidol University in Thailand, Hawassa University in Ethiopia, as well as the Nelson Mandela Institute of Science and Technology in Arusha, Tanzania and locally, with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Saskatchewan.