Dr. Holmes has an MD from UBC in 1984. After ten years of family practice, she enrolled in Internal Medicine at UBC, went on to complete a Critical Care fellowship at UBC and has been a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada since 1999.

From 2001 to July 2018, Dr. Holmes practiced critical care medicine at Kelowna General Hospital where she was involved in clinical education of medical students, residents, and fellows in the ICU. In her current role as Associate Dean Undergraduate Medical Education, she works with senior leadership at all sites of UBC to provide overall curricular oversight of all four years of the UGME program. As Head of the UBC Division of Critical Care, she is responsible for academic leadership of clinical care, education, and research in critical care.

Dr. Holmes serves as Vice Chair of the UGME Deans’; Council for the Association of the Faculties of Medicine in Canada (AFMC) and collaborates on initiatives such as the Culture of Academic Medicine Initiative, the Okanagan Charter Collaborative for the AFMC and is Chairing the “Re-envisioning Technical Standards in Canadian Medical Education” Working Group. Dr. Holmes also serves on the Committee for the Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools (CACMS) and holds the position of Chair of the CACMS Standards Subcommittee. She is on the Board of the Canadian Residency Matching Service (CaRMS) and serves as Chair of the CaRMS Board EDI Subcommittee.

Through these roles, Dr. Holmes is committed to cultivating respectful, compassionate, and health-promoting environments in academic medicine, where equity, decolonization, diversity, inclusivity, accessibility, belonging (EDDIAB) and social justice are prioritized.

Dr. Holmes’ academic interests include promoting learner wellbeing, fostering inclusive and accessible learning environments, social accountability of medical schools, and facilitating the professional identity formation of health professionals. In 2015, she received the Canadian Association for Medical Education (CAME) Certificate of Merit for her outstanding contributions.