Driven by Purpose Dr. Kirk Preston of Fredericton, New Brunswick, is the new CDA president for 2026–27. Dr. Kirk Preston was born in New Brunswick, but he barely had time to arrive before he was elsewhere—the first of many moves and a geographical restlessness that would continue throughout his life. “My parents moved us to Newfoundland and Labrador when I was about 10 days old,” he says. His father was in the military, newly posted to CFB Goose Bay. Dr. Preston grew up in Labrador City, the eldest of six children, in a northern mining town where the culture was, as he puts it, “blue-collar, very much a ‘work hard, play hard’ mentality.” As a teenager on the competitive downhill skiing circuit, Dr. Preston was shaped by his coach, Renny Boshaw, a Quebec native who led the team with intensity and discipline. “When you speak about leadership, he embodied it,” Dr. Preston says. “He pushed you to your absolute limit, but always within a framework of unwavering support.” Under coach Boshaw’s guidance, the ski team competed across Canada and attended training camps overseas. When Dr. Preston was 15, he and his teammates were training on Smoky Mountain, just outside Labrador City, when he was caught in an avalanche. “I looked up and saw a wall of snow accelerating toward me,” he recalls. “I could see exactly what was about to happen, and I was completely powerless to stop it.” He was buried beneath the snow, pinned in place, with only one ski pole angled upward. The basket at the end of the pole protruded just enough for rescuers to spot it and dig him out. “Once you’re under the snow, you cannot move,” he says. “It’s as though you’ve been set in concrete.” At 16, Dr. Preston left Labrador City High School for the University of New Brunswick (UNB). “By 19, I was beginning my fourth year of university, which was somewhat atypical in my class,” he says. “For most of my undergraduate years, I was too young to get into a bar, so I devoted my time to studying.” At UNB, he completed a double major in chemistry and biology. Dr. Kirk Preston with his family (Back - l. to r.): Dr. Preston, Ruth, Russell, Jonathon, Stephanie and Tara. (Front - l. to r.): Rhonda, Todd and John. 8 | 2026 | Issue 3
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