Essex North District Medical Society Officers 2024-2025
President: Nicholas Weida, MD
Vice President: Joshua St. Louis, MD
Secretary: Chelsea Harris, MD
Treasurer: Tuhin Roy, MD
Contact Information
Email:
nero@mms.org
Mailing Address: 860 Winter Street, Waltham, MA 02451-1411
Telephone Number: 781-434-7211; 800-944-5562
District Event/Activity Contact: Waqaas Bhutta, Manager
Email:
wbhutta@mms.org
District News
Essex North Annual Meeting – April 4, 2024 at Four Oaks Country Club, Dracut
Photo 1: (left-to-right) Joshua St. Louis, MD (President, Essex North District Medical Society) and Ria S. Roberts, MD (2024 Community Clinician of the Year Award Recipient); Photo 2: (left-to-right) Joshua St. Louis, MD (President, Essex North District
Medical Society) and Bernhard Heersink, MD (2024 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient)
Pictured left-to-right: Joshua St. Louis, MD (President, Essex North District Medical Society), Eric J. Rubin, MD, PhD (Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine) and David Earle, MD (President, Middlesex North District Medical Society)
Dr. Ria Roberts honored by Essex North District Medical Society as the 2024 Community Clinician of the Year
Dr. Ria Roberts, an Andover resident, Yale-trained internist, and Harvard- trained geriatrician has been selected as the Essex North District Medical Society’s 2024 Community Clinician of the Year.
Roberts is the medical director for Lowell Community Health Center’s inaugural Program for Healthy Aging, developed under her astute leadership. She also has a faculty appointment at Lowell General Hospital, serves as a part-time clinical instructor in
medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-chairs Harvard Medical School’s Black Women in Medicine Committee. Additionally, she is a part-time academic hospitalist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), where she also serves as the Director
for Diversity, Inclusion and Advocacy for Graduate Medical Education, and Director for Diversity, Recruitment & Retention within the Department of Medicine.
Roberts, who is originally from the Caribbean Island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is a graduate of Brandeis University and the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Dr. Bernhard Heersink honored by Essex North District Medical Society with the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr. Heersink obtained his medical degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1968. He completed his internship at Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal in 1970. He volunteered with CUSO (the Canadian counterpart to the Peace Corps) in Uganda 1971-72,
doing mostly general surgery at at Buhinga District Hospital. Dr. Heersink completed his residency in Ophthalmology in 1975 from Willis Eye Hospital, Philadelphia. He completed his Fellowship in Phacoemulsification and Intra-ocular Lens Implantation
in 1976.
Dr. Heersink had independent practice in Ophthalmology at Anna Jacques Hospital, Newburyport from 1976-2021. He has served as Chief of the Department of Surgery and President of the Medical Staff of Anna Jacques Hospital. He also performed cataract and
laser surgery at Cataract & Laser Center, Andover, MA from 1998-2019. Dr. Heersink also served as Clinical Instructor at Tufts University, New England Eye Center from 1977-2005.
