Dr. Peter Toussaint is a sixty year resident of the St. John Valley. He and his childhood sweetheart, Janet Nadeau of Fort Kent, were married in Montreal (1968) and returned to their hometown where they brought up their six children. This was after a long education leading up to Peter's MD from McGill University (1970) and five additional years of specialty training in General Surgery. His father, the late Dr. Leonide Toussaint, was a General Practitioner in Fort Kent for 37 years. His mother, Georgette was an operating room nurse in Montreal, prior to becoming a mother to six children. From his dad he learned patient advocacy and the healing powers of a gentle bedside manner. Two decades ago, while serving on the UMFK Foundation, Peter and his wife established a Nursing scholarship in memory of Dr. Leonide and Georgette Toussaint. Along the way the nascent surgeon sharpened his skills by exposure to master surgeons like Dr. Paul Johnson, Dr. Paul McBrearity and Dr. Mel Aungst. This broadened his capabilities and prepared him for the demanding tasks that lay ahead. After leaving his surgical practice, Dr.Toussaint underwent additional training in Tropical Medicine and Parasitology at the University of West Virginia. Soon thereafter he accomplished a boyhood dream of volunteering his surgical services in underdeveloped countries. This led him to Nicaragua, Bolivia, Burundi and Sri Lanka with Doctors Without Borders (Medecins sans Frontieres), the world's largest humanitarian non-governmental organization (NGO) providing emergency aid to victims of natural or man-made disasters.

Over the years Dr. Toussaint has provided numerous community lectures on cancer, cancer prevention, specialized operative techniques, Doctors without Borders and our global interconnectedness— Global Raindrops (2002). He is also an advocate of universal health care and served on Governor Baldacci's Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care. He was a Director and recent President of the Board of Visitors of UMFK. His commitment to Fish River Rural Health as a Board member is ongoing. He believes in disaster preparedness and was the principal author of Eagle Lake's, Fort Kent's and the St. John Vianney Parish's Emergency Management Plan. By way of a personal challenge to venture forth and not to yield, he has recently (2009) earned an MBA from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst).