Her original students from 1974 may be well into retirement, but the four-time UM alum is still going strong, teaching leadership to graduate students and supervising their thesis work.

“I love what I do,” she says. “It gives me intellectual stimulation, a great sense of fulfilment, and I’m just so proud of the students.”

Last May, the Faculty of Graduate Studies honoured Scanlan with the 2025 Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award in the health sciences category. How does she sum up mentorship?

“Be authentic,” she says. “Develop relationships. Relationships are absolutely essential to my work.”

Raised in small communities in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Scanlan followed her mother into nursing, graduating with a diploma from Regina General Hospital in 1963. She worked for a few years, but felt drawn toward higher education.

Arriving at UM, she earned a nursing certificate in teaching and supervision in 1966, then her bachelor of nursing in 1967. “I didn’t know where my education would take me, but it was the smartest thing I ever did,” she says.

At the time, nursing students – Scanlan was in a cohort of about 25 – had to climb the stairs to the top floor of what is now the UM Administration Building for their classes. “We got very fit very quickly,” she remembers.

Most courses were taught by the legendary Margaret Elder Hart [LLD/93], director of the School of Nursing from 1948 to 1972. Students weren’t addressed by their first names, so the then-single Scanlan was “Miss Parnell.”

“You would go to Peggy Hart’s office for help with writing a paper, and she would say, ‘Miss Parnell, I think you should read this article.’” To this day, Scanlan says, she does the same thing, steering students toward resources to expand their thinking.

Scanlan earned her master’s in education and joined the full-time faculty in 1983. She completed an interdisciplinary PhD in 1996.

Her accomplishments include leading innovative revisions to the master of nursing program while serving as associate dean of graduate programs, and working with institutions in China and Cuba to help them modernize, develop and upgrade their nursing education programs.

In her international work, she was acknowledged for responding to local priorities, rather than coming in with an attitude of knowing what was best.

“You listen, and you try to meet our needs, not yours,” she was told with gratitude. She carries that with her, she says, as the essence of both nursing and teaching.

Scanlan is now working on a research study of early-career nurses’ leadership aspirations. With young nurses quitting the profession in high numbers, she says, it’s important to understand the perspective of millennial and Gen Z members of the nursing workforce.

“We know from research that if there’s a good leader in a clinical area, people will stay, because that leader has developed relationships with their people, made them feel valued and tried to meet their needs.

“That’s why I think what I do is important. I’m helping to nurture that next generation of leaders who will be able to make a difference.”

He was just doing what he’d been trained to do at the UM dental school. But leaders in the Filipino-Canadian community quickly told him he was now a role model.

“The Filipino community was excited,” Colina recalls. “They came, and we were swamped with patients.”

Colina was 11 years old when he emigrated from the Philippines to Brandon, Man., with his family. Today, 36 years into his career, he is known for his leadership in both the Filipino and dental communities.

He has, for instance, held prominent roles in the Knights of Rizal, a Filipino organization that presents scholarships to graduating Manitoba high school students of Filipino heritage. Still, Colina downplays his impact as a role model.

“I’ve had patients who have gone on to become dentists and doctors,” he says. “I don’t know if I’m part of it – maybe? I was just being a dentist.”

One person Colina knows he directly influenced is his son, Nick Colina [DMD/25]. The 26-year-old graduated this spring from the Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry.

Dr. Nick Colina (left) and his father, Dr. Tom Colina, celebrate Nick’s graduation as a dentist at Spring Convocation.

“I’m really proud of him,” says the elder dentist. “The program is tough.”

Colina didn’t push his son toward dentistry, but what Nick observed while growing up led him to choose the profession, the pair say. When Nick was seven years old, Colina took him on a dental mission trip to the Philippines, where Nick helped to comfort the impoverished kids his father was treating.

“Those experiences opened my eyes to the broader role oral health plays in well-being, and they continue to inspire me to follow in my father’s footsteps,” Nick says.

Colina has now brought Nick on board as the 11th dentist in his dental group. With three partners, Colina co-owns three Winnipeg clinics that employ more than 50 people.

Still dedicated to humanitarian dental missions, he has helped lead seven such trips to countries including Zimbabwe, Peru, Guatemala and Ecuador.

“Giving back is a core value I believe in,” he says. “I aim to make a difference in people’s lives.”

A different kind of community role for Colina has been performing four times in the All-Dentist Musical, a biennial event that sees Manitoba dentists stage a musical to benefit a charity. This year, when Colina had a solo in Chicago, his son stepped up as his vocal coach.

Colina’s higher education started at Brandon University, where he completed his prerequisites before being accepted into UM’s dental school.

He wasn’t sure he truly wanted to be a dentist until his third year, when he performed an orthodontic screening of an 11-year-old with cancer. He and his professor decided the patient was a candidate for braces, even though they didn’t know if she would survive the disease.

“That’s when I realized that dentistry is something that can improve a patient’s quality of life. I can make her bite better and make her feel better. I thought, ‘This is a good field.’”

In 1989, Colina became the first Filipino graduate of the dental school. At the time, he was enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces Dental Officer Training Program, which had covered the cost of his dental education.

After graduation, he was posted to the National Defence Headquarters dental clinic in Ottawa, where he was surrounded by dental specialists who encouraged him. “It was beyond what a young dentist would normally be able to experience,” he says. “Those four years were a tremendous time for learning.”

Following his four-year military service, Colina and UM classmate David Chin [DMD/89] bought an established clinic on Ellice Avenue in Winnipeg. It became so busy that Colina built, with partners, a second clinic in 2004 on Keewatin Street and a third in 2018 on Portage Avenue.

“A large dental organization provides a better chance for collaboration,” he says. “It means learning from each other and mentoring the associate dentists.”

Passing on his oral-health wisdom is important to Colina. He has been a part-time clinical instructor and lecturer at his alma mater for the past 22 years.

“My favourite part of teaching students is when there’s confirmation and realization of what they’ve learned. You see it in their eyes. Ooh – a lightbulb moment. I love those.”

He is also dedicated to furthering his own education to better serve his patients.

Around 2012, Colina wanted to learn more about relieving patients’ pain, so he looked to Dr. Stephen Ahing for advice. He told his former professor that he was considering a master’s degree, and they spent the afternoon discussing topics related to pain, oral medicine and oral pathology.

“Even after dental school, your professors are there to serve as your mentors and guide you,” says Colina, who went on to complete his master of science in orofacial pain and oral medicine at the University of Southern California in 2017.

In 2022-23, he attained another provincial Filipino “first” when he served as elected president of the Manitoba Dental Association.

“If I’ve had the privilege of being seen as a mentor or role model,” Colina says, “my hope is that my actions reflect the lessons I’ve learned – a commitment to growth, integrity, and always striving to reach one’s fullest potential.”

At 33 years old, the Red River Métis woman with three small children knew she was taking on a major challenge.

“I needed a good career to support my kids,” she remembers. “I was determined.”

This year, all the determination that McDonald has brought to improving Indigenous wellness was recognized with an Indspire Award – the highest national honour in the Indigenous community.

From the beginning, she had a passion for serving communities. “Community, population and public health are the core to good health and wellness,” she says.

McDonald, who grew up in Winnipeg, entered UM through the Access Program, which provides Indigenous students with academic, personal and cultural supports that she found invaluable.

After completing her bachelor of arts, she became one of five Indigenous students in her UM medical school class. The five were “adopted” by the team at the Northern Medical Unit (now Ongomiizwin – Health Services).

“They gave us a place to study and created opportunities for us to gain experiences and build community. That really set me on the path to work in Indigenous health,” McDonald says.

“I finished medical school through all the challenges, including the overt racism in the health-care system.”

That Indigenous-specific racism must be confronted, she says.

“How do you treat that scared mom with a sick child at Children’s Emergency in the middle of the night? Is there shaming and blaming? Are there assumptions that they’re using drugs and alcohol, or that there’s an abusive situation going on?

“We have a responsibility to call it out for what it is, and work to make change.”

After completing her medical degree in 1998, McDonald did postgraduate training in community medicine and psychiatry.

Now retired in Victoria, she spent most of her career in British Columbia, attaining leadership positions such as executive director of Aboriginal health at the B.C. Ministry of Health and chief medical officer at the province’s First Nations Health Authority.

Her work ranged from advancing anti-racism in health care to addressing the opioid crisis in First Nations communities.

“As an Indigenous woman, I could connect with people who wanted traditional medicines, or wanted an Elder to visit, or just wanted somebody who understood what was going on with them,” she says.

“Indigenous health and wellness are about relationship and respect. It’s about working together with common goals. That’s how we worked on developing the First Nations Health Authority in B.C. – through one meeting at a time, one insight at a time, finding barriers and ways to move over or around them, or to create new pathways without barriers.”

Better Indigenous health care starts with compassion, McDonald says.

“As health professionals, we have a responsibility to welcome people with care and consideration.

“Transformative change needs to happen at a political level, but it also needs to happen at the bedside. We need to get past the fear and ignorance and just care about people.”

Read more about the Indspire Awards: https://indspire.ca/events/indspire-awards/.

For Daryl Fediuk [B.Sc.(Pharm.)/03, PhD/12], it all started 24 years ago with a summer job in a UM lab.

Fediuk, who had grown up in the Westwood neighbourhood of Winnipeg, was two years into his bachelor’s program in pharmacy – a field that appealed to him because he loved math and chemistry and wanted to help people.

“When I looked for a profession where I could have a direct impact on prolonging someone’s life, I knew pharmacy was the best fit for me,” he recalls.

Dr. Xiaochen Gu, who is still a professor at the College of Pharmacy today, welcomed Fediuk into his lab as a summer research student. There, Fediuk was captivated by two aspects of pharmacology: pharmacokinetics (how a patient’s body handles a drug) and pharmacodynamics (how a drug works in the body), often abbreviated PK-PD.

“I became fascinated by the research that happens behind the scenes, before medicines arrive at the pharmacy,” he says.

Fediuk went on to earn his PhD in pharmaceutical sciences at UM, with Gu as his advisor. He then completed a two-year PK-PD postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina, sponsored by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.

“From there, the opportunities were endless,” he says. He joined Pfizer’s Connecticut facility in 2014. Ten years later, he and his family moved to the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, where they currently live.

There are two main parts to Fediuk’s role at Pfizer as a clinical pharmacology lead, he says. “One is strategic – designing and planning clinical trials. Then there’s the mathematical side – analyzing data to understand how a drug behaves in the body and determining the best way to dose it.

“I answer questions like: Should patients take the drug once or twice per day? How is the compound absorbed, distributed, metabolized and excreted by the body? We study that in healthy participants, but we also assess how the compound behaves in special populations, such as those with liver or kidney impairments.”

The scientist is proud to have been part of the team that brought a prescription medicine for Type 2 diabetes to market seven years ago. “Our studies for this particular medicine were reviewed by regulatory agencies around the world,” he says.

Fediuk’s research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology in Drug Development.

Looking back on his career path, he says networking played an important role while he was still at UM.

“Through conversations at scientific conferences, I learned what it’s like to work in different settings – whether at a university, in the pharmaceutical industry or with government.”

Among all his experiences at UM, he says, receiving unwavering support from Gu stands out the most.

“He wasn’t just a supervisor and mentor – Dr. Gu treated me like family,” Fediuk says.

“He’s like a parent who has been there for me throughout my career, from the time I joined his UM lab to applying for my fellowship program and joining Pfizer. His feedback and recommendations helped open doors for me.”

But after a fieldwork placement in Thompson as an occupational therapy (OT) student, she took a position in the northern Manitoba city and has not looked back for the past 16 years.

Murie says she felt welcomed in the community and also appreciated the ability to use her OT skills in a variety of areas.

“Being a smaller team, we truly get to be part of an interprofessional collaboration. You don’t always see that in daily practice, but here we see it every day.”

Murie played a variety of sports in school and was interested in a career in social services. It was a family friend who worked in massage therapy who told her about OT.

“OT fit with my goal of wanting to help people and give them a better quality of life,” she says.

Today, Murie is the director of allied health and collaborative practice at the Northern Regional Health Authority. Her portfolio includes nearly 70 health professionals in OT, physical therapy, respiratory therapy, diagnostics, social work and more.

“At first, it was a bit daunting to move from a focused OT role into a broader leadership portfolio,” she says. “But the opportunity to support such a diverse group has really expanded my perspective on health care and deepened my appreciation for the unique contributions of each discipline.”

Murie stepped into her position in May 2020, as the COVID pandemic was hitting northern Manitoba. She says the interprofessional experience helped her adjust to the role at that uncertain time.

“Working as a generalist in that environment, you learn to be adaptable, to work across scopes and to collaborate with other professionals out of necessity. You also learn to approach challenges creatively because the resources are often limited,” she says.

Murie is also an advocate for allied health professionals at the provincial level through participation on several different bodies, including the Children’s Therapy Network of Manitoba’s provincial leadership committee.

“It’s important to have the allied health voice at some of the bigger provincial tables. We are not the people who save lives, but we are the people who give others their quality of life back.”

She is also a member of UM’s joint council rehabilitation science subcommittee.

“It’s amazing to go full circle. I had some phenomenal professors, and it’s great to work alongside them on program planning and things like that.”

While Murie has embraced northern living, she understands it’s not for everyone and acknowledges that it has its challenges.

“Staffing is tough, but we’re coming up with some innovative ideas to support people in the north to remain in the north,” she says.

Those ideas include working with UM and University College of the North to support community members in completing master’s degrees or diploma programs in the future.

“A key part of my advocacy work has been educating others about what the north has to offer — highlighting the uniqueness of our region, the resourcefulness of our teams, and the creativity required to overcome the complex challenges we face in delivering care.”

Dr. Peter Nickerson, distinguished professor of internal medicine and immunology, is a transplant nephrologist (kidney specialist) at Health Sciences Centre (HSC) and medical consultant to the transplant immunology lab located there, which evaluates compatibility between kidney donors and recipients.

He is internationally recognized for groundbreaking research that has significantly improved patients’ access to life-prolonging kidney transplants and reduced their risk of organ rejection.

The Lifetime Achievement Award honours “extraordinary, world-class impact” in transfusion or transplantation science or medicine.

“What I’m most proud of is that we’re achieving better outcomes for patients,” Nickerson said. “Not only are we getting more transplants done, we’re having better outcomes, with those transplants lasting longer.

“I am extremely grateful to Canadian Blood Services for this award. The fact that CBS had already established a national network for blood and blood products in 1998 provided us with the framework to create the inter-provincial organ-sharing network in 2008.”

Nickerson, a 1986 UM medical alum, has held many leadership roles at the university. He has served since 2022 as vice-provost (health sciences) and dean of the Max Rady College of Medicine and the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

Reflecting on more than 30 years of innovative research, he recalled that HSC’s transplant program was the first in Canada to make flow cytometry-based crossmatching of kidney donors and recipients a standard of care. It subsequently became the national standard.

Nickerson and his team then advocated for a nationwide kidney-sharing network. Through their efforts, Canadian Blood Services now operates the National Living Donation Program and the Kidney Paired Donation Program, which have enabled thousands of Canadians to give and receive transplanted organs beyond their home provinces.

Nickerson’s research team has also been a world leader in developing precision medicine for kidney transplant immunosuppression, meaning that the dose of medication given to prevent organ rejection is tailored to the recipient’s genetic profile.

Over the course of his distinguished career, Nickerson’s roles have included medical director of Transplant Manitoba, medical advisor to Canadian Blood Services and Flynn Family Chair in Renal Transplantation at UM.

His honours include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Society of Transplantation, the Medal for Research Excellence from the Kidney Foundation of Canada and the Rose Payne Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics.

Watch the CBS video about Nickerson’s award. 

Each year up to three Certificates of Merit are presented to graduates of FAFS Degree programs, to graduates of the former Home Economics/Human Ecology Degree programs, and to graduates of the FAFS Diploma program.

Nominations are considered by the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Executive Committee and must be received no later than February 28, 2026.

Nominations should include a letter from the nominator describing the nominee’s leadership contributions and service to the community. Letters of support may also be included.

A list of previous recipients can be found at https://umanitoba.ca/agricultural-food-sciences/certificate-merit.

Please submit nominations to:
Chair
Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Executive Committee
256 Agriculture Building – 66 Dafoe Road
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2
agdean@umanitoba.ca

In 2022/23 students from the Robson Hall Rights clinic, under the supervision of [Elizabeth McCandless, Director of Clinics] undertook research for their “client” the Manitoba Eco-Network. This research was part of MbEN’s Healthy Environment, Healthy Neighbourhood (HEHN) project, which tabled a Final Report in 2023.

One of the final recommendations contained in the Final Report (available on the MbEN’s website site, with acknowledgment of the students included), was for MB to adopt Anti-SLAPP legislation. The Final Report was developed based on community feedback and the research of the students and the project team.

Mackenzie Cardinal [JD/23] who clerked at the Alberta Court of Appeal in Calgary and is now an associate at Osler, was one of the contributing student researchers when completing an externship at the Rights Clinic during his final year of law school.

One of the first students to work for the Rights Clinic, Cardinal described it as “an excellent opportunity to undertake research that would have an impact in the community.”

Cardinal explained that working on this project appealed to his interest in civil litigation. “The project gave me the opportunity to research a relativity new procedural mechanism that had been tried and tested in other jurisdictions, but had yet to be adopted in Manitoba. This was interesting for two reasons: 

1. It allowed me to analyze the Rules of Court and determine whether the current rules (e.g., 25.11) sufficiently addressed anti-SLAPP suits. 
2. The fact that anti-SLAPP legislation had already been enacted in Ontario and British Columbia put us in a beneficial position. Rather than anticipating where weak spots may arise with the legislation, we were able to turn to the existing case law and academic commentary to determine more clearly what was (and was not) working with the existing legislation. I think this allowed for more pointed recommendations.”

Students were tasked with reviewing the case law and academic commentary on anti-SLAPP legislation and provide a recommendation on whether Manitoba should adopt such legislation. 

MbEN continued to bring up this recommendation when meeting with elected officials over the past few years and it has been one of the NGO’s top law reform recommendations. 

Bill 23 was introduced in Spring 2025 and was held over by the Opposition until the fall sitting. Everything from the Bill’s 2nd reading to Royal Assent, including committee review, happened in the October, 2025. 

MbEN connected with the Department in August 2025, [we] met with the Minister of Justice in early Oct 2025 to discuss a proposed amendment to the Bill. The Minister supported our amendment, as did the Opposition, so [we] ended up with the exact version of Anti-SLAPP legislation the students identified as best practice in their research and we ultimately recommended in our report. 

The bill passed on November 6, 2025 on the last day of the session.

“As a client of the Rights Clinic, the Manitoba Eco Network found that the students’ research was useful and helpful, directly supported law reform research and advocacy, and played a role in getting the Bill actually passed,” said Fast, who is the Policy Advocacy Director for the MbEN. “There should be more opportunities for students like this and we’re an example of how this type of collaboration can be successful and lead to improving access to justice.”

Upon learning that the research the students did, directly contributed to a successful law reform initiative, Cardinal said, “It is quite a rewarding feeling to know that Justin [Vermette] [JD/23] and I contributed, even in a small way, to the passage of this legislation. Hopefully, this legislation will have a meaningful, positive impact on the lives of Manitobans, empowering them to more effectively enforce their rights through the court system.”

Cardinal added that having this opportunity as a law student in the formative stages of his legal career was very fulfilling. “As law students, it’s easy to perceive the law as some kind of immutable thing that we must simply accept as it is. However, this experience is a reminder that the law is not static and that we, as future legal professionals, can influence and shape it.” 

Simons, a much-respected professor in the departments of pediatrics and child health and immunology in the Max Rady College of Medicine, was internationally recognized for her expertise in the field of allergic reactions and diseases, notably among children.  

As one of the first pediatrician clinician-scientists in Canada, she was renowned for groundbreaking research on the pharmacologic management of allergic diseases.  

She was the first to publish descriptions of clinical and immunological reactions to mosquito bites, including anaphylaxis and “skeeter syndrome.” 

Her dedication to scholarship, innovative research and education helped transform allergic disease management, relieve suffering and mitigate the impact of the global allergy epidemic.  

Born and raised in Vancouver, Simons earned her bachelor of science and medical degree at UM in the 1960s. She studied pediatrics and immunology at the University of Washington.  

In 1975, she founded the allergy and clinical immunology section of the UM pediatrics department and served as section head until 2005.

She led a team that tested new medications to treat conditions such as asthma, allergic rhinitis and hives. She published lab-based, hospital-based and community-based investigations of anaphylaxis and epinephrine (adrenaline), including unique studies of epinephrine auto-injectors (epi-pens).

Many of her 580 publications are widely cited, and some have been translated into multiple languages.

Simons’ Canadian Medical Hall of Fame portrait, which is displayed on the Bannatyne campus.

Simons served on the editorial boards of five biomedical journals. She chaired the clinical immunology specialty committee of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and served as president of both the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. 

The F. Estelle R. Simons Award for Research was established in her name in 2016 by the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology to recognize outstanding research in the fields of allergy, asthma and immunology.

She received many awards during her distinguished career, including the Canadian Medical Association Medal of Service, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Distinguished Clinician Award and the World Allergy Organization Scientific Achievement Award.

Simons was a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. She was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2017 and appointed to the Order of Canada in 2024.

UM is at the centre of inspiring the best and brightest to improve the well-being of our province, country and world. But all of this cannot be done without the support of our community. From people giving for the first time to lifelong supporters, every act of generosity strengthens UM’s ability to fuel bold ideas and shape a better world.

Philanthropy is helping students pursue bold ideas

When students come to the University of Manitoba, they receive more than an education. They become a part of new ideas that better our world. A student’s potential is unleashed when they feel supported and can benefit from unique learning experiences and spaces.

At UM this year, $40 million in scholarships and $14 million in bursaries opened doors for students across every discipline. Behind every number is a story of ambition, resilience, and potential. From agriculture and food sciences students contributing to healthy communities to business students gaining international experience to graduate researchers tackling global challenges, philanthropy ensures that financial barriers never stand in the way of bold ideas.

Philanthropy is advancing research that changes lives

As Manitoba’s only research-intensive university, UM has built a strong foundation of innovative facilities, world-class experts and a reputation for research excellence. Philanthropy is attracting top-level graduate students and community partnerships.

Innovation at UM is fueled by philanthropy. Donors have helped fund UM’s 32 active research chairs driving made-in-Manitoba solutions that are changing lives here and around the world. They also create unique ways for our university to delve into the questions of today and help ensure a brighter tomorrow from the Winograd Initiative for the Study of Contemporary Hate Speech and Antisemitism to improving workplace ethics to advancing treatments for diseases like multiple sclerosis.

Philanthropy is supporting truth and reconciliation

​As the proud home of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) for 10 years, UM continues to walk alongside Survivors and Indigenous communities on the path toward healing and education. This year, the province and the business community gave over $22 million to help the NCTR get closer to building their new home. The new space will continue to honour Survivors, protect their truths, and welcome people from across Canada. Significant support also came from the Mastercard Foundation with a $25 million gift that will strengthen the Centre’s ability to reach young people across Canada with reconciliation-focused education.

The Mastercard Foundation also gave $5 million help UM expand access to post-secondary education and support our growing community of 3,248 Indigenous students. This continued support is helping Indigenous students strengthen their identities, find meaningful careers, and become leaders in Manitoba and beyond.​

Philanthropy is enriching communities

When campus borders no longer define the limits of post-secondary education, the opportunities are endless. UM has a long history of prioritizing experiential learning like the dental clinic at the Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry that offers oral healthcare and advocacy to Manitobans in need or the community learning hubs that train specialists in and for Manitoba’s remote and northern areas.

With a transformative $5.4 million gift from Drs. Wayne [BSc(ME)/80, LLD/23] and Eleanor Chiu, UM will launch The Chiu Centre for Business Serving Community, a new hub for research and dialogue that will explore how business can be a force for positive societal impact. The Centre and initiatives like this at UM help create a skilled workforce, successful startups and solution-focused innovation, which injected $7.3 billion into Manitoba’s economy last year.

Philanthropy is Bisons supporting Bisons

For 150 years members of our herd – faculty, staff, retirees and alumni – have been at the centre of philanthropy at UM. Last year, faculty, staff and retirees gave $1.7 million to support UM students.

UM’s 25,896 alumni donors also provide tremendous support. UM alumni come together to fund bursaries in celebration of the milestone anniversary of their graduation, while others gather funds to remember classmates who have passed.

Philanthropy is paying it forward

Since Alexander Kennedy Isbister’s first planned gift over 140 years ago, many have followed in his footsteps. Today, over 700 members of the Isbister Legacy Society continue that legacy, ensuring UM’s mission endures for generations to come.

Philanthropy is the foundation of UM’s community

“What inspires me most about philanthropy at the University of Manitoba is that it truly comes from everywhere—alumni, faculty, staff, community partners, and friends from around the world,” says Michael Benarroch, UM President and Vice-Chancellor. “Together, we’ve created a remarkable culture where supporting bold ideas and the next generation is a part of who we are. Thank you to everyone who supports our herd and for making the University of Manitoba a place defined by possibility and hope.”

—

What does a future fuelled by generosity look like? It’s in the faces of new graduates with big ideas, in bold research solutions for Manitoba and the world, and in community initiatives coming to life in collaborative ways. Here, a legacy of philanthropy is shaping the leaders, innovators and change-makers of tomorrow. Learn how you can get involved.