The Faculty Recognition Reception honoured recipients of Teaching and Community Engagement Awards, Merit Awards and those granted Tenure. Hosted by the Office of the Provost and Vice-President (Academic), the event marked an occasion to celebrate the achievements of some of UM’s dedicated faculty members.

Congratulations to all the honorees:

Dr. and Mrs. H. H. Saunderson Award for Excellence in Teaching (2023)

• Bruno Dyck (I.H. Asper School of Business)

University of Manitoba Graduate Students’ Association (UMGSA) Teaching Award (2023)

• Youngjin Cha (Price Faculty of Engineering)

Dr. and Mrs. Ralph Campbell Outreach Award 

• 2022 – Hee Jung Serenity Joo (Faculty of Arts)
• 2023 – Randy Herrmann (Price Faculty of Engineering)

Annual Community Engagement Award (2024)

• Polina Anang (Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Science)
• Julien Arino (Faculty of Science)
• Jacquie Dawson (Desautels Faculty of Music)
• Adam Muller (Faculty of Graduate Studies)
• Janine Newton Montgomery (Faculty of Arts)
• Brandi Smith (Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management)
• Katinka Stecina (Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Science)
• Mario Tenuta (Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences)
• Shirley Thompson (Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth and Resources)
• Heather Watson (Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Science)
• Andrew Woolford (Faculty of Arts)
• Carla Zelmer (Faculty of Science)

Community Engagement Fund Award (2023)

• Shawna Ferris (Faculty of Arts)
• Zana Lutfiyya (Arthur V. Mauro Institute for Peace & Justice, St. Paul’s College)
• Emily McKinnon (Access & Aboriginal Focus Program, Extended Education)
• Victoria Sparks (Desautels Faculty of Music)

Merit Award (2022)

Each year, Merit Awards are awarded to faculty members for their outstanding achievements in teaching, research, scholarly work and creative activities, and service in three different categories. View the 2022 recipient list here.

Tenure (2024)

• Kjell Anderson (Faculty of Law)
• Devi Atukorallaya (Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry, Rady Faculty of Health Science)
• Yik Au (I. H. Asper School of Business) 
• Nandika Bandara (Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences)
• Denice Bay (Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Science)
• Lori Blondeau (School of Art)
• Cara Brown (College of Rehabilitation Sciences, Rady Faculty of Health Science)
• Leo Butler (Faculty of Science)
• Amine Choukou (College of Rehabilitation Sciences, Rady Faculty of Health Science)
• Susan Cooper (Faculty of Science)
• Andrew Deruchie (Desautels Faculty of Music)
• Philip Ferguson (Price Faculty of Engineering)
• Julia Gamble (Faculty of Arts)
• Aleeza Gerstein (Faculty of Science)
• Jason Gibbs (Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences)
• Colin Gilmore (Price Faculty of Engineering)
• Jesse Hajer (Faculty of Arts)
• Sarah Hannan (Faculty of Arts)
• Cameron Hauseman (Faculty of Education)
• Mohammad Khan (Faculty of Social Work)
• Bradley Klus (Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry, Rady Faculty of Health Science)
• Christian Kuss (Faculty of Science)
• RJ Leland (Faculty of Arts)
• Xihui (Larry) Liang (Price Faculty of Engineering)
• Robert Martin (Faculty of Science)
• Neil Minuk (Faculty of Architecture)
• Hee Mok Park (I. H. Asper School of Business)
• Jeremy Patzer (Faculty of Arts)
• Leslie Roos (Faculty of Arts)
• Soodeh Saberian (Faculty of Arts)
• Ben Schellenberg (Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management)
• Jillian Seniuk Cicek (Price Faculty of Engineering)
• Tanveer Sharif (Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Science)
• Olivia Wilkins (Faculty of Science)

The year associated with each award differs due to the timeframe of program. Learn more about the awards on the Faculty Awards webpage.

“These new studentships provide important support to graduate students who have displayed excellent academic achievement and pursue vital research endeavours,” said Dr. Brian Postl, dean, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences and vice-provost (health sciences). “Congratulations to all recipients on this well-deserved recognition and we look forward to seeing your impact as researchers in the years to come.”

Studentships for master’s students are valued at $14,000 per annum and studentships for PhDs are valued at $18,000 per annum.

The deadline to apply for the next round of graduate studentships is September 15, 2022. Other eligibility requirements and application forms can be found on the Student Experience section of the UM website.

Featured graduate studentship awardees:

Ariyan Alaei

Ariyan Alaei

Ariysn Alaei is an international master’s student in the department of oral biology, Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry. Alaei started a M.Sc. in September 2021 under Dr.Kangmin Duan’s supervision.

“My M.Sc. research project is in the area of new antipathogenic agents against bacterial pathogens. The spread of antibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens leaves us a very vulnerable line of defense against some of the most formidable human pathogens. There is an urgent need to develop new effective drugs to counter antibiotic resistance.

“My project aims to identify and characterize active antipathogenic compounds from natural sources that potentially treat infectious diseases but also avoid the rise of resistance in pathogens. So, the results of the project can lay some basis for the development of arsenals against antibiotic resistance and infectious diseases.”

What does it mean to you to receive the graduate studentship?

”I feel honoured to be considered for this graduate studentship which means my studies are meaningful and valuable and can be an encouragement to work even harder! Furthermore, as an international student, it is hard to live and study in a foreign country without any financial support, so receiving a studentship could help me to focus on my research with peace of mind without worries of financial issues.”

Meher Kantoo

Meher Kantoo

Meher Kantoo is pursuing a M.Sc. at the College of Pharmacy and joined the University of Manitoba in the fall of 2021. Currently, Kantoo is working in Dr. Jillian Stobart’s lab on his master’s thesis.

“My project involves using mouse as a model system to study the functions of astrocytes, a type of brain cell. Recent studies have shown that astrocytes can influence that activity of brain by releasing certain molecules. However, it is now known how these cells modulate brain activity. I will be using experimental techniques like two-photon calcium imaging, lentivirus induced astrocyte cultures, biosensor probes to investigate the contribution of astrocyte N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors to calcium physiology and behavior.”

What does it mean to you to receive the graduate studentship?

“I feel extremely honoured and excited to receive the graduate studentship. Apart from the financial support, this studentship is important to me as it has also recognized my hard work towards academics and research work. I hope to continue working diligently in my research as well as course work and make a worthwhile contribution to my field.

“I am grateful to my advisor Dr. Stobart for her guidance and I am excited to continue working on my thesis project and uncover some interesting mechanisms about the role of astrocytes in brain function.”

Julie-Anne McCarthy

Julie-Anne McCarthy

Julie-Anne McCarthy a first-year PhD student in community health sciences at the Max Rady College of Medicine. McCarthy has a M.Sc. in community psychology and interests in population health, mental health promotion and mental illness prevention. McCarthy’s current research focuses on factors that contribute to promoting and protecting child and youth mental health and overall well-being.

What does it mean to you to receive the graduate studentship?

“It is both humbling and an honour to receive a graduate studentship. This represents invaluable protected time to work on research- that’s the dream! Furthermore, the community health sciences program is filled with incredibly high calibre educators and students. I see the studentship as a responsibility to meet the high standards set by my peers and mentors.

“I am grateful to the CHS program and to my supervisor Dr. Tracie Afifi for the support in my graduate studies so far. I am also very cognizant of past mentors who have helped me get to this point in my career. There is so much to learn about doing mental health research equitably and this is something that is very front of mind as I continue down this path.

“As a Franco-Manitoban, I also hope to represent my community through my work. Merci beaucoup pour cette merveilleuse opportunité.”

Carly Proctor

Carly Proctor

Carly Proctor is a master of science student in the College of Rehabilitation Sciences. Proctor’s research project is focused on physical activity interventions for diabetes management and is under the supervision of Dr. Cara Brown.

“I have worked as a physiotherapist clinician for 15 years and have always been passionate about how physical activity is not only important in disease prevention but also is an effective treatment for many chronic diseases. In diabetes care, physical activity is an underutilized intervention and I wanted to understand the role that exercise specialists like physiotherapists and kinesiologists could play in this area of clinical practice and support their work with interprofessional teams.

“The outcome of this study will be a referral pathway tool that will help primary care teams work effectively with exercise professionals in diabetes care by clarifying how physiotherapists and kinesiologists are similar and how they are distinct.”

What does it mean to you to receive a graduate studentship?

“I am very grateful and honoured to have been awarded a RFHS graduate studentship. I am thankful for the opportunity to perform research and for the support of my advisor Dr. Cara Brown and my committee members. As a working clinician and mom of small children, this studentship goes a long way to support my academic journey.“

The projects are part of the college’s Kiga mamo anokimin onji minoayawin initiative, which translated from Ojibway means “We will work together for health and wellness.”

One of the projects focuses on people living with dementia and their caregivers. Through consultations with Dr. Reg Urbanowski, dean, College of Rehabilitation Sciences, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, the community identified it would like to start with delivering help to people providing care to those with dementia or memory issues.

For six weeks starting in July, three students completed a fieldwork placement in Pinaymootang First Nation, which is located about 220 km northwest of Winnipeg.

“We were the first students to do a placement in Pinaymootang as part of this project,” said master of physical therapy student Maria Dirks. “We were making connections with people who could have dementia symptoms and doing home visits.”

Dirks performed strength assessments and prescribed exercises, which she had to teach to the clients and caregivers. She also worked closely with two occupational therapy students, who assessed their clients’ ability to manage self-care, recommending strategies and ordering equipment to increase their independence.

“We got to know clients and their caregivers, finding out more about difficulties they were having caring for their loved ones, if they were noticing that their loved ones or others in the community were exhibiting signs and symptoms of dementia, and the gaps they felt existed in the community to provide support,” said occupational therapy student Rachel Ward.

The students spent about three days each week in the community, reduced from a typical placement of five days per week on-site because of COVID-19 restrictions.

“Initially, we thought this placement would have to be completely virtual, but at the last minute the community opened up again,” Ward said. “One of the most important things I learned on this placement was to take the time to listen to the clients and what they have to say. Many were very appreciative of us taking the extra time to listen to their stories.”

The other communities taking part in the ongoing project include Bloodvein First Nation, Lake Manitoba First Nation, Opaskwayak Cree Nation and Norway House First Nation.

The second project, funded by the Canadian Frailty Network (CFN), is led by Dr. Cara Brown, assistant professor in the occupational therapy department. It was developed with four First Nations communities who said they were looking for ways to engage older adults in programs that included physical activity.

Elders, older adults and other community members are taking part in the research process in Bloodvein First Nation, Black River First Nation, Hollow Water First Nation and Lake Manitoba First Nation.

The project team’s tasks are: to learn what the communities think about the word “frailty” and how this relates to their thoughts on older adult health and illness; develop and test community-specific programs that incorporate physical activity; and share what they learned with each other and other communities in Manitoba, using techniques such as video storytelling.

“After a long history of colonization and mistrust, First Nations communities must decide on the approaches that will be used to improve the health of their own people,” Brown said. “Based on our consultations, we will work with each community individually to develop programs that address their needs.”

Andrea Simser wears a mask for fieldwork at Lake Manitoba First Nation.

Andrea Simser and Kellie Slobodian, two final-year students in the master of occupational therapy program, participated in a six-week placement in Lake Manitoba First Nation, a community of 875 people, starting in late July. Similar to the placement in Pinaymootang, the students were limited to just a few days a week in the community due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“We did initial interviews with community members to understand their views on health, wellness and frailty, and to identify a possible physical activity program that could either help people who are frail or with prevention,” Slobodian said. “There are a lot of people in the community who are in good health, but they want to take a preventative approach to make sure people can continue to do the things they need to do.”

The students said that even though the community was only two hours away from Winnipeg, it felt very remote and showed them how caregiving in the area has its unique challenges.

“The amount of services they currently have is quite limited,” Simser said. “I think this is going to affect how I practice going forward, being mindful of the different ways that people live and understanding how culture can make a difference in how you assess and collaborate with people for treatment.”

For both projects, each community has its own dedicated resource, a person from the community hired to work as a liaison with the college and project team.

Kennedy Anderson, community resource for Pinaymootang, is a 19-year-old UM student who started her first year in January. She has worked at Pinaymootang Health Centre since finishing high school three years ago.

“We have a lot of Elders here who have 24/7 needs, but there isn’t enough care,” she said. “We really utilized this group of students and I think that’s how it’s going to be for the next two years – getting people what they need and making sure that everyone is seen in the community as well.”

Dirks said she appreciated the difference that Anderson made, and that it’s clear that community members valued the role of the liaison as well.

“She showed us around the community a few times and she knew everyone,” Dirks said. “It was really nice to have that strong connection with someone in the community.”

Student travel and accommodations for these projects was provided by the RBC Experiential Learning Travel Initiative.

However, the students said, working from home did not get in the way of their valuable experience.

PIKE-Net, housed at the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences’ Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing – Ongomiizwin Research, is a student mentorship network program that provides a variety of supports and opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students interested in Indigenous health research.

This year, 14 students took part in 13 different Indigenous health research projects with guidance from 18 mentors.

“When the order to stay home happened, we were just starting the matching process between our registered mentors and interns, and it quickly became a scramble to see how we could adapt the program,” said Ashley Edson, PIKE-Net program coordinator.

She said mentors adapted projects to focus on Indigenous health and wellness issues around COVID-19, supported flexible work hours, and shifted all workshops to online. “It was challenging because the heart of this program has always been the relationships we build and the mentorship shared between each other.”

Nichol Marsch

Nichol Marsch, a Metis UM fine arts graduate, is part of the program for her second summer, as she prepares to enter the occupational therapy program in the College of Rehabilitation Sciences.

“My background is in the arts, but I’ve always had an interest in science, and this program has been a really good entry point into that field,” she says.

Marsch is working with mentors Dr. Cara Brown, department of occupational therapy, and Dr. Patty Thille, department of physical therapy, on a scoping review for a project on self-management education and support in Indigenous communities.

“It’s about how to deal with chronic illness in day-to-day life, which is especially important for communities that don’t have constant access to health care,” she says.

Marsch, 28, is originally from Winnipeg and grew up near Stonewall, Man. While working on her arts degree, she worked part-time in medical device reprocessing, which led to an interest in prosthetics and orthotics. She learned about occupational therapy while in PIKE-Net last summer.

“I thought it seemed like a really cool profession that aligns with a lot of my interests,” she says.

“The one pitfall is that we didn’t get to go into the communities this summer, but the college has community partners that they work with and they’re always looking for ways to engage with them that are helpful.”

Jordan Gelowitz

Third-year Max Rady College of Medicine student Jordan Gelowitz also joins the program for a second year. Gelowitz is working with Dr. Kellie Thiessen, associate professor, College of Nursing on a project about wellbeing associated with maternity care in northern regions.

“Our big question for the moment has been, ‘how do you define wellness from an Indigenous context?’” he says, noting his role involves reviewing feedback from the communities. This includes mothers who have delivered in their communities, those who delivered in Winnipeg, policymakers and health-care staff. “They each have their own perspective on the issue, and that is important. It has really brought to mind that health care is really complex.”

Gelowitz, 26, says his interest in maternity care goes back to his childhood, growing up in Big River First Nation near Saskatoon.

Gelowitz said he’d recommend the program to any Indigenous students who are interested in research that will make an impact.

“PIKE-Net is designed to learn research in a fun integrated way,” he says. “I found in medicine there are a lot of different research opportunities, but the thing I wanted was something that had more flexibility and more of a focus on Indigenous health.”

Zoe Quill

Third-year faculty of science student Zoe Quill joins PIKE-Net for the first time. The genetics major is working with clinical researcher Dr. Alison Dart and pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Brandy Wicklow at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba on the iCARE study, the largest observational study of youth with type 2 diabetes in Canada.

Quill, a member of Sapotaweyak Cree Nation near Swan River, Man., says the research is of interest to her because she’s known many people affected by the disease.

“The study is kind of unique because it determines not only the biological risk factors, but also the psychological and social factors – so their overall wellbeing,” she says.

As part of the research, Quill, 20, is doing phone surveys with affected families to determine how they’ve been coping with the effects of COVID-19.

“It’s been really great,” she says. “I know the pandemic has caused us to work from home, but I still feel like I’m working in-person. PIKE-Net and iCARE have really stepped up to make the most of this experience.”

Brown said that with an aging population, many people are now living several years with one or more chronic diseases, which was not common a few decades ago.

“Our hospital system was not designed to support people living with chronic disease, but for treating acute events,” she said. “It needs to adapt to support people more in the community, where they want to be, and to smooth the journeys that occur between hospital and home.”

In January, Brown received a $74,413 catalyst grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for a project that will bring patients to the research table to examine how inter-professional teams can facilitate successful hospital discharges.

“Using members of the public with lived experience as researchers is a relatively new concept, and not a lot of work has been done yet on evaluating the depth and impact of their engagement,” she said. “Much of the research on care transitions is focused on health service outcomes, like hospital readmission rates, but doesn’t speak to the quality and experience of care received by patients. Including the patient voice is imperative.”

Brown has five patient partners on her team. They will work alongside academic researchers, policymakers, administrators and clinicians over the course of one year to help develop a study that is deemed relevant to all stakeholders. “It’s an exciting project because people with lived experiences will get to shape the development of the research,” she said.

Brown, a three-time University of Manitoba graduate, with a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy and a master’s and PhD in community health sciences, became a full-time faculty member in the college’s department of occupational therapy in May 2019.

After completing her bachelor’s degree in 1996, she spent a year working in Fort Wayne, Indiana as an occupational therapist at a skilled nursing facility, which she describes as a combination of long-term care and geriatric rehab.

“Working in the American health-care system shaped my career somewhat,” she said. “That experience of working in another system and then coming back to Canada made me want to understand the bigger picture of health systems and how they work.”

She spent over a decade working in a variety of clinical areas – including inpatient and outpatient care at Health Sciences Centre and in a primary care clinic – before turning to research full time last year.

“I worked in all these different clinical areas across the care continuum and the one thing that’s been interesting through it all is how patients transition between these settings,” she said.

Brown said Ontario and Quebec have been leading the way in Canada for integrated care, but that Manitoba is doing important work as well, such as bringing social and health-care services and professionals together in Winnipeg’s Access Centres, the provincial My Health Teams program and eConsult, a web-based application that allows primary care providers to consult directly with specialists.

Brown’s work is primarily focused on tertiary and primary care integration, which she said is needed to improve the patient experience when transitioning from hospital to home.

“Our health-care system has incorporated many programs to support older adults when they are going home from hospital, but we still need to make sure that patient care is coordinated, so when they ultimately get home, they have the support and care they need,” she said.