Recognizing their distinction
Dr. Cheryl Rockman-Greenberg and Mr. Paul Vogt will receive high honours at the 136th Annual Spring Convocation.
Dr. Rockman-Greenberg will be conferred as a Distinguished Professor and Mr. Vogt will receive the Distinguished Service Award.
Distinguished Professor
Distinguished Professor is a prestigious title whose rules dictate that only a maximum of 20 academic staff members may hold it at any one time. It is the highest honour the University can bestow upon a professor.
The designation recognizes extraordinary, internationally-recognized, scholarly or creative achievement and an exemplary teaching record.
Dr. Cheryl Rockman-Greenberg
MDCM’74 (McGill)
Dr.Cheryl Rockman-Greenberg
Tremendous progress has been made over the past several decades in our understanding and treatment of rare genetic disorders, and at the forefront of these discoveries you will find Dr. Cheryl Rockman-Greenberg. Her impact on medical research and the health of children has been profound. The University of Manitoba is honoured to confer upon her the title of Distinguished Professor, recognizing the distinction she has brought to herself and this institution through her excellence as a pediatrician and geneticist.
Dr. Rockman-Greenberg earned her medical degree from McGill University in 1974, and then completed a fellowship in biochemical and clinical genetics at Montreal Children’s Hospital and McGill University. In 1979, she joined the department of pediatrics and child health at the University of Manitoba where she is now a professor. From 2004 to 2014, she served as both the head of the department pediatrics and child health, and as medical director of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s child health program. In addition, she holds an academic appointment as professor within the department of biochemistry and medical genetics.
She helped establish the first clinical lab specializing in the use of DNA testing to diagnose genetic disorders. Her approach to research, by involving her subjects in the clinical discovery process, is considered transformational and has inspired many to follow suit.
A creative scientist, she and her colleagues identified the molecular cause of some of Manitoba’s most devastating inherited diseases. One debilitating and often fatal disorder, hypophosphatasia, is rare throughout the world yet common in Manitoba and select Canadian communities. Dr. Rockman-Greenberg and her team pioneered a new way to treat this disease with an investigational drug, successfully treating it in 2008. Promising clinical trials are continuing under her visionary leadership.
In recognition of her leadership and achievements, in 2012 the Women’s Executive Network, a national organization, named Dr. Rockman-Greenberg one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women.
With more than 5,487 citations of 166 published works in some of the field’s most prestigious journals, such as Nature, Nature Genetics, The Lancet, and The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Rockman-Greenberg is one of the most prolific academic clinicians in the College of Medicine. Her work has had a global impact. This is what trailblazers do.
Distinguished Service Award
Mr. Paul Vogt
The Distinguished Service Award is the highest honour bestowed upon an individual by the Board of Governors. It is awarded on the basis of distinguished contributions to Manitoba in areas which are of major interest to the University of Manitoba, and which are directly associated with the University.
Mr. Paul Vogt
Mr. Paul Vogt’s career began at the University of Manitoba, where he received his B.A. (Honours) in Political Studies in 1983. In 1985 he was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and completed a Master of Philosophy at Oxford University with additional graduate work at Princeton University. He then returned home to serve the people of Manitoba as a teacher and civil servant. From 1999 until 2005, Mr. Vogt was the Policy Secretary to Cabinet. In 2005, he was appointed Clerk of the Executive Council and Cabinet Secretary for the Government of Manitoba.
As the province’s top bureaucrat, he has ensured our government runs smoothly throughout its transitions. Recognizing this, in 2010 the Winnipeg Free Press named him as one of Manitoba’s Power 30, celebrating his humility and soft-spoken, light-hearted approach that has earned him respect throughout the legislature.
An educator in the caucus, Mr. Vogt has likewise shared his talents in the classroom, teaching philosophy, political studies, and economics at both the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg. Most recently, in the 2013/14 academic year, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Manitoba, teaching in the Masters in Public Administration program. Mr. Vogt was also an advisory participant for the International Institute for Sustainable Development and was a member of United Way Campaign Cabinet.
We celebrate and thank him today for his tireless service to the province, this institution, and the people of Manitoba.