Distinguished Alumni Awards eligibility and award categories
Celebrate UM graduates who have achieved outstanding accomplishments in their professional and personal lives, are inspiring fellow alumni, current students and the broader community, and have made significant, transformative contributions to society.
Award categories
Distinguished Alumni Awards nominations open annually and mark an excellent opportunity to recognize UM alumni who are an inspiration to fellow alumni, current students and the community, both close to home and around the globe.
Lifetime Achievement
This award recognizes graduates who have shown personal and professional achievements and leadership throughout their lifetime and continue to make significant and transformative contributions to their profession, their community and the University of Manitoba.
Nominees must demonstrate a lifetime of:
- Outstanding contributions that made a transformative impact within their community
- Exemplary achievement throughout their lifetime
- Service to the University of Manitoba
Professional Achievement
This award recognizes graduates who have made exemplary contributions to their profession and have previously received recognition from within their discipline. The focus of this award is professional achievement that is non-academic in nature.
Nominees must demonstrate:
- A standard of professional excellence throughout their career that has inspired their colleagues and peers with an emphasis on their professional achievements in the last three to five years
- Exceptional leadership in their profession
- Outstanding and transformative achievements recognized by the nominee’s professional community
Academic Innovation
This award recognizes graduates who have made exemplary contributions to their academic career and have previously received recognition for their innovation, research excellence and mentoring in academia.
Nominees must demonstrate:
- Outstanding innovation and research achievements and excellence in academia that have had a major, transformative impact on the community and society to help make for a better world, with an emphasis on their academic innovation and research achievements in the last three to five years
- Excellence in academic mentoring and publishing
- Exceptional leadership in their area of academic innovation and research
- At least 51% of their current or past employment (if retired / emeritus) in academia at a recognized post-secondary institution(s)
Community Service
This award recognizes graduates who have had a transformative impact on those in their community, either at the local, national or international level.
Nominees must demonstrate:
- Extraordinary efforts that have made a positive impact on their community
- Community service or volunteer work that has engaged and inspired others
- Community service that is clearly outside of or above and beyond their professional discipline in a voluntary, charitable and non-paid capacity
Outstanding Young Alumni
This award recognizes graduates who are under the age of 35 before the close of nominations who have demonstrated significant contributions and leadership to their field of endeavour, their community and the University of Manitoba.
Nominees must demonstrate:
- Inspiring achievements in their field
- Contributions that have had a transformative impact in their community
- Service to the University of Manitoba, both while as a student and ongoing as an alum
Eligibility restrictions
Alumni who have received an honorary degree bestowed by the University of Manitoba have received the institution’s highest honour and therefore are not eligible for nomination.
In addition, the following alumni cannot be nominated:
- Those who currently hold political office at a local, provincial/state, national, or Indigenous government level
- Members of the Distinguished Alumni Awards Selection Panel or Award Category Pre-Selection Subcommittees
- Members of the Alumni Association Board of Directors
- Members of the University of Manitoba Board of Governors
- Members of the University of Manitoba's senior leadership team, specifically for the Academic Innovation Award, including Deans, Associate Deans, Vice-Presidents and Vice-Provosts
2025 UM Distinguished Alumni Awards Celebration of Excellence presented by TD Insurance
Save the Date: Thursday, September 18, 2025
6:00 - 10:00 p.m. CDT
Manitoba Room UMSU University Centre, 65 Chancellors Circle
For more information about becoming a sponsor, please contact Tracy Bowman.
2024 recipients
As we look back on 65 years of the Distinguished Alumni Awards, we add five more deserving alumni to the roster. Join the UM community during Homecoming 2024 to celebrate the accomplishments of these remarkable UM alumni.
Lifetime Achievement
Steve Kroft [BA/88]
Throughout his career, Kroft has served as an inspiration, not only through his ambitious entrepreneurship and relentless pursuit of innovation and excellence in business, but also through his remarkable devotion to community service at the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba, CancerCare Manitoba Foundation, Business Council of Manitoba, and the University of Manitoba, among others. Through this work, Kroft has shown a commitment to enhancing and improving life for all Manitobans.
Professional Achievement
Dr. Joss Reimer [MD/08, MPH/13, Medical Resident/13]
Dr. Reimer has been one of the most important medical voices in our province, leading arguably the most effective COVID-19 vaccine rollout program across Canada, and her leadership continues to result in the saving of lives and long-term health for Manitobans and for all Canadians as the incoming President of the Canadian Medical Association.
Academic Innovation
Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov [MD/83, PhD/98]
One of the most prolific and respected researchers in supportive and palliative care in the world today, Dr. Chochinov's research-informed best practices are recognized globally for enhancing the psychological well-being and quality-of-life of patients with advanced disease.
Community Service
Michael Robertson [BA/98, MArch/04]
Robertson’s commitment to community service is deeply rooted in his character, and he’s demonstrated that in many ways through his commitment to the United Way of Winnipeg, his projects with the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre and in his service to UM over the years as a member of the President’s Advisory Council, Board of Governors and the Faculty of Architecture’s Partners Program board.
Outstanding Young Alumni
Chimwemwe Undi [BA(Adv)/16, JD/20]
A vocal truth teller, poet, and published author, Undi is unafraid of calling out injustices, and she has demonstrated her commitment to her causes both while at UM serving as Vice Chair (External) of the Robson Hall Outlaws (LGBT2SQ+ Student Group) and Chair of the Robson Hall Feminist Legal Forum. She is also an associate at TDS law firm, a member of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers and is the Winnipeg Poet Laureate for 2023 and 2024.
Past recipients
Contact us
Tracy Bowman
Executive Director, Alumni Relations
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB R3T 5V6 Canada