Manitoba Student Health Research Forum

Dr. Gregory Hammond received his BSc and MD, CM from McGill University followed by training at the Universities of Alberta, Toronto, Manitoba, and Centres for Disease Control (CDC), Atlanta. 
 
Study of an outbreak of ulcerative genital infections was his main infectious disease (ID) fellowship research project, aided by an MMSF grant and he led five publications on chancroid. These publications interested the World Health Organization, which invited his mentor Dr. Allan Ronald to Kenya for a STI research program. 
 
After CDC virology training Dr. Hammond returned to Winnipeg as an ID clinician (continuing to the present with the UM ID Section) and head of the Virus Detection Unit and later as director, Cadham Provincial Laboratory. He led introduction of novel diagnostic techniques and a new UM Clinical Virology course. He participated in 17 external laboratory quality /accreditation reviews in Canada. He was President of the Canadian Infectious Diseases Society, (now Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease) and Canadian Association of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease.
 
He led an integrated Public Health Branch for Manitoba Health and was director of communicable disease control, for 12 years. Dr. Hammond helped to establish a new Canadian Blood Services Centre in Winnipeg and was the Manitoba Health medical lead in the Canadian blood system renewal. He co-chaired the National Immunization Strategy and the Canadian Immunization Committee. 
 
He is a professor in the UM departments of Internal Medicine and Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases and has over 100 publications. After retiring from Manitoba Health Dr. Hammond consulted widely. Since 1988 he is a Board member and from 2010 the executive director of MMSF.

A native of Australia with a Master of Risk Management (Business and Economics) from Melbourne’s Monash University, Benjamin Graham brings a global perspective to his position as president and chief executive officer of Manitoba Blue Cross which he commenced in October 2020. 

Before arriving to Manitoba in 2018, where he made his first imprint in the local business community as president and chief executive officer of Manitoba Public Insurance, Benjamin held executive positions as regional chief risk officer at QBE Insurance Asia Pacific in Hong Kong; Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company and Deloitte in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai and Kuwait). Both industry roles in Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi had responsibility for enterprise risk management, regulatory reporting, underwriting and capital modelling.

While Benjamin’s strong business acumen and expertise in medical underwriting models, insurance and risk management have helped shape his career, his transparent and inclusive leadership style are contributing factors to his continued success leading business transformation and growth.  

Benjamin has developed roots in the province and is committed to the community, both as a business leader and a citizen. He’s a member of the Winnipeg Humane Society Board of Directors and is working hard to become as comfortable in hockey skates and ice fishing as he is in golf shoes.

Dr. Cheryl Rockman-Greenberg obtained her MD, CM degree from McGill University in 1974. She became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (Pediatrics) in 1979 and in medical genetics in 1996. She has been a Fellow of the Canadian College of Medical Geneticists since 1982.

Dr. Greenberg served as medical director of the Child Health program, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, and department head, Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba, from 2004-2014.

Dr. Rockman-Greenberg has practiced as a clinical and metabolic geneticist in Winnipeg since 1979. She is currently a clinician scientist in the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM) and holds the academic rank of Distinguished Professor in the departments of Pediatrics and Child Health and Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, University of Manitoba.

The contributions of Dr. Rockman- Greenberg to the continuum of science start with clinical problems, establishing relationships with families and unique communities and working to translate discoveries into effective patient care programmes.

Dr. Rockman-Greenberg was named to the 2012 list of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100, in the Trailblazers and Trendsetters category and she received the Founders Awards for Excellence in Medical Genetics from the CCMG in 2017.

She was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in April 2018 for Leadership in Health Promotion, Illness Prevention and Care and into the Order of Manitoba in July 2018.

In December 2020 she was appointed to the Order of Canada as an Officer and in May 2021 she was the recipient of the Pioneer Award from the Garrod Association of Canada.

Dr. Kindrachuk is an assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in emerging virus pathogenesis in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, University of Manitoba.

His research focuses on the circulation, transmission and pathogenesis of emerging zoonotic viruses that pose the greatest threat to global health. Findings from these investigations will help inform emerging virus therapeutic treatment strategies, outbreak prediction and preparedness efforts.

He currently leads multiple national and international research investigations including director of the International Mpox Response Consortium (IMREC), co-lead for Pillar 2 of CoVaRR-Net, and principal investigator for ongoing investigations on Ebola virus and monkeypox virus across Africa.

Weiang Yan is a senior cardiac surgery resident at the University of Manitoba. He completed his Bachelor of Science at the University of Toronto in 2011 and his Doctor of Medicine at the University of Western Ontario in 2015.

He is currently enrolled in the Clinician Investigator Program and is completing a PhD in regenerative therapies for cardiac repair after myocardial infarction under Drs. Sanjiv Dhingra and Rakesh C. Arora.

His research interests include post-infarction cardiac repair, surgical management of heart failure, and mechanical circulatory support. He has published over 30 manuscripts and has received numerous awards, including a CIHR Fellowship and the Vivien Thomas Early Career Investigator Award at the American Heart Association.

Dr. Garrett Johnson is general surgery resident at the University of Manitoba Max Rady College of Medicine. Dr. Johnson completed medical school at the University of Manitoba in 2018, where he also currently continues his general surgery training. His goal is to pursue a career as a surgeon-scientist, and to combine clinical and research skills to conduct practice-based research throughout his career. In pursuit of that goal, in 2020 he extended his residency training and was accepted into the Clinician Investigator Program, where he completed a Master’s in Science in the Department of Community Health Sciences from July 2020 to June 2022.  

During his residency training, he has his distinguished himself through many awards, including the George W Leroux memorial award for clinical excellence every year. He also served as the senior administrative resident from September 2021 to December 2023, and is now currently the Co-lead resident. He has served on the general surgery residency program committee since 2020.

His research interests include surgical education, endoscopy quality improvement, knowledge translation, and epidemiological outcomes for patients who suffer from colorectal diseases. During his residency and postgraduate training, he has published or had accepted 26 peer reviewed research articles, four textbook chapters, and twelve conference abstracts.

His research training has also been recognized by multiple awards including most recently the 2022 Thorlakson paper of the year, the Mindel and Tom Olenick research studentship in Medicine, and the Drs. Hugh C. and Aynsley M. Smith Scholarship.