HomeAboutAward Information2018 Founders' Award for Career Achievement 2017 Founders' Award for Career Achievement
2017 Founders' Award for Career Achievement
The Founders' Award for Career Achievement is conferred to recognize a CCMG member who has had an outstanding career in medical genetics in Canada or abroad. This award is named in honour of the visionary men and women (known as the "Committee of Seven"1) who, along with 17 founding members, established the Canadian College of Medical Geneticists on January 13, 1976. Previously known as the Founders' Award, it was officially renamed in 2017. The contributions of the members being considered for the Founders' Award for Career Achievement could be in any area of medical genetics: service, research, teaching, administration, or any other academic or scholarly activity. More information is available here. Past recipients are listed here.
This year, the award is presented to:
Cheryl Rockman-Greenberg MD, CM, FRCPC, FCCMG
Departments of Pediatrics and Child Health & Biochemistry and Medical Genetics University of Manitoba, Winnipeg
Dr. Cher yl Rockman-Greenberg obtained her medical degree from McGill University in Montreal in 1974.
At McGill, her mentors introduced her to the emerging fields of Medical and Biochemical Genetics. She knew then that, if provided with the opportunity, she would pursue an academic medical career, working to identify the cause of rare and ultrarare genetic disorders and to help ease their burden on patients and their families. She subsequent trained in Pediatrics and Medical Genetics and she became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in Pediatrics in 1979 and in Medical Genetics in 1992 and a Fellow of the Canadian College of Medical Geneticists in 1982. Her academic career as a clinical and metabolic geneticist - her "first job"- began at Winnipeg Children's Hospital and the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba in 1979 where she has worked ever since.
Over her career, Dr. Rockman-Greenberg served as Director of the Metabolic Service in the Program of Genetics and Metabolism, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) and from 2004 to 2014 she was Medical Director of the Child Health program, WRHA and Head of the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Manitoba. She is currently a clinical geneticist in the Program of Genetics and Metabolism, WRHA, a clinician scientist in the Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba and a Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Child Health and Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, University of Manitoba. Her research has focused on the identification of the molecular basis for genetic disorders that are over-represented in Manitoba's unique populations. Subsequently, in direct collaboration with community leaders, she and her colleagues have translated research discoveries into relevant patient care programs including the development of new diagnostic tests, expanded newborn screening programs and carrier testing initiatives. Most recently she has been the principal investigator for Canada of an industry- sponsored clinical trial of a new enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) drug for the treatment of the rare metabolic bone disorder called hypophosphatasia (HPP). ERT has dramatically changed the natural history of the most severe forms of HPP from previously untreatable into treatable disorders.
Over the course of her esteemed career, Dr. Rockman-Greenberg has received numerous awards including being named to the 2012 list of Canada's Most Powerful Women: Top 100, in the Trailblazers and Trendsetters category, being inducted into Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2014 and receiving the Health Research Foundation Innovations Medicine Canada Medal of Honour in 2016.