Honouring impact with the 2025 Dean’s Alumni Awards
The University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Dean’s Alumni Awards, recognizing five exceptional alumni whose work exemplifies an outstanding dedication to health care, research and education.
Selected by a volunteer committee of alumni and students, this year’s honourees span a range of disciplines — from maternal/fetal and paediatric hospital medicine to global infectious disease epidemiology — and their collective impact is felt in communities across Canada and beyond.
“I was truly inspired by the breadth and quality of nominations we received this year,” says Lisa Robinson (MD ’91, PGME Internal Medicine), Dean of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and U of T’s Vice-Provost, Relations with Health Care Institutions. “Each award recipient has made extraordinary contributions to improving health outcomes, whether through advancing medical knowledge and practice or advocating for better care. Their work reflects the very best of our alumni community.”
Here are the recipients of the 2025 Dean’s Alumni Awards:
Rob Fowler (PGME Internal Medicine)
Humanitarian Award
Rob Fowler is the H. Barrie Fairley Professor of Medicine and director of the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine at U of T, and chief of the Tory Trauma Program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. In both his research and practice, he focuses on improving access to and outcomes of care for critically ill patients worldwide. A global leader in outbreak response, he has supported the World Health Organization and other non-governmental organizations during viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks across Africa. His volunteer service — often at great risk to his own health — has earned him numerous awards, including the Meritorious Service Cross, Order of Ontario, and the Teasdale-Corti Humanitarian Award.
Peter Gill (PGME Paediatrics)
Emerging Leader Award
Peter Gill is a general paediatrician and scientist at the SickKids Research Institute, an associate professor of paediatrics and of health policy, management and evaluation at U of T, and a senior associate at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford. He co-founded and is chair of the Canadian Pediatric Inpatient Research Network (PIRN), uniting hospitals nationwide to improve care for hospitalized children. His research has advanced the care and management of common and serious childhood infections and has earned him national recognition, including the Canadian Paediatric Society Young Investigator Award and the Paediatric Chairs of Canada Emerging Academic Leader Award.
Tara Kiran (MD ’02)
MAA MD Alumni of Distinction Award
Tara Kiran is the Fidani Chair in Improvement and Innovation at U of T and vice-chair of quality and innovation with the Department of Family and Community Medicine. A family physician and renowned primary care researcher at Unity Health Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital, Kiran investigates how changes in the health care system impact patients, particularly the most vulnerable. In 2022 she launched OurCare, a national initiative to engage the public in co-creating the blueprint for a stronger, more equitable primary care system in Canada. She is also the creator and host of Primary Focus, a podcast that shares stories and innovations from Canada and around the world to inspire a stronger primary care system.
Gareth Seaward (PGME Obstetrics & Gynaecology)
Lifetime Achievement Award
Gareth Seaward’s commitment to excellence in clinical practice and medical education have left an enduring legacy in obstetrics and gynaecology in Canada, as evidenced by the enthusiastic nomination support from his hospital and Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation colleagues. Seaward is a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and of health policy, management and evaluation at U of T, as well as a distinguished obstetrician-gynaecologist and a globally recognized pioneer in maternal-fetal medicine. He served as the deputy director of the fetal medicine unit at Sinai Health’s Mount Sinai Hospital for 20 years. He also held leadership roles at the Provincial Council for Maternal Child Health for over a decade, where he supported the development of recommendations, tools and guidelines that continue to help health care professionals across Ontario provide high-quality and effective perinatal care.
Steffanie Strathdee (PhD Epidemiology ’94)
Impact Award
Steffanie Strathdee is the Harold Simon Distinguished Professor at University of California San Diego and co-founder and co-director of the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics, the first of its kind in North America. She earned her PhD in 1994 from the Department of Community Health within U of T’s Faculty of Medicine (now the Temerty Faculty of Medicine). The department became the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in 2008. A renowned infectious disease epidemiologist, she has led groundbreaking work in HIV prevention and antimicrobial resistance. Her efforts to revitalize phage therapy in the West earned her a place among TIME’s 50 Most Influential People in Health Care in 2018.
The 2025 Dean's Alumni Award recipients will be honoured at an intimate celebration this fall.
