2025 Cumming School of Medicine Alumni of Distinction Awards

Dr. Garnet Cummings, MD’78 has a lived a career of service to his patients, learners, university and community. He has over 22 years of experience as an emergency physician, and his service included leading the STARS North program in Edmonton, acting as Chief of Emergency at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, and helping to establish the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Alberta. In 1998, a car accident ended his clinical career, but after recovery he founded the NAIT Hockey Alumni Association, providing scholarships for athletes. 

In 2008, he became Executive Director of the Brain Care Centre and served on the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation, promoting brain injury advocacy and research funding. In 2016, he received the Trevor and Debbie Greene Award for his contributions to the brain injury community, demonstrating resilience and leadership.

Dr Amy Metcalfe, PhD‘12 is an international leader in perinatal epidemiology whose groundbreaking research focuses on examining how different exposures and experiences during pregnancy can impact women’s and children’s health in the long term. With over $30 million in grant funding, more than 190 publications, and an H-index of 42, her impact on the field is well recognized in Canada and internationally. Dr. Metcalfe is a professor in the departments of obstetrics and gynecology, medicine, and community health sciences at the University of Calgary. She is the Maternal and Child Health Program Director at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute and is committed to helping to create healthier futures for children and families.

Dr. Ian Walker, MD ’98 is a clinical associate professor in the department of emergency medicine.  When he became the Director of Admissions for the Cumming School of Medicine in 2008, his primary focus was to build an equity-oriented admissions process that valued the experiences and backgrounds of applicants from groups under-represented in medicine.  The Pathways to Medicine program, currently entering its tenth year, supports the pre-medical journey of exceptional undergraduate students from low income, rural and Indigenous backgrounds. A two-time recipient of the CMSA Teaching Honour Roll, he served as a master teacher for 10 years and is the previous assistant director of the College of Family Physicians of Canada Emergency Medicine Program at UCalgary.