Meet the donors

From Cumming School of Medicine Dean

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Prioritizing women’s health

Through innovation, research, and compassionate care to empower healthier lives at every stage.

Shaping the future of health care

The future of health care is defined by innovation: a new tool allows researchers to rapidly sequence a patient’s microbiome.

Meet the donors

These CSM donors are advancing health, championing innovation and accelerating breakthroughs.

“An absolutely unhinged desire to live.”  That’s how Bilal Qureshi remembers his late wife, Iqra Rahamatullah, BSc’20, MD’26, a CSM medical student who was only 29 years old when she passed away in February 2026. During the 13 years that Iqra battled cancer, she lived life to the fullest, attending medical school, travelling the world and giving back, touching lives everywhere she went.  

That desire and passion will indeed live on — through a community-funded endowment established in her name that surpassed everyone’s expectations.   

During Iqra’s final hours, Bilal was able to tell her about the plans to establish a scholarship in her name. Once endowed, the scholarship would exist in perpetuity, supporting medical students year after year.   

“That idea of building something that continues to do good long after we are gone mattered deeply to Iqra,” says Bilal, BComm’19, JD’23. “She cared about leaving things better than she found them.”  

Bilal was cautiously optimistic about raising the endowment minimum of $50,000. His concerns were unfounded: the fund exceeded that goal the first week of fundraising. Within two weeks, it topped $120,000 and has continued to grow, thanks to more than 900 donors who have contributed from around the world.   

The outpouring of support reflects the community’s love for Iqra, and her passion for helping others.   

“This means that not only will Iqra’s legacy live on, it will also have a greater impact than we ever had imagined,” says Bilal. “We can now help others live the dream of becoming a doctor that Iqra held for so long. She would have been blown away by this response.”   

Mavis Clark and Gord Tallman have much in common. Friends from church, they have close families, strong community ties and believe deeply in giving back.  

They also both lost loved ones to lung cancer. Gord’s son, David, died at 36 years old in 2001, and Mavis’ husband, Paul, passed away in 2010.    

“Life doesn’t always unfold the way you think it will,” says Mavis, BEd’72, MEd’82. “It’s what you do with it next that matters.”   

Mavis, a former UCalgary senator, has become a powerful advocate for lung cancer, pushing for more awareness, decreased stigma, and better screening and treatment options. Her work establishing the Paul Clark Lung Cancer Fellowship, and her efforts on many other lung cancer initiatives, have greatly advanced this field of research at the CSM’s Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute.

When she approached Gord to see if he would be interested in partnering on a new project, he immediately agreed. Longtime donors to UCalgary’s Haskayne School of Business, this was another way for the Tallman family to honour David’s memory. 

“Our family has always believed that when you give back, you benefit tenfold,” says Gord.

Their remarkable partnership is funding an assistant professorship focused on lung cancer, leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to open new avenues for research.  

Mavis clearly sees the powerful impact of the research and is excited for future opportunities.

“There’s hope for patients diagnosed with lung cancer now,” she says. “What used to be seen as impossible and unbelievable is now possible and believable.”

Dr. Susan Wong, MD’81, believes in paying it forward and seeing the impact of her work.  

Originally from England, where she met Ging, MA'72, her Canadian husband-to-be, Susan came to Calgary in the mid 1970s and later enrolled in medical school at UCalgary. As a mature student with no family nearby, she found the environment welcoming and supportive.  

“My classmates became my family,” she says, recalling the camaraderie that defined her medical school years.  

With no savings and a growing family, Susan was also grateful for financial assistance that allowed her to focus on her studies rather than worry about day-to-day expenses. That experience left a lasting impression.  

While planning her estate recently, Susan decided to establish an award to support medical students facing financial need.  

“I realized that if I established an award now, I would get to actually see the impact on students,” she says. “That mattered greatly to me.”  

The Dr. Susan Wong & Dr. Eric Bowler Award for Medical Students is also named in honour of her father, a physician whose dedication and values shaped her life, and whose legacy she wanted to carry forward. As a mother of four, Susan understands the balancing act many students face.  

For Diana Joseph, supporting multiple sclerosis (MS) research is deeply personal. MS has touched three generations of her family: her grandmother, herself and her daughter.   

That connection has grown into a decades-long commitment to MS research through the Westman Foundation, founded by Diana and her brother, homebuilder Jay Westman. They began giving to the University of Calgary in 2004 in support of MS research and their generosity has continued to power this critical work.  

For Diana and Jay, philanthropy is about integrity, trust and impact. They also emphasize the close relationships they have built with the teams at the CSM’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute.  

Diana also has first-hand experience with how MS treatment has changed over time. “I’ve been a direct beneficiary of that research,” she says. “I was very fortunate to receive high-quality care as new innovations were happening.”  

What sets the University of Calgary and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute apart, she explains, is its relentless focus on outcomes and collaboration.   

“The proof is in the pudding,”  Diana says. “Their innovative research produces results for Calgarians, Albertans and Canadians — and even on the world stage. These researchers are rockstars.”