Sandra Rotman
Sandra Ann Rotman, is a Canadian philanthropist and community leader. She and her late husband, Joseph Rotman, O.C., LL.D, frequently directed their philanthropy as a couple to support Canadian institutions in the arts, health and education. Over the past twenty years, the Rotmans served on many boards and donated more than $90 million. In 2006, Sandra Rotman was honoured with the Order of Ontario and in 2007, was awarded an Honorary LL.D. from the University of Toronto. She married Joseph L. Rotman in 1959 and they have two children, Janis and Kenneth. She lives in Toronto, Canada . Community work. Sandra Rotman has served on the Boards of several Canadian institutions in the arts, health and education: Health and Life Sciences. Rotman is a long-standing supporter of health institutions in Canada. She and her husband have supported the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in Toronto for close to three decades, helping to transform it from a home for the aged into a research institute in the broad area of aging and dementia. In 1989, they established the Rotman Research Institute to create knowledge in cognitive neuroscience and to translate the most recent research directly to benefit patients . Also at Baycrest, she created the Sandra A. Rotman Program in Neuropsychiatry. For more than two decades, Sandra Rotman has been a contributor to the University Health Network in downtown Toronto as a board member and a donor. The network comprises three Toronto teaching hospitals, Toronto General Hospital; Princess Margaret Hospital, the largest cancer hospital in North America; and Toronto Western Hospital. Together, the network amounts the largest medical centre in Canada. Established by both University Health Network and the University of Toronto, the Sandra Rotman Centre focuses on global health through translational research on malaria, through ethics, social and  cultural research The centre hosts Grand Challenges Canada, a federally funded program. Recently, the centre announced grants to developing world vaccine advocates At the University Health Network and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto is the Sandra Rotman Chair in Health Sector Strategy. Rotman founded Rise Asset Development with a $1 million donation in 2009. Rise Asset Development partners with the Rotman School of Management to provide free business mentoring and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health for health supports, providing assistance to entrepreneurs living with mental illness and addictions . Arts. Sandra Rotman has  served on the boards of several major Canadian arts institutions and is a major benefactor to the National Ballet of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Canadian Opera Company, the Israel Museum, the Toronto Symphony and the Toronto International Film Festival. Sandra Rotman founded the Louis Applebaum Visitorship in Film Composition at the University Of Toronto School Of Music. Both Sandra and Joseph Rotman helped found the Elinor and Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theater, an annual prize of $100,000 to a director, playwright or designer who advances Canadian theater. Education and honours. Rotman attended Toronto Teachers College graduating  in 1958. In 1960–61, she studied Fine Arts at Barnard College in New York. She continued her studies at the University of Toronto receiving her BA in 1975. In 2006, Rotman was created a member of the Order of Ontario, and in 2007 she was awarded an honorary LL.D. by the University of Toronto. In advance of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, the Rotmans were selected to be torchbearers for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Run in Toronto on December 17, 2009. The Rotmans received the Outstanding Philanthropists Award from The Association of Fundraising Professionals in 2009. In 2010, the  Rotmans received the Beth Sholom Brotherhood Humanitarian Award. In 2013, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada "for her leadership in support of health care and the arts, notably as a driver of initiatives in global and mental health".