At 91��ɫ’s Fall Convocation ceremony on the morning of Oct. 16, an honorary degree was presented to financial services executive Mark Beckles, vice-president of social impact and innovation at the Royal Bank of Canada.

After accepting his honorary degree, Beckles spoke to graduands about his move from Barbados to Canada with his wife 34 years ago. The young, ambitious couple chose to relocate to Canada – where Beckles had lived briefly as a child and where his wife had been born – because they believed in its promise as a place where their wildest dreams could be fulfilled and their fullest potential could be reached.

The adjustment to Canadian life, however, wasn’t quite as smooth as they had hoped.

Arriving in Ottawa with a job offer already in hand – or so he thought – from one of Canada’s big banks, Beckles quickly came to understand that the person who hired him remotely hadn’t realized he was Black.

“That was, for me, the first time in my career that I recall being consciously confronted with the ugliness of racism,” said Beckles, “and discovered that I possessed a certain naivety that I would need to quickly shed.”

The job offer was revoked, and Beckles was left, disheartened, to navigate an unfamiliar career landscape in a new country. Yet, he remained hopeful that better opportunities would come his way. And they did.

One week later, while waiting in a freezing-cold Ottawa bus shelter on their way to church, Beckles and his wife were offered a ride from a kind woman in a sky-blue Oldsmobile. One brief conversation later and she was introducing Beckles to a man who would help him gain the Canadian work experience he needed to land a job in his field – and would end up becoming a lifelong friend and mentor in the process.

“They did not judge me on the color of my skin or the thickness of my accent,” Beckles said of the generous strangers who came into his life that day and helped set him on a path to success that has continued since.

“I’ve had an inexplicably phenomenal career in Canada,” he continued. “Despite the dark inclinations of some people, opportunity has come my way through hard work – yes – but also with the support and allyship of people, most of whom look nothing like me.”

It is for those reasons and many others that Beckles continues to believe in the promise of Canada and its people, and its potential to become the just and inclusive society he imagined when he arrived here all those years ago.

“Canadians remain, for me, the brightest of lights,” he said, “and I know that my Canadian journey is not unique, and that many of you within an earshot of my speech can relate to my experiences … You can see yourself in part of my story – someone saying no to you, followed by others, plural, who say yes to you.”

His message to graduands was clear: to remain optimistic about the future despite the setbacks and challenges that are sure to come their way, just as they did for him.

“Sometimes, in a world that surrenders to its own darkest impulses, you too must be among the brightest of lights,” he said, “Regardless of faith, identity, culture or tongue, we are all huddled and masked in this intersectional moment on lands upon which we are mostly all settlers just trying to belong, and that requires of us a new courage and a new commitment to a shared prosperity.”

Article originally published in the October 18, 2024 issue of Yfile

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During 2024 Fall Convocation – running from Oct. 16 to 25 – 91��ɫ will award honorary doctor of laws degrees to four individuals recognized as changemakers and leaders in their fields.

Below are the honorary degree recipients in order of the Faculty ceremonies at which they will be honoured:

Mark Beckles
Thursday, Oct. 16 at 10:30 a.m. – Faculty of Education, Glendon College, Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change, Lassonde School of Engineering

As vice-president of social impact and innovation at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Beckles has over 25 years of experience in financial services, including executive leadership experience in banking, insurance, risk management and non-profit leadership.    

He leads the strategic execution of RBC’s community investment initiatives focused on skills for a thriving future and driving more equitable prosperity. He also leads stakeholder relations, cultivating key relationships across Canada to advance RBC’s community investment priorities. 

He is a board member of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and chairs the audit and finance committee. He devotes his time, too, on the board of Fulbright Canada, the advisory committee of the Lincoln M. Alexander Award, Global Skills Opportunity and the Canadian Multicultural LEAD Organization for Mentoring & Training.  

He holds a master of business administration in international business from the University of Bradford, has completed executive programs at the Richard Ivey School of Business and holds the Institute of Corporate Directors designation.

Jeffrey Reading
Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 3:30 p.m. – Faculty of Health

Reading has more than three decades of experience enhancing knowledge in Indigenous health issues, both in Canada and globally. He obtained a master of science in 1991 and doctor of philosophy in 1994 in community health sciences from the University of Toronto, and was the inaugural scientific director of the Institute of Indigenous Peoples’ Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research from 2000 to 2008.

In 2016, Reading was appointed the inaugural British Columbia First Nations Health Authority Chair in Heart Health and Wellness at St. Paul’s Hospital, based at Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Health Sciences. His Chair was renewed in 2021 for five years.

Reading was recently honoured as a member of the Order of Canada for his “groundbreaking contributions to Indigenous health research and for his leadership in bringing Indigenous perspectives to scientific and health institutions.”

Edward Sorbara
Thursday, Oct. 17 at 3:30 p.m. – Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies II

Sorbara has been principal of the Sorbara Group of Companies for over 57 years. He is involved in all phases of the real estate industry, including residential, industrial and commercial land development, industrial construction, and residential construction and property management. 

Sorbara joined his family business in 1967, after completing a bachelor’s degree in commerce at the University of Toronto and a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Chicago. 

He has received many accolades, including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, honouring his significant contributions and achievements in both the community and Canada more broadly. In 2019, he received the Building Industry & Land Development Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his legacy in the building and land development sectors.  

Sorbara continues to play an active role in supporting communities. He is a former United Way Greater Toronto board member and currently sits on the Archdiocese of Toronto Finance Council and the related Catholic Cemeteries’ Board.

Robert Potts
Friday, Oct. 18 at 10 a.m. – Schulich School of Business, Osgoode Hall Law school

 Potts is an experienced litigation counsel with a varied practice and extensive client list. He has been a partner at Blaney McMurtry LLP for over 45 years and also serves as the firm’s general counsel. He is a member of the law societies of both Ontario and Alberta and a former director of the Advocates Society.

Potts chairs his firm’s Indigenous Law Group, and has actively represented and counselled First Nations people since the early 1980s. In doing so, he has successfully negotiated several land claim settlements. He has been repeatedly voted for by his peers for the esteemed Best Lawyers in Canada list in the aboriginal law category, and is rated by Lexpert Canadian Legal Directory as a leading practitioner in Indigenous law.

Potts has defended solicitors in professional negligence suits and has also acted for clients in disputes involving real estate and business contracts, corporate disputes and mortgage enforcement remedies. He has served as defence counsel in several leading class actions, including Abdool, Bre-X and the class action stemming from the 2008 propane explosion in Toronto. 

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Reeta Roy, president and CEO of the Mastercard Foundation – an international non-governmental organization focused on empowering young Africans with education – offered several calls-to-action to Faculty of Education graduands to help shape the future of education.

“You have an entire lifetime of impact ahead of you,” Roy promised graduands during their June 17 convocation, as she began her address to them. “Whether you stand in front of the classroom or you get to decide what is taught in the classroom, whether you focus on expanding access to education or you set standards of education, you will make a difference in the lives of learners.”

An advocate for the transformational power of education through her work at the Mastercard Foundation, Roy made several requests of graduands as they move ahead in their careers.

She urged them to lean into one of the most important qualities teachers can possess. “As educators, one of the most important things you do – and you will do – is to recognize promise and talent in others, even before they may perceive it in themselves,” she said. “You have the opportunity to truly see the whole person – not the boundaries and not the limitations around them.”

That, she explained, can lead to something educators are uniquely positioned to do. “More than just see them, you will enable their passions, develop their confidence and help them believe in themselves so they can walk their own journeys and create their own opportunities,” said Roy.

She also called upon graduands to transform the reality of who deserves an education, as she noted there are many who struggle to access learning due to poverty, conflict, distance, disability, lack of teachers, gender and more.

Roy noted she has seen – and worked to change – this directly, through her work with the Mastercard Foundation, which advances the development of educational opportunities for African youth and their families, and looks to empower 30 million young Africans by 2030 with the creation of educational and economic opportunities.

Roy delivered her final call to action in the form of an anecdote. She recounted a trip to Moosonee, a small town in northern Ontario sometimes referred to as “the gateway to the Arctic.” She was doing work there with the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority, training Indigenous young people to become health professionals who would help the larger medical system embody Indigenous knowledge and world views about what is healthy and what is wellness.

During her visit, she encountered – in person, for the first time – an ice road.

She learned that during winters, communities transform rivers, lakes and other bodies of water into ice that’s strong enough to sustain trucks and cars transporting food, fuel and necessities to otherwise isolated communities. “I was just stunned by the sophistication and the technical know-how to create these roads,” Roy said. “The ice road reflected Indigenous technology based on traditional knowledge of living with the natural environment.”

At the same time, she marvelled at the cutting-edge knowledge being integrated into the unique type of infrastructure. As climate change threatens those ice roads, making it hard to predict where dangerous cracks might form, she learned that university researchers are applying emerging technologies – like sensors and artificial intelligence – to create better predictive models that can identity where cracks and ridges may form.

The ice road – its past, present and future – reminded Roy of education. “The ice road isn’t just a bridge across waters,” she said. “It’s a bridge connecting communities and cultures. It’s a bridge connecting traditional knowledge with new forms of knowledge, connecting the past and the present.”

In that realization, she found the lesson she wanted to impart on the Faculty of Education graduands she was addressing. “You can be that bridge,” she urged. “Be that bridge.”

Article originally published in the June 21, 2024 issue of

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Three 91��ɫ faculty members will be recognized during the 2024 Spring Convocation ceremonies with President’s University-Wide Teaching Awards for enhancing quality of learning and demonstrating innovation and excellence in teaching.

This year’s President’s University-Wide Teaching Award recipients – selected by the 91��ɫ Senate – are representative of three categories: full-time faculty with 10 or more years of teaching experience; full-time faculty with less than 10 years of experience; and contract and adjunct faculty.

Each winner will not only be recognized during a convocation ceremony this spring but will have their name engraved on the University-Wide Teaching Awards plaques displayed in Vari Hall on the Keele Campus.

This year’s recipients are:

Full-time tenured faculty with 10 or more years of full-time teaching experience

Danielle Robinson, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD)

Robinson received the award in recognition of her ability to create an interdisciplinary learning environment where students from diverse academic backgrounds can work collaboratively and approach problems from contrasting directions. That ability has, in part, been channelled into her leadership around the Cross-Campus Capstone Classroom (C4) initiative, an experiential education opportunity for students that allows them approach real-world challenges with social impact in interdisciplinary ways. 

“In my collaboration with Danielle, I find her a passionate advocate for our students, excellent at organization, caring and interested in those she works with and one of the most hard-working colleagues I know,” said Robinson’s nominator, Professor Franz Newland, a C4 co-founder and co-academic lead. “She achieves this with a sense of fun, recognizing its importance when doing hard work. I believe she is an irreplaceable asset to 91��ɫ.”

Robinson has been the recipient of several other awards, including the Dean’s Teaching Award for Junior Faculty (from AMPD), and the Airbus and Global Engineering Dean’s Council’s Diversity Award.

Full-time faculty with less than 10 years of teaching experience

Vidya Shah, Faculty of Education

Shah received the award for her collaborative approach to pedagogy, which looks to honour students’ voices and recognize their needs, interests and agency – often by incorporating their views into the content of her courses. The award also acknowledges Shah’s ongoing efforts to address inequities within the larger academic community, often through inspiring a rethinking of practices in the areas of racial and social justice, as well as teaching and learning.

Her nominator, Myrtle Sodhi, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education, said of Shah, “Her ability to support a large number of students who are under-represented through various stages of their academic career speaks to Dr. Shah’s commitment to student learning, mentorship and social change.” She added: “Dr. Shah’s research, teaching, collaboration and mentorship has changed the landscape of the 91��ɫ academic community in profound ways. She continues to inspire leadership, social justice action and academic pathways.”

Shah is also the recipient of the Faculty of Education Graduate Teaching Award. In 2022, she was awarded the Leaders and Legends Award for Mentor of the Year by the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education.

Contract and adjunct faculty

Heather Lynn Garrett, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Garrett was honoured in recognition of her her ability to engage with and motivate her students, incorporating story, anecdote, music and various media to bring course material to life. She has provided valuable mentorship to students in her program, notably through her support of the Sociology Undergraduate Student Association (SUSA). She has served as a faculty mentor of SUSA’s annual Falling in Love with Research project, guiding students in conduction sociological research on a topic chosen by SUSA members.

Garrett has twice received the John O’Neill Award for Teaching Excellence by the Department of Sociology, and has been nominated for the Ian Greene Award for Teaching Excellence.

Article originally published in the June 18, 2024 issue of

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Spring Convocation at 91��ɫ will see graduates crossing the stage beginning June 9 at the Glendon Campus, and continuing with Keele Campus ceremonies running June 16 to 23. Throughout the 13 ceremonies, 91��ɫ will confer honorary degrees to nine changemakers who will receive an honorary doctor of laws (LLD), and one who will receive an honorary doctor of science (DSc).

Honorary degree recipients are recognized for their contributions to community building, their advocacy for social justice and their philanthropy, and will offer words of encouragement, motivation and congratulations to graduands.

Below are the honorary degree recipients in order of the Faculty ceremonies at which they will be honoured:

Friday, June 9 at 2 p.m. – Glendon College: Joan Andrew (to receive LLD)
Joan Andrew is a graduate of Glendon College, 91��ɫ. She spent more than 35 years working for the federal and provincial governments, retiring in 2009 from the Ontario Public Service as the deputy minister of the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration. Post-retirement, Andrew joined the now Toronto Metropolitan University as public service in residence in the Department of Politics and Public Administration. Andrew has also held volunteer roles with the United Way and the Toronto Region Immigrant Employee Council, and was the vice-chair of the Niagara Parks Commission until 2018.

Friday, June 16 at 10:30 a.m. – Faculty of Health: Daniel Kahneman (to recieve DSc)
Daniel Kahneman is professor emeritus of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University, and is best known for his work with Amos Tversky on human judgment and decision making, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002. His book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, has sold more than seven million copies worldwide. He is also the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2013), and the Distinguished Lifetime Career Contribution of the American Psychological Association.

Friday, June 16 at 3 p.m. – Faculty of Education: Dr. Denis Mukwege (to receive LLD)
Denis Mukwege is a world-renowned obstetrician/gynecologist and human rights activist who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his efforts to end rape as a weapon of war. In 1999, he founded Panzi Hospital with the intention of it being a center of excellence for maternal health. Many of his first patients, however, were women and girls who had been raped with extreme brutality during armed conflicts. Panzi Hospital and Panzi Foundation have been recognized for their pioneering work in specialized responses to gender-based violence. He has received various awards worldwide for his dedication to peace and justice, including the United Nations Human Rights Award (2008); the European Union’s Sakharov Prize (2014), and more.

Tuesday, June 20 at 10:30 a.m. – Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies I: Cory Doctorow (to receive LLD)
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He has written about creative labour markets and monopoly, nonfiction about conspiracies and monopolies, science fiction for young adults and most recently, a technothriller about finance crime. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is a MIT Media Lab research affiliate, is a visiting professor of computer science at Open University, a visiting professor of practice at the University of North Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and in 2022 earned the Sir Arthur Clarke Imagination in Service to Society Award for lifetime achievement.

Tuesday, June 20 at 3 p.m. – Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies II: Susur Lee (to receive LLD)
Praised as one of the “Ten Chefs of the Millennium” by Food & Wine magazine, Susur Lee is still at the top of his game. Chef Lee has made numerous television appearances on Chopped Canada, MasterChef Asia, Top Chef Canada, and has been a judge on Wall of Chefs, Top Chef Masters and Iron Chef Canada and America. His awards and achievements include being an ambassador for Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations, receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award by Canada’s 100 Best, and being named the first foreign chef to be granted The Red Chef’s Hat Award in Qing Dao, China. Lee cooks his signature French and Chinese fusion at his flagship restaurant, LEE.

Wednesday, June 21 at 10:30 a.m. – Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies III: Ruth Lor Malloy (to receive LLD)
Ruth Lor Malloy was brought up in a Chinese restaurant family in Brockville, Ont. There she was subjected to racist slurs and social rejection. College in Toronto opened her eyes to other victims of racial discrimination and she wanted to find solutions. This led to testing Black discrimination in Washington, D.C., a key test case of refusal of service to Black customers in a Dresden, Ont. restaurant and a delegation to Ottawa. She is the author of a dozen guide books on China and newspaper travel stories as she explored the world, collected old shoes for Canadian museums and continued to help relieve suffering and misinformation where possible. Her recently-released memoir Brightening My Corner relates her efforts to help, and her struggles with her own relationships and identity.

Wednesday, June 21 at 3 p.m. – Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies IV: Shaun Loney (to receive LLD)
Shaun Loney (MSc) is a Canadian leader in the social enterprise sector. Based in Winnipeg, where he’s heavily impacted by Indigenous wisdom, Loney has co-founded a dozen social enterprise non-profit businesses now operating in six Canadian cities and six First Nations. He has written five books about his journey modernizing relationships between government and non-profits, including An Army of Problem Solvers: Reconciliation and the Solutions Economy. His work has been recognized as having national importance by Ashoka Canada, Ernst and Young, and Canada Clean50.

Thursday, June 22 at 10:30 a.m. – Faculty of Science: Nancy Archibald (to receive LLD)
Nancy Archibald began her career as a public school teacher in Toronto and Niagara Falls, before starting a career at the CBC as a researcher working on documentaries for The Nature of Things. Later taking on roles as story editor and producer/director, Archibald was appointed executive producer of the show in 1972 and senior producer in 1979. She is the recipient of several awards and recognitions, including The Federation of Ontario Naturalist’s Distinguished Service Award (1985) in recognition of outstanding contributions toward maintaining a diverse and wholesome environment, and the Toronto Women in Film and TV’s Outstanding Achievement Award (1990).

Thursday, June 22 at 3 p.m. – Lassonde School of Engineering: Thomas Lee (to receive LLD)
Thomas Lee is the Walter Booth Chair in Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship at McMaster University. Prior to his role at McMaster, he was part of the leadership of several Canadian start-ups commercializing autonomous robotics, mathematical computation and cryptography. He was a pioneer in the introduction of smart digital technologies in engineering education and his work has influenced universities throughout North America, Europe, Middle East, India and Japan. His current research and teaching explore new ways to address complexity and uncertainty in modern engineering. In 2019, he was inducted into the Canadian Academy of Engineering for his contributions to engineering education and entrepreneurship.

Friday, June 23 at 3 p.m. – Osgoode Hall Law School: Michael H. Tulloch (to receive LLD)
Justice Michael Tulloch was appointed Chief Justice of Ontario in December 2022, after serving 10 years as a judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, and nine years as a judge on the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario. He has a long and distinguished career of service as a member of the Canadian judiciary, a Crown prosecutor, a lawyer in private practice, and a renowned writer, speaker and professor. Tulloch has led systemic reviews of the justice system at various levels, provided leadership on legal and judicial committees, designed, and delivered international justice sector reform programs, and contributed to a myriad of civic, charitable, and community development initiatives. He holds a BA in economics and business from 91��ɫ and graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School at 91��ɫ with a law degree in 1989. He was called to the bar in Ontario in 1991.

The  website includes a full schedule of all ceremonies.

Article originally published in the June 6, 2023 issue of 

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Five individuals who have considerably enhanced the quality of learning for 91��ɫ students are recipients of the 2022 President’s University-wide Teaching Awards. 

The faculty members who will receive an award at the 2022 Spring Convocation Ceremonies include: Faculty of Health Professor Michael Connor, recipient in the senior full-time category; Faculty of Education Professor Susan D. Dion, recipient of the senior-full-time category; Lassonde School of Engineering Professor Andrew Maxwell, recipient of the full-time faculty category; Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) Professor Carolyn Steele, recipient of the contract and adjunct faculty category; and Janice Anderson of LA&PS, recipient of the teaching assistant category. 

The purpose of the awards is to provide significant recognition for excellence in teaching, to encourage its pursuit, to publicize such excellence when achieved across the University and in the wider community, and to promote informed discussion of teaching and its improvement.  

“91��ɫ has a well-established reputation for high quality teaching,” says 91��ɫ President and Vice Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton. “This past year was no exception, despite on-going challenges associated with the pandemic, as evident in the foundational work of our five extraordinary award recipients who found innovative ways to incorporate international activities, experiential education and technology-enhanced learning to inspire another generation of students to drive positive change in their communities and in the world. We are deeply grateful for the superb contributions of this year’s recipients as well as of all our course directors.” 

The awards demonstrate the value 91��ɫ attaches to teaching and recognizes individuals who, through innovation and commitment, have significantly enhanced the quality of learning for 91��ɫ students. The recipients are selected by the Senate Committee on Awards. Recipients receive $3,000, have their names engraved on the University-Wide Teaching Award plaques in Vari Hall and are recognized at convocation ceremonies. 

The President’s University-Wide Teaching Award recipients are:

Full-time tenured faculty with 10 or more years full-time teaching experience 

Professor Susan D. Dion was selected as a recipient in the senior full-time category. The nomination file prepared by Professor Sean Hillier describes Dion as a shining example as an educator, scholar and community advocate. Dion is also an internationally recognized Indigenous educational scholar at the cutting edge of the field. The letters of support for her nomination consistently referred to Dion’s teaching style as clear, respectful, kind and supportive, always asking the best of her students and making accommodations for those who need time to develop their thoughts allowing all to think deeply and authentically. Dion is noted for thinking and writing about her scholarship, teaching and service contributions as inextricably interwoven, and works to embody her life as a University professor through the themes of community, story, cultural practice and ceremony.  

Dion sees cultivating relationships between the University and Indigenous Peoples is part of her responsibility. She has a particular focus on both what and how teachers teach and ways that systems operate regarding Indigenous education and on hearing and learning from the voices of Indigenous Peoples and their encounters within systems of education. During her 19 years at 91��ɫ, she has worked with colleagues in the Faculty of Education, across the University and at universities across the country sharing stories of land, history and Indigenous perspectives. While she is committed to teaching non-Indigenous educators how to represent the humanity and diversity of Indigenous people’s experiences and perspectives, she is equally committed to creating opportunities for Indigenous students to access postsecondary education, and specifically to access programs that are relevant to their experiences, perspectives and needs. 

Full-time tenured faculty with 10 or more years full-time teaching experience 

Professor Michael Connor was selected as a recipient in the senior full-time category. The nomination file prepared by Professor Angelo Belcastro speaks eloquently to Connor’s achievements in providing excellence towards student learning, in supporting teaching development, and in his dedication to program and curricular development as undergraduate program director (UPD) in the School of Kinesiology and Health Sciences. Connor has been influential in his role as UPD in ensuring excellence, quality, and exemplary service in leading the undergraduate program. Maintaining the quality of such a large program is time intensive, and yet Connor is noted to tirelessly make himself available to listen to, and address each student’s concern, no matter the request. A core feature to Connor’s teaching strategies has been to employ multiple teaching approaches such as technology-enhanced learning, critical thinking assignments, and experiential education which are all complemented by his clear passion for teaching.  

Connor also strives to make course content relatable and meaningful to students, and to make each student’s voice heard by creating a safe and inclusive environment to ask questions. In addition to his role as course director for two demanding courses, and his responsibilities as UPD, Connor has been recognized as an outstanding mentor to undergraduate and graduate students, having taken the time to supervise 23 undergraduate students for independent research studies (including two summer Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Undergraduate Student Research Awards (NSERC USRA) students) and 17 MSc and PhD graduate students thus far. Connor serves as Chair on the Faculty of Health Committee on Examinations and Academic Standards, and as a member of the Faculty of Health Committee on General Education Requirements where he has been on the task force for developing effective teaching and learning practices at the faculty level.  

Full-time faculty (tenured/tenure stream/CLA) with less than 10 years teaching experience 

Professor Andrew Maxwell was selected as the recipient in the full-time faculty category. The nomination file prepared by Professor Alex Czekanski highlights Maxwell has played an active role on the undergraduate curriculum committee since joining Lassonde and has worked with many colleagues to enhance their course proposals and design. He is a leader in the deployment of new technologies in the classroom and online, including using TopHat, iClicker, PolleV, and Peer Scholar. His deep links in the community, both locally and internationally, have enabled him to invite multiple guests to the school, to stimulate student engagement, and inspire the next generation of engineers. In addition to mentoring undergraduate students and supporting graduate students, Maxwell’s role in the Bergeron Entrepreneurs in Science and Techology (BEST) Lab allows him to mentor and support over 20 budding technology entrepreneurs from Lassonde, the Faculty of Science and Schulich School of Business. He is also the mentor for Lassonde Engineering Society, Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), Lassonde Renaissance Engineering, and several other student activities.  

Maxwell pioneers new approaches to student learning, such as encouraging first-year engineering students to participate in non-engineering activities across campus, and through active promotion of, and participation in activities such as StartUp Weekend, Engineering Competition, ElleHacks and Engineers Without Borders. Specifically, he has transformed the annual Mercier lecture to a bi-monthly Mercier seminar, so that over 1,000 students a year can meet with visiting guests. This activity is complimented by his active role in the community, where he has videotaped 500 guest lectures, which he not only shows in his classes, but shares with the broader academic community. Maxwell is a member of the evaluation committee for the Academy of Management’s Entrepreneurship Pedagogy Award, where he provides feedback and guidance to those developing new entrepreneurship pedagogies. He is also a member of the Entrepreneurial Engineering Consortium, focusing on integrating aspects of the engineering and entrepreneurship curriculum. 

Contract and adjunct faculty

Professor Carolyn Steele is the recipient in the contract and adjunct faculty category. The nomination file prepared by Professor Bridget Cauthery speaks to Steele’s many achievements including developing new courses, consulting on curricular change, mentoring hundreds of students and stewarding numerous projects that have fundamentally shifted and reinvigorated teaching and learning at 91��ɫ. She is also the recipient of many faculty teaching awards. In 2020, Steele received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for LA&PS and the Department of Humanities Award for Teaching Excellence. Since 2019, she has been a member of the Research and Innovation in Teaching and Learning Subcommittee convened by the associate dean as part of the Teaching and Learning Council. Currently, Steele is part of the leadership team on a proposed three-year University-wide Academic Innovation Fund project to embed Sustainable Development Goals into 91��ɫ’s curricular vision at all levels. In each of these capacities, Steele is recognized as a pioneering educator with a strong vision for curricular change. It is Steele’s commitment to teaching boldly, to supporting students in developing a growth mindset, to championing work-integrated learning, and to developing innovative yet sound teaching and pedagogical practice through her scholarship of teaching and learning and greater University service that distinguishes her as an innovative faculty member.  

This is further demonstrated in a letter of support provided by student Carolyn White which states, “Professor Steele’s approach to teaching and learning has contributed to my development in essential skills that will positively influence my future career, qualities such as critical reasoning, problem-solving and daring to take creative approaches to problems… In my view, she is exceptional as a teacher and a mentor in every aspect.”  

Teaching assistants

Janice Anderson was selected as the recipient in the teaching assistant category. The nomination file, prepared by 91��ɫ alumnus Zamani Ra speaks to Anderson’s impactful and innovative practices which directly contribute to the enhancement of student success. Anderson listens to the immediate needs of her students through one-on-one and office hour sessions, advocates for necessary support, and develops individual plans of action for student success. Anderson’s practices informed skills development in student writing, the implementation of course-wide critical reading sheets, and support for colleagues and students navigating university systems during the emergence of major institutional changes due to COVID-19. Recognizing the different learning abilities of students, Anderson pivoted to uncommon methods of engagement to maintain student interest and support critical thinking to the students’ own amazement. 

In a letter of support, student Chantelle Afriyie describes Anderson’s teaching approach as follows: “Care [is] an integral part of her teaching pedagogy. Students are encouraged to see themselves as valuable contributors to humanity first and foremost who have been afforded the privilege to share communal space in a university classroom and participate with their ‘whole self.’” Anderson created a recycling course material program that connected former students with new students. At the beginning of the semester, she held a raffle for new books and set students on a path to pay the learning forward by opting into a shared book/give back program which demonstrates true community building with other equity-seeking groups across intersectional lines. Highlighted in the letters of support in the nomination file is Anderson’s innate ability to safely engage emergent ideas from students and ensure they know their value in world-making practices. 

In previous years, four awards are offered each year in the noted categories. Following on past practice, the Committee came to the decision that two professors would share the award for full-time tenured faculty this year. The Committee found the nomination files for this category to be particularly strong and determined that both nominees are equally deserving of the award. 

In keeping with the committee’s commitment to valuing diversity and equity within the 91��ɫ community, the committee made sure to discuss these values during the adjudication process. 

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During the Faculty of Education convocation ceremony for the Class of 2022 that took place on June 10, Indigenous Elder Duke Redbird delivered a moving and passionate address about Mother Earth, strawberries and universities, and the enduring spirit of a mentor.

The month of June is National Indigenous History Month and in the Indigenous calendar it is also Ode Miin Giizus or Strawberry Moon. June is also a time of new beginnings for 91��ɫ students as they receive their degrees and embark on the next stage in their lives.

So it was fitting that during Ode Miin Giizus, the renowned poet, actor, journalist and Indigenous Elder, Duke Redbird (MA ’78), returned to 91��ɫ to receive an honorary doctor of laws degree. In his convocation address that he delivered through poetry and a story, Elder Redbird spoke of the importance of strawberries, universities, the nourishment that knowledge provides and the enduring spirit of a mentor to a young strawberry heart.

Elder Redbird began by reciting his celebrated poem “,” which speaks to the essential sustenance and love that Mother Earth provides to all living creatures and the importance of sustaining and protecting her against the perils of climate change. With this poetic setting in place, Elder Redbird, in acknowledgement of Ode Miin Giizus, observed that “the strawberry is shaped like a heart. This fruit is associated with the teaching of ‘truth.’ And unlike every other fruit, the seeds of the strawberries are on the surface, and we humans, like these seeds, occupy the surface of the Earth.”

He noted that universities could also be described as strawberries of knowledge “that require the human heart with the desire for the truth to be nourishing and successful.”

Referring to his own strawberry heart, he told the story of how in 1975, he was interviewed by 91��ɫ politics Professor Ed Dosman (now professor emeritus) for his research on Indigenous life and culture. For the young Redbird, who was then 36 years old, Dosman’s interview was one of many he had completed with academics who were researching Indigenous Peoples. “I was regarded as a primitive source at the worst, and a layman without a formal education at best,” said Elder Redbird, noting the interviews that quoted him were then used by researchers to acquire degrees and publish papers and yet his knowledge, which was so freely and truthfully shared, was not credited or cited as a source, a visceral concern he relayed to Dosman.

After this conversation, Dosman introduced Redbird to David Bell, then a professor in both political science and environmental studies at 91��ɫ and a globally recognized expert in learning for a sustainable future. Dosman and Bell offered to sponsor Redbird as a mature student to pursue a master’s degree. “With the support of Professor Christopher Innis, the founder of the master’s degree program in Interdisciplinary Studies at 91��ɫ, I was accepted as a candidate,” he said.

In the years that followed, enriched with the gifts of knowledge, friendship and mentorship from Bell, the young Redbird’s strawberry heart was nourished and ripened. “On a June day, much like today in 1978, 44 years ago, I was the only recipient of a master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from 91��ɫ,” said Elder Redbird.

Decades later, it was with a full strawberry heart that Elder Redbird once again turned to Bell. “Dr. David Bell passed in 2017. I wrote ‘Our Mother The Earth’ in 2020 during COVID-19. In my heart of hearts, I choose to believe that my friend David Bell co-authored the poem with me and was there in spirit when I recited it to a global audience last fall at the COP26 conference on Global Warming.” Poetry like science share many of the same insights and create new ways of thinking about the world, said Elder Redbird, who credited the theoretical physicist Carlos Rovelli with the original comparison. Elder Redbird asked the graduands to nourish their own hearts and minds by thinking of “nature as an Earth verse, like the Universe written by the Creator as beautiful, epic poem to embrace our spirits with love throughout our lifetimes.”

In closing his graceful story, Elder Redbird reminded all gathered for the convocation ceremony to continue to feed their own quest for knowledge because they too would eventually become ancestors. “Seven generations from now, the grandchildren of your grandchildren will be seeking the wisdom that you have learned and passed on in your lifetime,” he said. “I want to wish you every conceivable success as you continue to harvest the fruits of your enlightenment that may not have been tasted yet.”

Article originally published in the June 14, 2022 issue of

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Dear Graduating Class of 2020:

You have entered a time in history that is like no other that I can remember in my lifetime. Uncertainty abounds in the midst of a global pandemic that continues to grip the world. The political situation of the globe is volatile. And the conditions of planetary existence itself are at stake as climate change and environmental degradation shake the world.

It will be you, this generation of leaders, thinkers, and knowledge creators that will be put upon to address a world you did not make but inherit. It is our greatest hope that the skills, knowledge, training, and experiences you have received during your time with us in the Graduate Program of Education at 91��ɫ university can and will be a support to you along the way. 

One thing that is certain throughout the crises we face: is the need to study, learn, examine and seek out knowledge of the unknown. We can see that researching is an imperfect endeavor and that evidence is forthcoming when considering new findings: like the need to wear masks or social distancing during this time. We follow the science knowing research requires endurance. Thinking asks us to sustain our attention to inquiry. Forging new ways to consider new and old problems requires being willing to admit from and learn from mistakes. And  so we try, try again, with new questions, and different ways to tackle ongoing and pressing problems.

Like so many of you I am the first in my family to achieve graduate levels of education. I am the very first woman in a long line of strong, smart, brave women to hold a doctorate degree. I know the meaning and significance that education holds for so many of us, how it can be a life-raft,  and how so very grateful we are for our families, friends and teachers for believing in us along the way.

I urge you all to use your education, which is the special power of scholars, thinkers, and teachers, in pursuit and service of truth, justice and  a fair world. Now more than ever it is so critical to wonder and ask questions, to study, read, write, speak, and act for the un/common good and wellbeing, to try to intervene in social hatred, inequality, injustice, and environmental degradation, and, above all, to take responsibility for children and all the generations, particularly the vulnerable and elderly, wherever, whenever, however we can.

91��ɫ’s motto is “the way must be tried.” Tentanda via. It is an idea, a demand, a hope that we all need more than ever today.  Let these words carry you from here to the world that awaits you, your unique orientations, your creative approaches, the things that you know, and those you have yet to learn. We, your professors, colleagues and classmates, at 91��ɫ are so very proud of all you have accomplished in your time with us. It is my view that at a time when politics is failing, we still can count on education, on pedagogy in all its many forms. Reading, thinking, speaking, bearing witness to, acting on, and writing can sustain our (in)human condition. Education sustains all livings thing from the tiniest plant to the largest ocean, throughout the generations, to regenerate our fragile and fraught but always thriving existence. We wish you all the best in what we know you can do and be: which is whatever you dream, want, and strive to be. And we look forward to hearing about all of it.  Our big congratulations to you as go in the world and try the way.

Address given on the occasion of Convocation by Aparna Mishra Tarc, Associate Professor, Graduate Program Director, Graduate Program in Education on October 28, 2020 at 91��ɫ, Toronto, via Zoom

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