This year’s recipients are: Rachel da Silveira Gorman – Dean’s Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership, Pedagogical and/or Curricular Innovation; Mary Desrocher – Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching; Mazen Hamadeh – Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service & Engagement Impact Award; and Joseph Baker – Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research.

The annual awards alternate each year between “early career” faculty and “established career” faculty in the categories of Teaching, Research and Service. This year’s awards cover the 2021-22 academic year for established career faculty.

“This year the Faculty of Health Dean’s Awards recognize four established career faculty members. These individuals personify excellence in teaching, educational leadership, service, and research, by providing quality teaching, an inclusive and supportive environment for learning, delivering outstanding and impactful service to ensure student success, and undertaking ground-breaking research,” said Susan Murtha, interim dean.

“On behalf of all faculty, staff, students and community partners, congratulations to this year’s winners.”

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership, Pedagogical and/or Curricular Innovation

Award Recipient: Rachel da Silveira Gorman, School of Health Policy and Management
Nominated by Marina Morrow, professor and Chair of the School of Health Policy and Management

This award recognizes outstanding educational leadership, pedagogical and/or curricular innovation.

Rachel da Silveira Gorman is a trailblazer in her field and in the classroom. Shortly after arriving at 91��ɫ, Gorman founded the Black, Transnational and Indigenous Narratives of Disability (BTIND) Working Group. This initial collaboration was funded by the Faculty of Health Junior Faculty award, and was made up of Black, Indigenous and people of colour, disability studies graduate students from 91��ɫ, U of T and Ryerson. This group continues and is at the forefront of navigating power relations in the classroom and among teaching teams by hosting discussion of racism and ableism in the classroom.

Gorman’s commitment to long-term mentorship is outstanding; she often mentors students from their undergraduate studies through to postdoctoral and junior faculty positions. Her tireless commitment has directly led to an increase in BIPOC, mad and disabled-identified scholars in several key fields.

Gorman’s impact on teaching and learning extends beyond 91��ɫ. She is frequently invited by other institutions in the U.S. and Canada to teach intensive course and seminars on disablement.

Gorman is an international expert on mad studies and inclusive education. Her 2013 publication entitled Mad Nation? Thinking through race, class and mad identify politics is a critique on exclusionary access, accommodation and universal design procedures in higher education is one of the most cited in the field. She is a sought-after speaker and consultant, both nationally and internationally on the top of disability arts and arts-based pedagogy.

At the beginning of COVID, Gorman as graduate program director of the Critical Disability Studies graduate program immediately implemented weekly zoom check-ins one for her master’s students and another for her doctoral students. These sessions became the lifeline for students and led to completion of many major research papers (MRP) and dissertations. For graduating doctoral students, these weekly meetings became a place for step-by-step coaching with opportunity to develop material for job interviews and teaching demonstrations.

Gorman’s approach to inclusive education in the classroom is cited by many students as their inspiration for how they would teach in post-secondary context.

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching

Award Recipient: Dr. Mary Desrocher, Department of Psychology
Nominated by: Matthew Keough, assistant professor, Department of Psychology

This award recognizes outstanding commitment to high quality teaching.

Dr. Mary Desrocher has been at 91��ɫ for 22 years and during that time she has dedicated herself to teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students as well as new colleagues. Students recognize her enthusiasm for teaching and state that she is one of the best teachers at 91��ɫ. Students appreciate the excellent feedback that Dr. Desrocher provides in a timely manner and her availability to meet and provide individualized feedback. She enables students to grow in their knowledge as the course progresses rather than having a single opportunity to complete and submit an assignment.

For her graduate classes, prior to the start of the course, Dr. Desrocher welcomes her students to submit any topics/areas of interest they wish to discuss in class and then she endeavours to add this to her course syllabus. This ensures students stay engaged and excited about attending lectures. She accommodates students without judgement.

Dr. Desrocher mentors graduate and undergraduate student;, currently she has 10 graduates and 16 undergraduates working in her lab researching areas of pediatric neuropsychology and developmental psychology. She is also generous with her time by mentoring junior faculty, her selflessness is recognized as this nomination was put forward by a junior faculty member who benefited from her guidance.

Dr. Desrocher is the creator and facilitator of the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee in Clinical and Clinical Development Programs in the Department – this committee brings together students and faculty to discuss equity, diversity and inclusion issues in clinical training, admission and provision of service to marginalized communities. Her leadership in diversity to clinical practice has inspired current graduate students to undertake special community initiatives through 91��ɫ’s in-house psychology clinic.

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service and Engagement Impact

Award Recipient: Mazen Hamadeh, School of Kinesiology and Health Science
Nominated by: George Mochizuki, assistant professor, School of Kinesiology and Health Science

This award recognizes the outstanding service and impact of faculty members in the Faculty of Health. Outstanding service requires that someone has gone beyond the usual service expectations.

Mazen Hamadeh has demonstrated commitment and played a vital role in ensuring student success and a positive student experience. His leadership and commitment have created excellence in services for students. The impact of these efforts are undeniable and go above and beyond the expectation of his leadership role.

The nomination package was full of examples of Hamadeh’s contributions, and many of the student supports that Hamadeh championed through his work as Stong College head did not previously exist for the Faculty. These positive experiences by students have contributed to greater engagement once they are alumni, as evidenced by hundreds of former students attending the College events. As head of Stong College, Hamadeh led a re-visioning of evidence-based transitioning supports which contributed to an improvement in student conversions and retention of students within the College network and the life course of students in the Faculty.

Hamadeh’s efforts have led to inclusion of diverse student voices within the Faculty. This is demonstrated through his responsiveness to, and empowerment of, student voices in “new” spaces, through community engagement, Indigenous circle participation, and sharing his personal stories of immigration with students. As Interim Associate Dean for Students, Hamadeh recently convened a roundtable for advancing student success. By ensuring wide representation of BIPOC, international, Indigenous, and LGBTQS2+ groups, a broader representation of student needs can then be acted upon.

By bringing student success programing to University-wide initiatives (and into conversations as a member of 91��ɫ’s Board of Governors), Hamadeh’s service infiltrates all facets of the University (and our many global partners with whom they interact).

While the long-term impact of many of Hamadeh’s “student-first” efforts may take time to materialize, they are undoubtedly reflected today in alumni engagement, reputation and networking successes.

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research

Award Recipient: Joseph Baker, School of Kinesiology and Health Science
Nominated by: Rebecca Bassett-Gunter, associate professor, and Jessica Fraser-Thomas, associate professor, School of Kinesiology and Health Science

This award recognizes the outstanding contributions to research by faculty members in the Faculty of Health.

joseph Baker is an internationally recognized pioneer and leader in sport psychology research. Baker is in the top two per cent of cited researchers internationally in the area of relative age effects – a persistent and harmful participation bias found in sport and education. He has over 228 peer reviewed publication with an H-index of 72. Baker has authored 11 books, 53 book chapters, five special issues, 17 invited letters and commentaries. He has presented at over 90 invited lectures and keynotes both domestic and international.

His high-quality training had benefitted many, including 22 master’s students, 19 doctoral students, and seven postdoctoral Fellows that have found their own success working in various sporting organizations around the globe, from the Toronto Maple Leafs to Paralympics Australia.

Baker has pioneered the field of scientific inquiry related to athlete development, sporting talent and psychology of athlete selection. He is the first person in the world to develop models for sporting “talents.” His research endeavours to understand the broad profile of environmental variables that affect athlete development and sporting achievement. His research also focuses on understanding the impact of biases in predicting athlete talent and understanding the health implications on elite athletes once their career ends.

Baker’s research impact is evidenced in his creation of development models for athletes with disabilities for the Canadian Paralympics Committee and Paralympics Australia. He is one of three academics involved in creation of the Gold Medal Profile of Sport Psychology’ for Canada’s high performance sport agency, Own the Podium.

Baker is involved giving back to the community; he is involved with many national and international sporting committees. In addition he volunteers for low resource sports (e.g., wheelchair rugby, wheelchair basketball, ringette, biathlon) across Canada providing advise on skill development.

Four faculty members were recognized with the annual Dean’s Awards, which reflect excellence and innovation within the Faculty.

This year's recipients are: Lauren Sergio – Dean’s Award for Research Excellence; Dr. Jennine Rawana – Dean’s Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership, Pedagogical and/or Curricular Innovation; Parissa Safai – Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service & Engagement Impact Award; and Dr. Jonathan Weiss – Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service & Engagement Impact Award.

The annual awards alternate each year between “early career” faculty and “established career” faculty in the categories of Teaching, Research and Service. This year’s awards cover the 2019-20 academic year for established career faculty.

“Given the challenges we have all been facing the last few months, it is more important than ever to celebrate the remarkable contributions of our colleagues,” said McDonald. “This year the Faculty of Health is recognizing the extraordinary accomplishments of four faculty members whose contributions, dedication and talent has enriched the entire Faculty of Health and University communities through outstanding research, service, or educational leadership. On behalf of all faculty, staff, students and community partners, I’d like to congratulate and thank this year’s award recipients.”

The awards were adjudicated by the Research & Awards Committee.

Awards and award recipients for the 2019-20 academic year:

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership, Pedagogical and/or Curricular Innovation – Dr. Jennine Rawana

This is a new Dean's Award that was created to recognize outstanding educational leadership, pedagogical and/or curricular innovation. The individual is recognized for being an outstanding role model and mentor to students beyond the classroom. Contributing to enhancement of teaching and learning by taking an active role in innovative development or redesign of new programs, and by engaging in activities that share knowledge and expertise in teaching and learning.

Dr. Jennine Rawana showed a consistent and comprehensive involvement in educational leadership over the last decade both within the Department of Psychology as well as beyond having a significant impact on student success, mental health and wellness and leadership. Rawana is a compassionate and caring mentor who is committed to ensuring the professional and intellectual development of students. She has been instrumental in providing strategic direction and support to students as Head of Calumet College. She has established strong connections with Faculty of Health alumni which provides opportunities for current students to network and obtain career advice.

In addition to mentoring, she actively contributed to the student success program in Calumet and Strong Colleges. During her tenure as head of Calumet college, she co-developed and implemented a strategic direction/plan that developed and expanded upon student success programs for the Faculty of Health. The success of this endeavour indicates her outstanding leadership abilities and her ability to work collaboratively with both college staff, the head of Strong College and others.

In her capacity co-Chair of the pan-university Mental Health Steering committee, Rawana champions student mental health and wellness. For example, she established a wellness lounge in collaboration with the School of Nursing, where nursing community practicum student provide daily drop-in health and wellness programming for students.

She has also published her research on the ”Development and evaluation of a peer mentorship program for Aboriginal university students," and co-presented with student leaders on student success program evaluation at the 91��ɫ Teaching In Focus conference and external conferences.

Rawana exemplifies comprehensive and consistent outstanding educational leadership and curricular innovation for all students.

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service & Engagement Impact Award – Parissa Safai

This award was revised to recognize the impact of outstanding service by a faculty member. The individual has passion, sense of mission, and dedication, that significantly builds capacity, reputation of the program/Faculty/University, and/or contributes to new directions. The individual has taken on leadership roles within the university or community, playing a key role that results in major impact in their field or in professional associations that goes beyond their research impact.

Parissa Safai has a long history of service at the unit, Faculty, University and community levels, stepping forward for committees where she can enact real change. Safai received this award as an early career in 2013, and now seven year later, in the established career category. She served on many critical committees in the School of Kinesiology and Health Sciences, guiding future direction of the school as well as creating and implementing the School’s vision. She worked tirelessly leading and developing the sociocultural stream which ensures hiring of new faculty member in this area.

As interim associate dean in the Faculty, Safai stepped up to be the Faculty of Health designate during the longest labour disruption at 91��ɫ taking a lead role in facilitating and implementing the Senate directives related to the disruption. In addition, she has an outstanding record of stakeholder engagement and program development such as building capacity in Indigenization in the Faculty through development of a concept paper that sparked dialogue and involvement in key hires that were integral to this process.

Currently, she is serving as co-Chair and academic lead on the HR Service Transformation Team, which is tasked with making recommendations to HR on how to better meet institutional needs and support the university’s academic mission.

Outside of university, Safai serves on Federal-Provincial-Territorial Sports committees that are focused on addressing the gender gap in sport. She most recently served as a member of the Sports Canada Sports Participation Research Initiative Committee, which supports sports-related research. She is also an active member of two international sociology of sport association where she has taken on various roles and contributed to their outstanding success.

Safai's enthusiasm and commitment to the success of 91��ɫ community is unparalleled and it exemplifies service enacting real change in the University.

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service & Engagement Impact Award – Dr. Jonathan Weiss

This award was revised to recognize the impact of outstanding service by a faculty member. The individual has passion, sense of mission, and dedication, that significantly builds capacity, reputation of the program/Faculty/University, and/or contributes to new directions. The individual has taken on leadership roles within the university or community, playing a key role that results in major impact in their field or in professional associations that goes beyond their research impact.

Dr. Jonathan Weiss has an outstanding record of engagement with stakeholders, non-profits and government, and exemplary service to the broader community, while representing the Faculty of Health and 91��ɫ.

Besides being a prolific and highly respected researcher whose work on mental health in autism and developmental disabilities is groundbreaking, Weiss is dedicated to serving the community.

His key engagements include:

• director, Board, Special Olympics Canada, contributing to the translation of research results into greater funding, better programming, greater representation of athletes in decision making activities on the board;
• Canadian Autism Working Group (appointed by the minister of health) – to develop a national autism strategy; and
• Ontario Ministry of Child & Youth Services, Autism Clinical Expert Committee informing policy and advocating for better coordination of services and further funds.

Weiss's ability to mobilize knowledge is impressive. Working alongside the disability community he launched the ASD Mental Health Blog, a collection of more than 100 research lay summaries, multiple editorials and videos all targeted to helping stakeholders understand the science of mental health and autism.

His use of technology to amplify the message is clear in the TEDx91��ɫU Salon events he organized on autism. For this event, he worked closely with autistic adults, parents, advocates, policy makers, politicians and researchers to create a platform to share their knowledge with each other. His work has significantly contributed to the international reputation of 91��ɫ being recognized as an institution where meaningful and impactful community engagement work takes place, and he is a shining example of leadership around mental health for people with developmental disability in the country.

Weiss is receiving this award as he exemplifies engagement outside of the University that has a real impact at multiple levels from the individual to the federal government.

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