We offer wholehearted congratulations to the following winners of the 2023 Equity Awards in the following categories: Team, Academic Staff, Admin and Support Staff, and Students.
The 2023 Equity Award in the Team category was awarded to The Teamwork Initiative within E-IDEA (Engineering Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity Advancement) in the Faculty of Engineering.
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The Teamwork Initiative is an innovative program within E-IDEA (Engineering Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity Advancement) with the goal of incorporating teamwork skills and applied concepts of equity, diversity, and inclusion into undergraduate courses in the Faculty of Engineering. The Teamwork Initiative partners with course instructors across departments to offer in-class workshops, along with support, advising, and pedagogical tools. Their approach aims to build instructors鈥� capacity to improve student teams鈥� abilities to work together in more effective, equitable, and engaging ways.The 2023 Equity Awrad in the Administrative and Support Staff category was awarded to Adi Sneg of Teaching and Learning Services (TLS).
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Adi Sneg (she/her/elle) is the Equity Education Program Administrator at Teaching and Learning Services (TLS). She oversees the Our Shared Spaces (OSS) program which offers equity programming to 平特五不中 students of all levels. Adi connects with on- and off-campus student groups and sits on various EDI working groups, bridging 平特五不中 students鈥� equity needs with local and global conversations as they evolve over time. She is passionate about moving past theory and towards actions grounded in accessibility and anti-oppression, as well as modelling equitable labour practices in her supervision of OSS鈥� workshop facilitators. Adi holds a BA in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies and Sociology from 平特五不中.The 2023 Equity Award in the Academic Staff category was awarded to two people: Dr. Charles Gyan in the School of Social Work, and Laura Nilson in the Department of Biology.
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Dr. Charles Gyan is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at 平特五不中. Dr. Gyan embodies a harmonious blend of intellectual pursuits and a deep-rooted passion for effecting social policy change, transnational social work practice, and community development. His multifaceted journey has seamlessly interwoven his academic and research interests with a profound dedication to advancing social justice. At the heart of Dr. Gyan's scholarly pursuits lies a conviction that society can be transformed through the pursuit of equity and fairness. His program of research reverberates with a resolute commitment to dismantling systemic barriers and championing the rights of marginalized communities. In every inquiry, he seeks to unveil the invisible threads that perpetuate inequality and inequity, striving to pave a more just and inclusive path forward. Dr. Gyan is the founding chair of Black Access 平特五不中 (BAM), an initiative that echoes his unwavering mission to create pathways that empower Black students within the 平特五不中 School of Social Work. Under his leadership, BAM has ignited transformative pathways, forged avenues that amplify outreach, recruitment, retention, and the graduation of Black students within the 平特五不中 School of Social Work.
Laura Nilson joined 平特五不中 in 2000 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology. She held a Canada Research Chair in Developmental Genetics from 2001-2011 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2017. In 2012 she took on an administrative role as Associate Dean, first at Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and then in the Faculty of Science as Associate Dean (Graduate Education). Through her work in the Faculty of Science, she chose to take on an additional role in thinking about issues of equity, diversity, inclusion and institutional climate. In 2018 she launched the Faculty of Science Equity and Climate Committee (SECC). With representation from each department and other Faculty units, the SECC serves as a hub for communication, capacity building, and initiative development. In general, the SECC focuses on addressing equity, diversity, and inclusion directly, through the development of targeted policies and support mechanisms, and also indirectly, by promoting a climate for working and learning in which all our students, faculty and academic and administrative staff feel included and capable of success as full participants in 平特五不中鈥檚 academic mission.The 2023 Equity Award in the Student category was awarded to Gabrielle (Gabby) Smith in the Schulich School of Music.
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Gabrielle (Gabby) Smith (she/her) is a Tio鈥檛ia:ke (Montreal) based musician, music teacher, music teacher educator, PhD candidate, course lecturer and workshop facilitator. Her experiences teaching preschool through university, organizing in community, as well as supervising student-teaching in the field have motivated her to engage with abolitionist education, queer and disabled pedagogies, Decolonizing and healing-centered approaches to music (teacher) education. Gabby facilitates workshops and support groups for teachers, health care workers and community organizers who are working to deepen liberatory practices in their respective spaces. She is interested in the messy dynamics of intersecting positionalities; how they inform the ways in which educators perceive themselves, their students, build curriculum and community as well as how they approach pedagogy. She is currently carrying out research on the community-building potentials of healing-informed teaching, common and harmful misunderstandings about liberatory work, and, how to begin this work with ourselves as individuals and educators.