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Faculty of Health grad recognized with Murray G. Ross Award

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Nathaniel “Yochanan” Goldstein, who is graduating with an honours bachelor of science in psychology with a Certificate in Quantitative Methods & Data Analysis, was given the Murray G. Ross Award in recognition of his accomplishments over the course of his time at York University.

Nathaniel Goldstein
Nathaniel Goldstein

“Receiving a personal phone call from President Lenton informing me of my selection was a surreal experience,” Goldstein says. “I am grateful to the selection committee as well as to my dear family, friends, mentors and colleagues for all their support. Above all, this award is a product of all their guidance and encouragement.”

Goldstein joined York University with a fascination with what is known about the brain and how modern-day tools and technologies could be used to advance that understanding. His interest led him to York’s psychology program and its emphasis on teaching quantitative research methods and applied statistics.

He was primarily drawn to York’s Centre for Vision Research – a highly interdisciplinary cohort of researchers in fields like psychology, neuroscience and engineering who conduct applied research on the brain in some of the best laboratories and facilities available in Canada.

“[York] seemed to be the perfect fit to equip me with the necessary skills to advance my understanding of this exciting topic,” Goldstein says.

Over the past four years, Goldstein has taken strides in doing that through his involvement in quantitative research on how the brain perceives visual depth in 21st-century tech, like virtual and augmented reality – and disseminating these findings at local and national conferences.

He also advanced his standing in the scientific community by writing magazine articles for the Royal Canadian Institute for Science, one of the country’s oldest scholarly societies, that showcased inspiring research across the country – including at York.

Goldstein credits his positive academic experience not just to York’s commitment to fostering critical thinking, academic integrity and a wide range of impactful pedagogical approaches, but to those who teach and work at the University.  

“It is so much more than just an academic institution. It’s a community that fosters excellence,” Goldstein says.

The Murray G. Ross Award winner is especially grateful for those within the York community who served as mentors to him along the way. He expresses profound gratitude to Erez Freud and Laurie Wilcox, professors in the Department of Psychology and members of the Centre for Vision Research, with whom he has worked closely for several years on research projects studying visual perception using augmented reality. He credits, too, Linda Farmus, a lecturer and course director in the Faculty of Health, who he notes went “above and beyond in helping to explain difficult course concepts and providing guidance and support.”

Beyond academic pursuits, Goldstein has also been involved in other programs, activities and extracurriculars. A member of the President’s Ambassador Program, he worked closely with senior administrators – including President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton – to provide novel suggestions to improve the student experience on campus.

Goldstein was also a committee lead for a recent project that combated food insecurity at York by promoting nutrition-based education through resourceful, hands-on seminars. He cites Judith Owusuaah, a co-ordinator of special projects and events and collaborator for the initiative, as another key mentor during his time at York.

Goldstein was also involved in the non-profit Project START! Science at York, which provides engaging and interactive science, technology, engineering and mathematics modules to underfunded schools in the Greater Toronto Area and central Africa. Outside of York, he worked with Yachad Toronto as a mentor and counsellor for teenagers and adults with cognitive and developmental limitations to provide emotional and social support through inclusivity-based weekly programming.

“Being involved in these initiatives has been beneficial in developing my collaboration and networking skills and allowing me to make a tangible difference at the level of student and community leadership,” he says.

Before receiving the Murray G. Ross Award, Goldstein’s achievements were recognized in other ways, too. He earned the 2024 Faculty of Health Gold Medal for Academic Excellence & Outstanding Leadership and was a 2023-24 McCall MacBain Scholarship nominee. He has received several Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada student awards for research excellence, and has been recognized several times in competitive public speaking and essay-writing competitions.

Looking ahead, Goldstein will be continuing his studies at York U through a master’s in brain, behaviour and cognitive sciences this fall. He hopes to continue his involvement in vision science and immersive technology research by collaborating with new academic and industry partners.

Mike Wessinger shares with graduands the secret to success

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Mike Wessinger, co-founder and executive Chair of PointClickCare, the most widely used cloud-based health-care software provider in long-term and post-acute care, spoke to Faculty of Science graduands about his path to success, and offered advice on how they might navigate their own way to a life of accomplishment.

Wessinger shared with graduands that a question he is often asked is, “What is the secret to success?” With the aim of leaving graduands with advice to take with them on their journey ahead, he shared that the answer – for him – is hard work and determination, above all else.

“Intelligence and emotional quotients do matter,” he stressed. “But, in my experience, the people [with great success] are those people who have the highest grit quotient. If they see a wall, they go over, under, around or through it.”

As Wessinger shared his professional journey, he illustrated how he faced – and overcame – some walls himself throughout his career. Among the first barriers was when he graduated from university as young man with no prospects, no money and the feeling that he was unemployable. He knew he wanted to be a success at something, but was unsure what direction to take. “I had to figure out how I was going to make something of myself,” he said. A break came when his brother helped him find a sales job in the long-term and post-acute care industry. He seized the opportunity and began applying himself. “I knew it was time to really buckle down and really get to work,” he said.

Mike Wessinger with Kathleen Taylor, Lisa Phillips
Pictured, from left to right: Chancellor Kathleen Taylor, Mike Wessinger, Provost and Vice-President Academic Lisa Philipps.

Wessinger familiarized himself quickly with everything he could about the industry he’d joined in order to not only excel in his sales job but find a way to revolutionize it. He hustled – often sleeping at the office and rarely taking time off – until he felt he was successful enough for a new challenge: starting his own business.

Initially, that business was selling existing electronic health records and financial software technology to nursing homes across Canada, but over time he found himself underwhelmed by the product he was selling. This technology is just not working, he thought at the time. It’s not making a big impact on these organizations. He believed the long-term and post-acute care space – and especially the seniors who lived within – deserved something more.

Wessinger and his partners decided to build their own solution, one that was ahead of its time: an electronic health records software that wouldn’t be installed on-site, but hosted on servers with clients accessing them through the internet. “We had no idea we were talking about software as a service (SaaS),” Wessinger said. “People couldn’t sell SAS back then. Nobody was talking about the cloud. We fundamentally changed the game.”

Not everyone shared that sentiment at the time. As Wessinger moved ahead with PointClickCare, it was the year 2000, shortly after the infamous dot-com bubble had burst, a time when many were wary of internet-based businesses. As Wessinger approached venture capitalists and banks with his startup idea, he joked that doors tended to close the instant he explained his mission to put seniors’ health records online.

Wessinger had to find a financial solution somehow, and he found it close to home. “The only people that were kind of enough to fund us go by the name of ‘Mom,’ ‘Dad,’ ‘Uncle,’ ‘Aunt’ and ‘Friend from Hockey Team,’” Wessinger said. With that came not just the usual high financial stakes of making a startup succeed but personal stakes, too. “I felt this enormous obligation to be successful,” he said.

Two decades later, PointClickCare is now one of the largest privately held software companies in Canada, with over 1,500 employees, and serving over 22,000 skilled nursing facilities across North America. “The thing I’m most proud of is that there are some two million seniors today that I know are getting the right care because they’re utilizing our software,” he said.

While the journey of a startup firm may be succinctly summarized in an honorary degree recipient’s address, the reality is a long road full of challenges, long hours and – sometimes – sacrifices. While Wessinger told graduands hard work is the “hack to success,” he offered some cautionary advice as well, for the ambitious. “People that are like me – forward-looking, a leader of an organization, trying to do something incredible – live in the future,” he said. While that can help those looking to advance their careers and businesses realize their goals, it can come with a risk, he noted.

Living, mentally, in the future all the time can remove a person from the present. “You have to stop and live in the now because that’s all you have,” he said. “I can remember my family would see me at the dinner table and sometimes say, ‘Where are you?’ I’d say, ‘I’m right here.’ They’d say, ‘No you’re not.” They were right. I wasn’t. I was somewhere else. Along the way, as you’re achieving great things, remember to stop and celebrate and live in the present.”

President’s University-Wide Teaching Award recipients honoured

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Three York University 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 York University 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)

Danielle Robinson
Danielle Robinson

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 York.”

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

Vidya Shah
Vidya Shah

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 York University 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

Heather Lynn Garrett
Heather Lynn Garrett

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.

Three York U graduate students earn Governor General’s Gold Medals

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Three York University graduates received this year’s Governor General’s Gold Medals, which recognize the outstanding scholastic achievements of graduate students in Canada. The 2024 recipients are Jennifer Porat, Carly Goodman and Alison Humphrey.  

The Governor General’s Academic Medals are considered the highest honour earned by exemplary Canadian scholars throughout every level of academia. This year’s awardees offered words of gratitude to their peers and mentors, and expressed what the medals mean to them, ahead of their Spring Convocation ceremonies.

Jennifer Porat

Jennifer Porat
Jennifer Porat

Porat earned a PhD in biology following the completion of her bachelor of science degree at York University. Both degrees were pursued under the mentorship of Professor Mark Bayfield in the Department of Biology. Her research focused uncovering novel functions for RNA-modifying enzymes and understanding the mechanisms by which they promote RNA function and stability to carry out different cellular processes. 

Porat credits Bayfield and his support for her decision to pursue graduate studies at York U and her positive experiences at the University. She also expresses gratitude to the Faculty of Graduate Studies – notably, its funding of conference travel that she urges other students to take advantage of.

“I’m incredibly grateful to be receiving this honour,” says Porat. “I’ve been fortunate enough to conduct research that I am passionate about, so it is very gratifying to learn that other people are excited about my work as well.”

Porat will continue that work as a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, still focused on RNA biology, in hopes of one day running her own lab. 

Carly Goodman

Carly Goodman
Carly Goodman

Goodman earned her master’s degree in clinical developmental psychology within the neuropsychology stream. Her work has focused on conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis on the sex-specific impact of pre- and post-natal exposure to chemicals on children’s intelligence. Its aim is to provide new insights into prevention strategies and identifying high-risk groups.

Goodman chose to pursue graduate studies at York University because of its unique accreditation in clinical neuropsychology, as well as the opportunity to work under Professor Christine Till.

“Her commitment to fostering innovative research and interdisciplinary collaborations has provided me with invaluable learning experiences and opportunities,” Goodman says.

The graduand is grateful for the training in clinical practice, advanced statistics, and the social and biological determinants of health she has received at York U, which contributed to her work now being recognized.

“I am deeply honoured to receive the Governor General’s Gold Medal for the work I completed during my master’s degree,” Goodman says.

The next step of her journey will see her remain at York University as a PhD student, once more under Till’s supervision, with doctoral research that will further investigate the impact of chemicals on children’s neurodevelopment and focus on moderating variables that influence risk and resilience.

Alison Humphrey

Alison_Humphrey
Alison Humphrey

Humphrey earned her PhD in cinema and media studies, and pursued work with a focus on misinformation and how it draws from storytelling to engineer fear and amplify anger.

She developed a new form of participatory storytelling called “citizen science fiction,” notably through Shadowpox, a mixed-reality storyworld imagining immunization through a superhero metaphor. The project aimed to intervene in the challenge of vaccine hesitancy by helping people explore what makes scientific evidence convincing, what makes a story compelling and how trust can be built or busted to affect people’s actions.

“Receiving the Governor General’s Gold Medal confirms for me that artistic production can contribute as meaningfully to the development of knowledge as the extraordinary doctoral work being done by my peers,” says Humphrey.

Moving forward, Humphrey is pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Global Strategy Lab, where she and her doctoral supervisor Professor Caitlin Fisher will invent mixed-reality interventions against antimicrobial resistance for the initiative “Catalyzing Collective Action at the Intersection of Global Health and the Arts.”

She is also looking to build on work like Shadowpox with an upcoming project called The Undergrid, which will extend the citizen science fiction methodology into climate action.

About the awards

Pierre Trudeau, Tommy Douglas, Kim Campbell, Robert Bourassa, Robert Stanfield and Gabrielle Roy are just some of the more than 50,000 people who have received a Governor General’s Academic Medal as the start of a life of accomplishment.

Today, the Governor General’s Academic Medals are awarded at four distinct levels: Bronze at the secondary school level; Collegiate Bronze at the post-secondary, diploma level; Silver at the undergraduate level; and Gold at the graduate level. Medals are presented on behalf of the Governor General by participating educational institutions, along with personalized certificates signed by the Governor General. There is no monetary award associated with the medal.

Three faculty members to receive honorific professorships

Tossing colorful paper confetti from the hands of young people.

York University will honour three esteemed faculty members during 2024 Spring Convocation with Distinguished Research Professor and University Professor recognitions.

Distinguished Research Professor is a designation reflecting a member of faculty who has made outstanding contributions to the York U community through research and whose work is recognized within and outside of the University.

A University Professor is a member of faculty recognized for extraordinary contributions to scholarship and teaching, as well participation in university life.

This year’s winners are:

Distinguished Research Professor

Roger Keil, Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change

Roger Keil
Roger Keil

Professor Keil’s research and teaching has focused on health in cities and suburbs, societal relationships with nature and how people govern themselves. His most extensive contributions have been in the fields of urban political ecology, global suburbanization, as well as cities and infectious disease. Recently, he has demonstrated research leadership in studying the ongoing impact of COVID-19.

At York U, Keil has occupied several important roles, including founding director of York University’s City Institute (made up of interdisciplinary urban scholars) and York Research Chair in Global Sub/Urban Studies.

Throughout his career, Keil has published over 10 books and 150 articles, in addition to overseeing others’ work as editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, a premier journal in his field. He has also earned several awards, including being named a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and receiving a York University President’s Research Excellence Award.

“I am extremely honoured to receive this prestigious award,” says Keil. “I am fortunate to have worked alongside supportive colleagues and brilliant students at the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change and the City Institute.”

Distinguished Research Professor

Leah Vosko, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Leah Vosko
Leah Vosko

A professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in the Political Economy of Gender and Work, Vosko has become a leader in the study of gender and politics, citizenship, migration and labour markets. Her research has a frequent focus on part-time, seasonal and contract workers, and the question, “What can be done to mitigate labour market insecurity?”

An author and editor of numerous scholarly books, volumes and articles, her work has been driven by the aim of protecting precarious workers by shaping better policies and understanding around the labour market.

For those efforts, Vosko has received several prestigious recognitions, including the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Impact Award (Insight Category), an election to the Royal Society of Canada, a Fulbright Fellowship, the Charles Taylor Prize for Excellence in Policy Research and a Premier’s Research Excellence Award.

“I feel extremely fortunate to have received this recognition and to have spent so much of my career in the highly collaborative and critical interdisciplinary environment at York,” says Vosko.

University Professorship

Aleksander Czekanski, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Aleksander Czekanski
Aleksander Czekanski

Since joining York University in 2014, Czekanski has specialized in cutting-edge engineering principles, including additive manufacturing, bioprinting and soft tissue mechanics, with applications ranging from biomedical science to materials manufacturing. His research has been awarded more than $10 million in external grants as a principal or co-applicant.

In addition to holding the role of Natural Sciences & Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Chair in Design Engineering, Czekanski has filled several roles at Lassonde and the University, in particular as founder or co-founder of: the Integrated Design & Engineering Analysis Laboratory, which supports high-calibre research, student learning experiences and the development of innovative engineering solutions; the Additive Manufacturing in Engineering Design & Global Entrepreneurship program, which provides students with technical and entrepreneurial training as part of the NSERC Collaborative Research & Training Experience; and the Manufacturing, Technology & Entrepreneurship Centre, which aims to bring innovative technologies to market.

Over the past decade, Czekanski has received awards recognizing his excellence in teaching and research, including the President’s University-Wide Teaching Award, the Lassonde Innovation Award – Established Researcher, the Engineering Medal for Engineering Excellence in Industry from the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers, as well as multiple industry fellowships. He has also served on the board of directors of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering and is currently its president.

“Receiving this University Professorship is both an honour and a profound responsibility. It signifies recognition by peers and the academic community for my contributions to scholarship, education and community engagement, and it catalyzes my commitment to continue pushing the boundaries of knowledge and pedagogy,” he says. “As I embrace this role, I am inspired to further cultivate a legacy of intellectual curiosity and academic excellence that extends beyond the classroom, impacting our community and the broader world.”

For a full list of ceremonies, visit the Convocation website.

Barbara Neis urges graduands to embrace change

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During the June 7 convocation for York University’s Glendon College, award-winning researcher and social scientist Barbara Neis received an honorary degree and shared stories from her studies, career and life.

When University Secretariat Pascal Robichaud introduced Neis, she noted that the social scientist is “one of Glendon College’s most inspired and inspiring early graduates,” and can count herself as a member of the Order of Canada, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Once Neis began addressing graduands, however, she recounted that before she was any of those things, she was a young student from a family farm in northern Ontario, arriving at Glendon College and experiencing urban and academic life for the first time.

As she pursued a joint undergraduate degree in sociology and psychology, Neis was introduced to disciplines and streams of thought she didn’t even know existed. The researcher admitted to graduands in her address that she was initially overwhelmed by the breadth of thinking she was exposed to, and how exactly to integrate any of into her life, career and academic pursuits. She worried about becoming a jack of all trades and master of none. “I was struggling with whether I could acquire even minimum expertise in philosophy, the humanities, sociology, psychology,” she said.

Kathleen Taylor, Barbara Neiss, Rhonda Lenton
Pictured, from left to right: Chancellor Kathleen Taylor, Barbara Neis and President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton

In time, however, an approach became clear to her. “I learned that I did not need to be an expert in everything,” she said. “It was enough to be able to read and respectfully engage with researchers in other disciplines who had a shared interest in answering relevant and important questions that could not be answered by drawing on the resources of a single discipline.”

That realization became the interdisciplinary bedrock of her career as a researcher and social scientist who has participated in research projects that total at least $150 million and whose work has been published in more than 120 books, book chapters, journal articles and working papers. It led to work promoting a greater understanding of the interactions between work environment, health and communities – especially within marine and coastal contexts.

Neis focused on the latter, especially while speaking to the graduands, recalling how that work began somewhat unexpectedly with a kitchen conversation in a home on the East Coast that she was visiting. There, she was told about trawlermen who were being severely injured as they tried to fish in ice in vessels not designed for that purpose. Neis wanted to know why, and in the process of getting answers developed an approach that would serve her well in understanding the roots of circumstances she wanted to research.

“The best way I’ve found to understand these forces is by starting with their lived experience and then using the resources available to researchers to work backwards to disentangle the various threads [that cause them],” she said.

In the case of the trawlermen, the source of the challenges they faced became clear. “I soon realized that for fishermen and others, the forces that threaten their lives, livelihoods and communities frequently come from the ways environmental, institutional, policy and other processes intersect to affect what they do and how they do it,” she said.

It became important to Neis then – and moving forward – to keep the people in mind while conducting her research. “It led me to begin designing my research, assessing the findings and developing related recommendations for change in collaboration with those who must, in the end, live with the results.”

She would go on to approach her other work with that same type of thinking – notably, her research around the collapse of the Atlantic cod stocks in the 1990s. As Robichaud noted in his introduction, that work “made [Neis’s] reputation as a research activist … [and] … led to significant social change.”

Neis credits the success of that project to remembering the personal, and listening to lived experiences when doing research. “I was privileged to work with a team of social and natural scientists, interviewing Trinity Bay fishermen about their intimate knowledge of life under and on the water,” she said. “Their collective observations, from headland to the bottom of the bay and across generations, helped us document the insights underlying their prescient questioning of the overly optimistic scientific assessments that contributed to the collapse.”

That experience – which she noted proudly was some of the earliest research globally on commercial fisheries, ecological knowledge and science – gave her the tools to “lead interdisciplinary programs of research that sought to explore key knowledge gaps at the boundaries not only between the social sciences but also between the social, natural and health sciences.”

Neis shared that her interest in the interdisciplinary also extends beyond the academic. She recalled that after moving on from an early love of creative pursuits, when she later in life moved to Newfoundland, she had access to a vibrant artistic community that was both socially and politically engaged. There, she began collaborating with that community to create projects that address climate change in the coastal regions. “These effects are already part of the lived experience of those living on islands and along coasts – including, particularly, in the Arctic. Our objective … is to explore how to use the arts to emotionally engage new audiences and empower essential movements for social change,” she said.

It is perhaps no surprise, given her career built on being open to unexpected sources of direction, that Neis shared a critical piece of advice drawn from her experiences – many of which she had never anticipated. “This reminds us how important it is to look for opportunities and to embrace change that takes us outside of our comfort zone,” she told the graduands, summing up both her own life and inspiring the ones ahead for those graduating.  

Student receives 2024 Bergeron Medal

Colored confetti flying on blue background

Each year, the Bergeron Entrepreneurs in Science & Technology (BEST) program at York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering awards the Bergeron Medal to top graduating students, recognizing their outstanding entrepreneurial achievements throughout their time at the school. This year, Reza Mirhadi was honoured with the award.

A top mechanical engineering student who consistently placed in the top 10 per cent of students on the Dean’s Honour Roll list and was named a Lassonde Scholar, Mirhadi received the Bergeron Medal in recognition of his exceptional entrepreneurial achievements. During his time at Lassonde, he completed the BEST Certificate in Technology Entrepreneurship and won the BEST Technology Impact Award – which honours inventiveness in addressing societal issues – for a modular smart home project. He also excelled at a range of startup pitch competitions, including the BEST Startup Experience and the York Engineering Competition.

In addition to his entrepreneurial success, Mirhadi proved himself in leadership roles, contributing as a mentor and moderator in BEST Experiential Education activities – including UNHack – and representing Lassonde in the 2022-2023 Impact Report. He served, too, as the academic advocacy director for the Lassonde Engineering Society.

Beyond the walls of York University, Mirhadi’s professional achievements include a research and development role at Hatch – a company that supplies engineering and construction consultation to the mining, metallurgical, energy and infrastructure sectors ­– where he led presentations for over 350 people. He also worked as a project manager and mechanical designer at AFA Systems, a packaging automation systems company, where he completed four projects. Mirhadi’s own entrepreneurial venture, Simple Swim School, has received support from the Vaughan Summer Company Program.

For more information, visit the Bergeron Entrepreneurs in Science & Technology program website.

York U to confer eight honorary degrees during Spring Convocation

Convocation sign on Aviva Centre

Throughout the 2024 Spring Convocation ceremonies, running from June 7 to 21, York University will confer honorary degrees to eight individuals in recognition of their contributions to community building, advocacy for social justice and philanthropy.

This year’s honorary degree recipients represent a variety of fields. Each of them will, per custom, 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:

Barbara Neiss
Barbara Neis

Barbara Neis
Friday, June 7 at 2 p.m. – Glendon College

A graduate of York University’s Glendon College, Neis is a member of Memorial University of Newfoundland, where she is an honorary research professor in the Department of Sociology and a John Lewis Paton Distinguished University Professor.

Over her career, Neis’s research has focused on interactions between work, environment, health, and communities in marine and coastal contexts.

Notably, since the 1980s, she has been involved with collaborative research initiatives examining Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries, studying fishermen’s knowledge, maritime occupational health and safety, rebuilding collapsed fisheries, and gender and fisheries.

Between 2012 and 2023, Neis also directed the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada-funded On the Move Partnership, a multidisciplinary research program exploring the dynamics of employment-related geographical mobility in Canada and its impact on workers and their families, employers and communities. 

Mike Wessinger
Mike Wessinger

Mike Wessinger
Friday, June 14 at 10:30 a.m. – Faculty of Science

Wessinger is the current executive Chair of the board for PointClickCare – a software provider helping long-term and post-acute care providers – which he co-founded and served as chief executive officer of from 1995 to 2021. Throughout his leadership, he led the company to become the first cloud-based health information system for the senior care industry, and North America’s largest care collaboration network.

In his role as executive Chair, Wessinger continues to champion corporate culture, enhance governance, recruit diverse talent, and partner with internal and external boards and teams to solve critical health-care challenges. Outside of PointClickCare, he is also co-chair of the C100 board of directors, where he actively leverages his years of experience to coach and mentor leaders at the helm of rapidly scaling tech companies. 

Reeta Roy
Reeta Roy

Reeta Roy
Monday, June 17 at 10:30 a.m. – Faculty of Education

Roy has been the president and CEO of the Mastercard Foundation since 2008, transforming the international non-governmental organization focused on Africa from a startup into a global force with assets exceeding $40 billion. A seasoned leader in global health and policy, under her leadership the foundation has committed $8 billion to programs benefiting millions in Africa.

One program spearheaded by Roy – the Young Africa Works Strategy – aims to empower 30 million young Africans with secure employment by 2030. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Roy also initiated the Saving Lives and Livelihood partnership with the Africa Centres for Disease Control & Prevention, a $1.5-billion effort lauded for addressing global inequities.  

Roy contributes to various leadership panels and advisory boards, including the African Transformation Leadership Panel and the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology & Society at the University of Toronto. 

John Ralston Saul

John Ralston Saul
Wednesday, June 19 at 10:30 a.m. – Faculty of Liberal Art & Professional Studies I

Saul is an award-winning essayist and novelist whose works have been translated into 28 languages in 37 countries. Widely acclaimed as one of Canada’s leading thinkers, Saul’s philosophical works have impacted political thought across the world. 

Saul also serves as president emeritus of PEN International, the world’s leading freedom of expression organization, as well as the co-founder of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship and the founder and honourary Chair of French for the Future, which looks to inspire passion for bilingualism among Canada’s youth.

He is a companion of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario as well as an officer in Germany’s Order of Merit and a chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France. His many literary awards include Chile’s Pablo Neruda Medal, South Korea’s Manhae Grand Prize for Literature, Italy’s Premio Letterario Internazionale and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

Arnold Auguste
Arnold Auguste

Arnold Auguste
Thursday, June 20 at 10:30 a.m. – Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies III

Born and raised in Trinidad, Auguste arrived in Toronto from the Caribbean in 1978, when he was 23. Upon discovering the invisibility of Black issues in white mainstream press, he felt the Black community needed a publication of their own.

In 1978, Auguste launched Share, a weekly newspaper dedicated to the Black and Caribbean community, looking to provide a forum where important issues affecting the community could be discussed and debated, while providing both informative and entertaining content.  

Nearly 50 years later, Share news is now recognized as a modern trailblazer in facilitating public dialogue on minority issues. As a result of his service to community and contributions to the enrichment of or society, Auguste has been the recipient of several awards, including the Black Business & Professional Association’s Harry Jerome Business Award; the Ethnic Press Council of Canada’s Excellence in Journalism Award; and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the African Canadian Achievement Awards of Excellence. 

Jason “Kardinal Offishall” Harrow CROP
Jason Harrow

Jason Harrow
Thursday, June 20 at 3:30 p.m. – Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies/School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design

Harrow – whose artist name is Kardinal Offishall – has become a leader in the global music scene, having collaborated with the world’s biggest artists, including Rihanna, Drake, Lady Gaga, Akon and many others. In 2007, his quadruple-platinum single “Dangerous” climbed to the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making him the first rapper from Canada to achieve that feat.    

Currently, Harrow is responsible for scouting and overseeing artistic development of musical talent for the influential Def Jam Recordings. He has also pursued philanthropist work, notably as a founding member of Advance, a non-profit Canadian Black music business collective that advocates, mentors, supports and provides tangible opportunities for Black community members working in the music industry. 

Harrow was recently named the Canada’s Walk Of Fame Allan Slaight Music Impact honouree and a Canadian Music Week Social Justice Impact Award recipient, and he is now starring as the lead judge on the television show “Canada’s Got Talent.”

Carol Hansell

Carol Hansell
Friday, June 21 at 10:30 a.m. – Schulich School of Business

A graduate of York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School and the Schulich School of Business, Hansell is an internationally recognized expert in corporate governance who has been a key influencer on the development of public policy for more than three decades. She is the founder of the Hansell McLaughlin Advisory Group, which provides integrated, seasoned advice on complex legal and business issues in law and governance as well as government and regulatory affairs.  

Hansell publishes widely and speaks extensively on a range of governance topics and has been recognized for her work with several awards from prestigious organizations like the Governance Professionals of Canada, the Hennick Centre for Business & Law, and the Canadian Investor Relations Institute. She is also the Chair of the Dean’s Global Advisory Council at the Schulich School of Business. 

Dale Lastman

Dale Lastman
Friday, June 21 at 3:30 p.m. – Osgoode Hall Law School

Lastman is the Chair of Goodmans LLP, a leading Canadian law firm specializing in corporate, commercial and securities law. He advises on public offerings, mergers, acquisitions and restructurings. Heavily involved in professional sports, Lastman is also a director of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and is currently the governor representing the Toronto Argonauts. He has also served as Chair of the board of governors of the Canadian Football League.  

Lastman is deeply engaged in charitable work, notably with Baycrest Health Sciences and the Hospital for Sick Children as a director and former Chair. He holds prominent honorary titles, including Order of Canada and Order of Ontario memberships, and was appointed an honorary captain of the Royal Canadian Navy. He has been recognized for his philanthropic efforts with awards like the Israel Cancer Research Fund’s 2010 Men of Distinction award and the Canada Top 40 Under 40 and its Best of the Best Canadian Leadership Award.   

For over 30 years, Lastman was one of Osgoode Hall Law School’s longest serving lecturers in securities law. He received the Adjunct Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence as well as the Alumni Gold Key Award for outstanding professional achievement and contribution to the legal community. 

The convocation website includes a full schedule of all ceremonies.

Graduands to cross stage for 2024 Spring Convocation in June

convocation

Between June 7 and 21, more than 7,000 graduating students will put on their finest regalia and participate in the time-honoured tradition of celebrating years of academic hard work when York University’s 2024 Spring Convocation gets underway.

This year’s Spring Convocation will feature 13 ceremonies at both the Keele and Glendon campuses and see thousands of students take a big step forward into their futures. Once again, York alumna Kathleen Taylor – who was installed as the University’s first woman chancellor in 2023 – will confer degrees on new graduands as part of her third convocation season.

An emphasis on community will remain a touchstone of the events. Each ceremony will be accompanied by student performers providing music during the academic procession, as well as before and after the events begin. Furthermore, alumni speakers will also take the stage during each ceremony to deliver a welcome message to graduands and their guests. This year’s eight honorary degree recipients will be welcomed into the York fold, sharing their stories and advice with graduands as they embark on new journeys. 

The ceremonies throughout June will embody the principles of decolonizing, equity, diversity, and inclusion, as well as respect for Indigenous ways of knowing and being, and the institutional value of sustainability. These elements were recommended by a working group assembled in 2022 by York University President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton to ensure convocations are welcoming to all within the University’s community.

Beyond the ceremonies, community will be fostered through celebrations (launched last year) for 2SLGBTQIA+ and Black graduands – in addition to the existing Indigenous grad event organized by the Centre for Indigenous Student Services – which celebrate and recognize the achievements of the Class of 2024 and those who have supported their journey.

Graduands and their guests can expect a shorter ceremony than in past years, after feedback from the community. In addition, this year diplomas will be mailed to graduates rather than picked up on site.

All convocation ceremonies will be webcast live and a link to the feed, as well as a schedule of ceremonies, will be available on the Convocation website. That way, even those who can’t attend can feel they are a part of the occasion.

Call for stories about graduating students

Spring Convocation 2022 alumni ceremony

York University is looking for students who are graduating to share their stories. Students who have overcome significant obstacles, have unique reasons for pursuing studies at York or who have found a new calling while completing their education, convocation organizers want to celebrate these accomplishments at each ceremony.

Faculty, course instructors and staff are also encouraged to invite outstanding graduating students to share their stories. Once selected, a member from the York University marketing team will reach out to the featured students. Their stories could be shared on York’s digital channels and with media to highlight student success during convocation. Click here to share your story.