LA&PS Moving Forward Webinar Series announces second season
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In September 2020, York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) launched the Moving Forward Webinar Series. It invited students, alumni, faculty, staff and other friends of York into meaningful conversations about how to “move forward” in uncertain times. The series resonated strongly with the community, attracting hundreds of participants, and past webinar recordings continue to see engagement.
The panellists for the season’s first Moving Forward webinar are: Nick Moumos (top left), Rochelle Ford (top right), Sujata Berry (middle left), Tom Doulos (middle right) and Toni-Lynn Raponi (bottom left). Lily Cho (bottom right) will be the host
Due to its success, the Moving Forward Webinar Series is back for a second season. This year, successful York alumni will be asked for their unique takes on progress, drawing on one of the following three sub-themes:
how students can move forward in their academic and career goals;
how communities and organizations are moving forward on issues of equity and social justice; and
how organizations are moving forward in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The season’s first webinar is titled “Being a first-generation student: What it means to be first in your family to go to university.” Join the conversation virtually on Oct. 5 from noon to 1 p.m. Discussion topics will include: how the panellists mapped out the uncharted territory of being first-generation university students; the challenges they faced and overcame; the resources that supported them; and the difference a degree has ultimately made in their lives and careers. A question-and-answer period will follow the panel discussion.
The webinar panellists are as follows: Nick Moumos, associate vice-president of product development at Canada Life; Rochelle Ford, founder, CEO, and career and well-being coach for professional moms at Queen Success by Rochelle; Sujata Berry, temporary project lead at CBC; Tom Doulos, vice-president of customer experience at Endy Canada Inc.; and Toni-Lynn Raponi, associate vice-president of corporate and public affairs at TD. Lily Cho, associate dean of global and community engagement at York, will be the host.
Future Moving Forward webinar topics will include “The Evolution of In-Person Sport” and “Careers in Disaster and Emergency Management.” Each webinar will feature either a one-on-one interview or a panel discussion with high-level decision-makers from various fields, offering unique insights gained through first-hand experiences.
For more information about the webinar series and upcoming topics, visit the Moving Forward website. All are welcome to attend.
Invitation to University event on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
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La version française suit la version anglaise.
Dear colleagues and students,
As many of you may be aware, Sept. 30 has been declared by the federal government to be the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day to learn about and reflect upon the intergenerational trauma and harm resulting from the residential school system across Canada, a day to honour survivors, and a day to recognize the strength and resiliency of Indigenous Peoples and communities.
As we are still dealing with the restrictions related to the pandemic, and as the University will remain open, we will be hosting a virtual event for our community members, where we will come together to pause, reflect and learn. This event will focus on reconciliation, which is critical to the University’s ongoing relationship with the Indigenous community, and a variety of panellists from across the York community have been invited to speak about what reconciliation in action means to them.
We hope that you will be able to join us on Sept. 30 for this important event. If you are unable to attend, we ask that you take time to explore resources or attend one of the other events taking place across the University. Details and resources are available on York’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation website.
Thank you. Merci. Miigwech.
Sincerely,
Rhonda L. Lenton President and Vice-Chancellor
Sheila Cote-Meek Vice-President, Equity, People & Culture
Invitation à un événement de l’Université à l’occasion de la Journée nationale de la vérité et de la réconciliation
Comme vous le savez peut-être déjà, le gouvernement fédéral a déclaré que le 30 septembre serait désormais la Journée nationale de la vérité et de la réconciliation. Cette journée est une occasion de s’informer et de se pencher sur les traumatismes et préjudices intergénérationnels qui résultent du système des pensionnats autochtones au Canada. C’est aussi une journée pour honorer les survivants et pour reconnaître la force et la résilience des peuples et des communautés autochtones.
Étant donné que les restrictions liées à la pandémie demeurent en vigueur et que l’Université sera ouverte ce jour-là, nous organiserons un événement virtuel pour les membres de notre communauté et nous nous réunirons pour faire une pause, réfléchir et apprendre. Cet événement sera axé sur la réconciliation, un élément essentiel de la relation continue entre l’Université et la communauté autochtone. Plusieurs panélistes de la communauté de York parleront de leur vision de la réconciliation.
Nous espérons que vous pourrez vous joindre à nous le 30 septembre pour cet événement important. Si vous ne pouvez pas y assister, nous vous demandons de prendre le temps d’explorer les ressources proposées ou de participer à l’un des autres événements organisés par l’Université. Vous trouverez tous les détails et ressources sur le site Web de York consacré à la Journée nationale de la vérité et de la réconciliation.
Merci. Thank you. Miigwech.
Sincères salutations,
Rhonda Lenton Présidente et vice-chancelière
Sheila Cote-Meek Vice-présidente de l’équité, des personnes et de la culture
Welcome to the September 2021 issue of “Innovatus”
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Welcome to the September 2021 issue of “Innovatus,” a special issue of YFile devoted to teaching and learning innovation at York University.
“Innovatus” is produced by the Office of the Associate Vice-President Teaching & Learning in partnership with Communications & Public Affairs.
Featured in this issue:
Welcome back to campus! Professor Will Gage, associate vice-president teaching and learning, offers a warm welcome back to campus and introduces some new initiatives his office is pursuing. Read full story.
Hyflex pilot tests seamless remote participation in courses As Canada begins to look beyond the pandemic, educators have been pondering what shape education will take at universities. One option is a hyflex model of course delivery, which combines in-class and online instruction, delivered concurrently. Read full story.
Team tasked with reimagining course delivery A small, multidisciplinary team has been hard at work exploring new ways to enhance online courses and the experiences of instructors, students and administrative staff. They’ve developed an innovative course design concept known as the perpetual course model. Read full story.
Faculty, course directors and staff are invited to share their experiences in teaching, learning, internationalization and the student experience through the “Innovatus” story form, which is available at tl.apps01.yorku.ca/machform/view.php?id=16573.
Team tasked with reimagining course delivery
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A small, multidisciplinary team has been hard at work exploring new ways to enhance online courses and the experiences of instructors, students and administrative staff. They’ve developed an innovative course design concept known as the perpetual course model.
By Elaine Smith, special contributor
Mary Helen Armour, an associate professor for the Division of Natural Science, has always had an interest in trying new things, which led her to explore online teaching long before remote course delivery became a pandemic necessity. Her dissatisfaction with the way it was being done led her to Will Gage, York University’s associate vice-president of teaching and learning, and the opportunity to test an incipient perpetual course model.
“Regular classes have benefits, but online teaching always interested me because of accessibility issues,” Armour said. “I know a number of people who couldn’t afford to go away to school and didn’t live near enough to a university to commute. As technology gets better, you can create online courses that offer an equally effective learning experience, if not the same, as in-person classes.”
Five years ago, Gage’s own interest in course availability and accessibility prompted him to put together a team to rethink course delivery with an emphasis on creating a model that could adapt to and integrate emerging technology.
From left: Will Gage, associate vice-president teaching and learning; Michelle Sengara, PhD, a consulting educational expert; and Kelly Parke, a technology consultant
Michelle Sengara, a consulting educational expert, leads this small team for strategic course innovation, and together they have been focused on the problem of providing high-quality education online ever since. Gage asked the team to consider both the students’ and instructors’ experiences while also streamlining the administrative staff’s experiences within one design for what a course of the future might look like. This innovative course design is now called the perpetual course model.
They spent a year learning about the problem, conducting design sprints and developing the proof of concept to describe what the experience might look like. They followed that by getting buy-in for the approach and drumming up interest within the York community. For the past three years, they have been testing this perpetual course model, using the feedback and insights generated from mixed methods of research to refine – and design. This year, an expanded prototyping process was offered to a set of five instructors with the help of Category 2 funding – focusing on academic innovation projects – from the Academic Innovation Fund.
“Current models of education, across age levels and/or subject areas, tend to centre on knowledge acquisition, but the work being done now is to recentre the educational experience on skill acquisition in order to mobilize those knowledge assets in more innovative and meaningful ways,” Sengara said. “This work needs to be integrated at both the high-school level – in order to adequately prepare students for an active and participatory postsecondary environment – and at the level of professional development, supporting instructors in the design, development and delivery of high-quality, skills-based programs.
“What we are developing is not a prescription; it encompasses principles and values for teaching at York, but the team works with every instructor to personalize the learning experience for their students given their specific subject matter,” Sengara added.
The model aims to provide students with skills in knowledge acquisition, knowledge agility, autonomy and professionalism, and interaction and collaboration, while inspiring creativity. Each course’s curriculum determines the knowledge they’ll need to acquire, but the model offers alternatives in how that information is delivered and assessed to promote the student’s mastery of both the subject matter and the aforementioned skills.
Ideally, the perpetual course model would allow students to register and begin a course whenever it was convenient for them, with staff always available, said Sengara, “allowing them to work their way through self-paced learning modules, but with tangible support. It’s not something we can realize just yet because registration processes are traditionally tied to government funding and come with strict credit and time/space restrictions. However, our goal is that every course would have one perpetual section.”
Armour was the first faculty member to test this flexible model and it required her to rethink the full-year course Earth and Its Atmosphere, change the structure and rethink the order of the content. She made it modular and incorporated videos, breaking the four course themes into subtopics. This is her fourth year participating in the perpetual course model experiment and she has refined her approach and content each year, learning from her mistakes and student feedback.
“The first year, I made everything due at the end of the course, which is open to students from all years, and the procrastination was horrible,” she said. “I realized that they aren’t that disciplined, so I reinstated due dates within the themes, but made them submission windows as opposed to hard cut-off points.”
Since students can work at their own pace, “as an instructor, you have to be ready to answer questions about anything at any time, since students work ahead. You need to teach the course a time or two before you become comfortable with the process,” said Armour.
“For students who are organized, it’s a really good option. However, I had to make my own boundaries clear to them, in terms of when I’m available to answer questions and when I’m not. Artificial intelligence (AI) may be able to take over some of that work.”
That’s where Kelly Parke, a technology consultant and another member of the team, enters the picture.
“We are considering how technology can assist faculty to make their jobs better and allow for more one-on-one interaction,” Parke said. “When you don’t spend time with students, you lose connection. How can we build courses so artificial intelligence can help us understand the students a bit better and know early on when they’re having problems so we can intervene?”
He envisions that AI could allow the course to be responsive to each student’s learning style, allowing faculty to determine when a crisis is approaching and taking preventive action.
“University Information Technology wanted to build better integration with AI technologies, so we built the infrastructure internally,” he said. “We’re working with key research partners so we can prepare data for classification and analysis and allow AI to assist us in helping our students.”
“Ultimately, we should be able to customize each course to be like personal instruction, training AI using rubrics and samples to mark and grade like each individual faculty member would.”
York’s new director of IT innovation and academic technologies is on board with the experimentation being done by the perpetual course model team and partners such as IBM. They all believe the future looks bright.
“We have support in building a community of practice to help disseminate what we learn,” Sengara said. “This year, we have five courses being taught using the perpetual course model and we meet monthly. In innovation, you need to help people along and troubleshoot throughout the process.”
Armour believes that students “need to learn to deal with online courses; they are another skill for life and they may need to upgrade their credentials.”
The perpetual course model is working toward making high-quality learning opportunities available online in a way that is most beneficial to everyone involved, pandemic or not.
Try these 30-minute sessions to reduce stress
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A few simple practices that take 30 minutes can help to reduce stress and boost energy will be taught during the Fall 2021 Stress Busting Series at York University.
Offering “30 minutes of magical practices,” the series runs over 10 weeks beginning Sept. 27 and features qigong, mindfulness meditation and Capacitar wellness.
Faculty of Health Professor Harvey Skinner will teach how these practices can empower us to care for our health and well-being, with sessions open to everyone at York and running from 12 to 12:30 p.m. Each session will follow with a Q-and-A, which is optional for participants.
For Fall 2021, the program includes:
Qigong (Mondays and Thursdays) – a typical 30-minute session involves breath work, energizing movements, purging exercises, flowing movements and meditation. These sessions run Sept. 27 to Dec. 2.
Mindfulness Meditation (Tuesdays) – a typical 30-minute session involves mindfulness of breath, awareness of body sensations, loving kindness and self-compassion practices, and RAIN meditation for strong emotions. These sessions run Sept. 28 to Nov. 30.
Capacitar Healing Practices (Wednesdays) – a typical 30-minute session involves meditation and mindfulness, finger holds and other body holds for managing emotions, t’ai chi/qigong movements, emotional freedom technique and acupressure points. These sessions run Sept. 29 to Dec. 1.
These programs are offered for free to the York University community. Details about the series and registration are available from the Stress Busting website or by contacting Skinner directly by email at harvey.skinner@yorku.ca.
Skinner is a professor of psychology and global health and was founding dean (2006-16) of the Faculty of Health. His daily wellness routine includes: qigong energy and movement practices, mindfulness meditation and body work exercises.
President Lenton thanks the York community for their efforts to ensure a safe return to campus
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La version française suit la version anglaise.
Dear York community,
As we settle into the fall term, I am writing to thank everyone for your ongoing commitment to the safe return to our campuses. I recognize that the return this year is still not what we had hoped it would be, and that each of us has faced challenges requiring patience, flexibility and adjustments in our personal and professional lives.
There has been a great deal of excitement and joy on the part of many in having greater access to in-person learning and on-campus activities, but some members of our community have also faced uncertainty and anxiety. I want to reassure you all that the health and safety of the York community remains our highest priority, and that we will continue to follow the latest guidance from the province, the chief medical officer of health, the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, and Toronto Public Health.
We have put in place a multi-layered pandemic defence and we continue to monitor campus density and capacity to strike the right balance for in-person and remote support. We will continue to refine staffing arrangements to ensure we have enough staff available to support the increased level of academic and research activities on our campuses, but no more than are needed. As with any other time during the pandemic, we are remaining flexible and are prepared to adapt our plans to ensure that the needs of the York community are met safely.
At this time, I want to thank our faculty and course directors for their efforts to successfully welcome our students back to classes last week. Our staff have also worked incredibly hard to ensure that spaces are open and that support is available for those who need it.
Overall, our gradual return to campus is proceeding as planned and I am confident that our individual and collective routines will become smoother as the term progresses. I appreciate the efforts being made to learn and follow the new health and safety protocols that are in place.
I also want to thank each of you who have uploaded your proof of vaccination. As of today, more than 27,100 community members have uploaded their information through YU Screen and of those who have done this, 96 per cent have been vaccinated. If you have not already uploaded your proof of vaccination, please do so as soon as you can in order to meet the Oct. 18 deadline.
I look forward to keeping you updated on a regular basis as the term progresses. Thank you as always for your perseverance and your commitment to the well-being of the York community.
Sincerely,
Rhonda Lenton President and Vice-Chancellor
Merci pour votre engagement envers notre retour sécuritaire sur les campus
Chers membres de la communauté de York,
En ce début du trimestre d’automne, je tiens à vous remercier pour votre engagement envers notre retour sécuritaire sur les campus. Je sais que la rentrée de cette année n’est pas encore tout à fait à la hauteur de nos espérances et que chacun d’entre nous a dû surmonter des défis faisant appel à de la patience, à de la flexibilité et à des ajustements dans nos vies personnelles et professionnelles.
Alors que beaucoup se sont réjouis d’avoir un meilleur accès à l’apprentissage en personne et aux activités sur le campus, certains membres de notre communauté ont été confrontés à des incertitudes et à de l’anxiété. Je tiens à vous assurer que la santé et la sécurité de la communauté de York demeurent prioritaires et que nous continuerons à suivre les dernières directives de la province, du médecin hygiéniste en chef, du ministère des Collèges et Universités et du Bureau de santé publique de Toronto.
Nous avons mis en place un système de défense à plusieurs niveaux contre la pandémie et nous évaluons constamment la densité et la capacité des campus afin de trouver un bon équilibre entre le soutien en personne et à distance. Nous ne cessons de perfectionner les niveaux d’effectifs afin d’avoir suffisamment d’employés sur place pour appuyer l’accroissement des activités et de la recherche sur les campus, sans dépasser toutefois le strict nécessaire. Depuis le début de la pandémie, nous restons flexibles et disposés à modifier nos plans afin que les besoins de la communauté de York soient satisfaits de façon sécuritaire.
Je tiens à remercier le corps professoral et les directeurs et directrices de cours pour les efforts qu’ils ont déployés la semaine dernière lorsqu’ils et elles ont accueilli de nouveau la population étudiante. Les membres du personnel ont également travaillé d’arrache-pied pour avoir des espaces ouverts et assurer un soutien en cas de besoin.
Dans l’ensemble, notre retour progressif sur les campus se déroule comme prévu et je suis convaincue que nos routines individuelles et collectives seront de plus en plus harmonieuses au fil des mois. Je suis reconnaissante des efforts déployés pour apprendre et pour observer les nouveaux protocoles de santé et de sécurité.
Je tiens également à remercier toutes les personnes qui ont téléchargé leur preuve de vaccination. À ce jour, plus de 27 100 membres de la communauté ont entré leurs informations dans l’outil YU Dépistage et 96 % d’entre eux sont vaccinés. Si vous n’avez pas encore téléchargé votre preuve de vaccination, veuillez le faire dès que possible afin de respecter la date limite du 18 octobre.
Je vous informerai régulièrement tout au long du trimestre. Merci une fois de plus pour votre persévérance et votre engagement envers le bien-être de la communauté de York.
Sincères salutations,
Rhonda Lenton Présidente et vice-chancelière
Hellenic Heritage Foundation donation will highlight experiences of Greek diaspora in Canada
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The funding will expand the existing physical archive and establish a digital archive of images, documents, video and other assets that are related to Greek Canadian history.
When Christopher Grafos entered the Graduate Program in History at York University, he encountered the same problem time and time again.
“When I spoke to Greek Canadians about their immigration experiences and their time in Canada, they would often tell me that they had thrown out a lot of the materials that would help researchers examine their history,” says Grafos, who completed his PhD in 2016. “It was such a tragedy for me to learn that we were in danger of allowing these experiences to fade away without preserving them through images, videos, newsletters, and other materials that brings this history to life.”
Together with his then-supervisor, Professor Sakis Gekas, HHF Chair in Modern Greek History, Grafos founded the Greek Canadian History Project in 2012. As the archives grew, so did the need to catalogue, digitize, present and preserve these materials, and to help Greek Canadians tell their stories through recorded oral histories and other methods.
On Sept. 22, the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies announced an important $1.4-million gift from the Hellenic Heritage Foundation (HHF) that will help York preserve, catalogue, digitize and teach these histories.
In recognition of this new gift, the Greek Canadian History Project will receive a new name; starting Sept. 27, the project will be known as The Hellenic Heritage Foundation Greek Canadian Archives.
Above: From left, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Dean JJ McMurtry; Hellenic Heritage Foundation President Tony Lourakis; York University President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton; and, Acting Vice-President Advancement E. Louise Spencer
“This support from our partners at HHF will allow us to add resources that will expand the archives and increase our capacity to engage with our community’s past and present,” says Gekas. “In collaboration with the Clara Thomas Archives, York libraries and community partners, our intention is to digitize a lot of the paper material that we already hold and will acquire in the future for preservation and dissemination purposes, primarily in research and teaching. For example, historical material such as photographs and films, but also written records like old newspaper articles, which would otherwise be destroyed without preservation.”
This gift from HHF will help expand the existing physical archive and establish a digital archive to be housed at York University. As well, the funding will provide a framework for the study of Greek diaspora around the world.
“Focusing on the experiences of average Greek Canadians has tremendous importance,” says Grafos, who is currently the project’s director. “That’s because during the early days of the project, almost everyone said that they never saw themselves as important enough to preserve their story in an archive.”
“York University is profoundly grateful for its longstanding partnership with the Hellenic Heritage Foundation,” said Rhonda Lenton, president and vice-chancellor. “For more than two decades, the Hellenic Heritage Foundation has been a generous supporter of the University and the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. Today’s landmark $1.4-million contribution will serve to expand the newly renamed Hellenic Heritage Foundation Greek Canadian Archives, providing indispensable resources for scholars and researchers exploring the immigrant experience in Canada.”
The partnership between HHF and York University started in 2000, when the Foundation made a landmark contribution to create the Hellenic Heritage Foundation Chair in Modern Greek History, an endowed chair position currently held by Prof. Gekas.
“The establishment of the HHF Chair in Modern Greek History was a visionary act,” says JJ McMurtry, dean of LA&PS. “Under Prof. Gekas’ exceptional leadership, the Chair has opened up new lines of inquiry, which have led to important new academic activity focusing both on Modern Greece, and on Greece’s many intersections with modern Canada.”
For HHF President Tony Lourakis, the most exciting part of the Foundation’s investment is the long-term and infinite possibilities that will come from expanding the archives.
“Investing in the HHF Greek Canadian Archives represents the foundation of what we hope to achieve,” says Lourakis. “The archives will be public and available for people to study. They’ll be able to learn about Greek Canadian history in a way that they might not experience from other public historical records. And in turn, we can engage with the public in a more familiar and intimate way than we might have otherwise.”
For Grafos, the recognition that this investment from HHF brings validates the importance of the archives.
“With this recognition, we hope to collect even more materials and more stories about the Greek immigrant experience in Canada,” he says. “It’s time to let community members tell their own stories.”
Stellar first-year students get feet wet as summer researchers
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Supported by a York Science Scholars Award (YSSA), 19 top first-year students participated in their first summer research experience as university students this year.
The YSSA program provides awards of $10,000 to high-achieving, passionate science students entering the Faculty of Science. Half of the award is an entrance scholarship and the other half pays for a summer research position following the first year of study. The research opportunity has proven to be a positive experience for everyone involved, supervisors and students alike.
“I consider training them an investment for the future,” said chemistry Professor Sergey Krylov, who accepted three YSSA students into his lab this past summer. “Not only did these students learn a lot, but they also contributed significantly to the research projects in which they were involved. I’d be happy to take new students through this program next summer. I’d be even more happy to have the same students return to the lab and apply their knowledge from their first summer. That would be a ‘return on investment.’”
Ailiya Rizwan
One of the students in Krylov’s lab was Ailiya Rizwan, who went on to receive second prize for her oral presentation, “Single-cell analysis of cell population heterogeneity using CRRC for the development of chemoresistance biomarkers,” at the Faculty of Science’s NSERC Summer Research Conference.
YSSA recipients Ethan Sooklal, Claire Del Zotto and Elizaveta Yakubovskaya also swept up half of the awards for poster presentations at the NSERC Summer Research Conference.
Sooklal’s summer research focused on using fungus to investigate the interactions and localization of three major proteins involved in driving the circadian rhythm in eukaryotes. For him, the best parts of the research position were experiencing the research process and learning new skills outside of the classroom.
“I really enjoyed the process of working on the research project, seeing its progression, gathering the results and sharing them with my peers at the end of the summer,” said Sooklal. “This experience, above all, strengthened my laboratory techniques and skills. It also gave me the opportunity to learn outside a classroom setting, which was not only refreshing, but also much more impactful.”
Ethan Sooklal
His supervisors, biology Professor Patricia Lakin-Thomas and PhD student Rosa Eskandari, also touted the program as an opportunity for the lab to recruit an enthusiastic and highly competent student assistant. In fact, Sooklal has been offered the opportunity to continue working with them as a Research at York (RAY) student in the fall and winter terms.
“Ethan distinguished himself in our lab by his fantastic work, excellent laboratory style, tremendous help and neat results,” said Eskandari.
Yakubovskaya, one of the other poster presentation winners, was among three YSSA students working with Professor Andrew Skelton in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics this summer. Her research project involved creating evidence-based modules to help first-year students build their study skills – specifically time-management – to the level necessary to succeed in university math.
Elizaveta Yakubovskaya
“I really enjoyed how this research project broadened my understanding of education as a field and as a science,” she said. “The experience gave me an opportunity to practise and refine skills that I had developed in first year. Specifically, this project helped me improve my research and science communication skills.”
Skelton was impressed by Yakubovskaya and the other YSSA students and he felt they made important contributions to his team’s research.
“I was continually floored by the high calibre of these students and the substantial impact they had on our project,” he said. “I strongly believe that the project would not have been successful without their contributions.”
The program is now into its fourth year with another cohort of YSSA students just beginning their studies at York Science. More information about the YSSA program is available on the Faculty of Science website.
Two York professors appointed Canadian Academy of Health Sciences Fellows
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Professors Steven Hoffman and Rebecca Pillai Riddell are among 74 new Fellows elected to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Election to fellowship in the academy is considered one of the highest honours for individuals in the Canadian health sciences community. It carries with it a covenant to serve the academy and the future well-being of the health sciences irrespective of the Fellow’s specific discipline.
“I extend my congratulations to professors Hoffman and Pillai Riddell,” said York University’s Vice-President of Research and Innovation Amir Asif. “These fellowships recognize their outstanding contributions to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences through leadership, academic performance, scientific creativity and willingness to serve. Their recognition will benefit both York University and Canadian health, and I hope you will join me in congratulating them on this prestigious honour.”
Steven Hoffman
Professor Steven J. Hoffman (Osgoode Hall Law School, Faculty of Health) Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair Director, Global Strategy Lab
Professor Hoffman is a world-leading authority on global health law and the global governance of health threats that transcend national borders. He has achieved important scientific breakthroughs and policy impacts by combining law and epidemiology to address challenges faced by the numerous national governments and United Nations agencies that rely on his advice. As a Canadian Institutes of Health Research scientific director, he is a leading voice in public health and champion for integrating research evidence into policy-making processes. Hoffman is a Distinguished Research Chair at York University, director of a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre and frequent contributor to news media.
Rebecca Pillai Riddell
Professor Rebecca Pillai Riddell (Faculty of Health) Associate Vice-President Research
Professor Pillai Riddell has focused her research in the pediatric behavioural and biobehavioural sciences. As a professor of psychology and an expert in pain, she has built the first and largest cohort in the world studying young children through painful vaccinations over the first years of life. Pillai Riddell has generated an unrivalled published literature on the biopsychosocial dimensions of infants’ and young children’s acute pain. She is a tireless advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion and strives to create systemic infrastructure that supports a more just future for patients, their families, health professionals, research trainees and researchers.
