#BreakTheBias with Women in Academic Leadership

Dr. Anver Saloojee

Interim Vice-President, Equity and Community Inclusion, Ryerson University

Beginning March 1, 2022, Dr. Anver Saloojee will serve as interim vice-president, equity and community inclusion. A passionate advocate and academic, Dr. Saloojee has dedicated his career to research on human rights and equity-related issues. In his role, Dr. Saloojee serves as executive co-chair of the Presidential Implementation Committee to Confront Anti-Black Racism; co-chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Strategic Working Group; and chair of the Access Ryerson Steering Committee.

Dr. Saloojee served as assistant vice-president, international from 2016 to 2020, providing university-wide strategic direction to Ryerson's international activities and guiding Ryerson's evolution into a global urban university. Dr. Saloojee also led the development of the university’s first law school, serving as the Dean of Record. Now named the Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Dr. Saloojee welcomed the first cohort of students in the fall of 2020.

A member of the Ryerson community for almost 30 years as sessional instructor, lecturer and professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration, Dr. Saloojee has earned a number of awards including Professor of the Year in and the Alan Shepard Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Award in 2018. In 2005, he took on the role as special advisor to the presidency of the Government of South Africa, returning to Ryerson in 2008. In 2014, he was named special advisor to the university’s President and Provost.

Dr. Saloojee has an extensive record of service including a number of roles at the Canadian Association of University Teachers including vice-president as well as chair, equity committee. He has also served as president, Ryerson Faculty Association; president, Laidlaw Foundation; and president, Community Planning Council of Toronto.

Dr. Jennifer S. Simpson

Provost and Vice-President, Academic, Ryerson University

Dr. Jennifer S. Simpson is the provost and vice-president, academic at Ryerson University. A proven leader of collaborative and strategic change, Dr. Simpson joined Ryerson from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador where she held the position of dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. 

Dr. Simpson has implemented consultative, evidence-informed, and transparent decision-making processes that prioritize academic vision and attend to fiscal realities. She has also supported systematic attention to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and Indigenization efforts at both the pan-university and faculty levels, as demonstrated by her role as Chair of the Deans’ Council Working Group on EDI.

Dr. Simpson is a passionate intellectual with deep successes in research and teaching. Her scholarship over the last two decades has substantively engaged with questions of theory and application and with questions of racism and colonialism in university environments. She has received $500,000 in research funding, and directed a national research project on racism and colonialism in Canada. She is also the author of two books addressing higher education, race, equity and the public good, as well as co-editor of a book addressing race and whiteness in university classrooms.

Dr. Simpson earned her PhD in interdisciplinary studies from Northwestern University, an MA in theology and ethics from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and a bachelor of arts in political science and philosophy from California Lutheran University.

Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard

Professor Emeritus, School of Social Work, Dalhousie University

Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernard is a highly regarded social worker, educator, researcher, community activist and advocate of social change. She has worked in mental health at the provincial level, in rural community practice at the municipal level, and, since 1990, as a professor at the Dalhousie School of Social Work, where she also served as director for a decade. 

In 2016, she was appointed special advisor on diversity and inclusiveness at Dalhousie University and she is the first African Nova Scotian to hold a tenure track position at Dalhousie University and to be promoted to full professor. Dr. Thomas Bernard has worked with provincial organizations to bring diversity to the political processes in Nova Scotia and teach community members about Canada’s legislative process and citizen engagement. 

She is a founding member of the Association of Black Social Workers (ABSW) which helps address the needs of marginalized citizens, especially those of African descent. As a former member of the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women, and as its past Chair, Dr. Thomas Bernard was instrumental in the development of advice to ministers regarding frameworks for gender violence prevention and health equity. 

At the national level, she has served as a member of the National Coalition of Advisory Councils on the Status of Women. She has served as an expert witness in human rights cases and has presented at many local, national and international forums. Dr. Thomas Bernard has received many honours for her work and community leadership, notably the Order of Nova Scotia and the Order of Canada.

Dr. Sheila Cote-Meek

Vice-President, Equity, People and Culture, York University

Dr. Sheila Cote-Meek is Anishinaabe from the Teme-Augama Anishnabai. She joined York University as the inaugural vice-president, equity, people and culture in October 2019. Dr. Cote-Meek leads a team that works towards the development and implementation of a progressive and effective strategy and structure that advances York University’s mission to cultivate an equitable, inclusive, respectful and healthy work environment. 

Prior to this, Dr. Cote-Meek was associate vice-president, academic and Indigenous programs at Laurentian University where she was the senior lead on Indigenous initiatives that included the leading academic developments across the disciplines. She played a lead role in several Indigenous initiatives that include increasing the number of Indigenous scholars, the creation of the Indigenous Sharing and Learning Centre, the Master of Indigenous Relations program and the Maamwizing Indigenous Research Institute. She also worked extensively on the faculty-relations portfolio in collaboration with York University’s Human Resources department and the Provost’s Office. 

Dr. Cote-Meek holds a PhD in sociology and equity studies from the University of Toronto, as well as an MBA and BScN from Laurentian University. She is the author of “Colonized Classrooms – Racism, Trauma and Resistance in Post-Secondary Education”, an active researcher and has extensive experience working with Indigenous communities regionally, nationally and internationally on social justice, education and health-related issues. 

Dr. Cote-Meek is a champion for equity, diversity and inclusion with a strong history of building relationships that provide synergistic opportunities to advance institutions. She is committed to working toward accessible higher education for all.

Dr. Sherene H. Razack 

Distinguished Professor and the Penny Kanner Endowed Chair in Women’s Studies, Gender Studies, University of California at Los Angeles

Dr. Sherene H. Razack is a Distinguished Professor and the Penney Kanner Endowed Chair in Women’s Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. Her research and teaching focus on racial violence. She is the founder of the virtual research and teaching network the Racial Violence Hub (RVHub). Formerly a Distinguished Professor of Critical Race and Gender Studies in the Department of Social Justice, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (1991-2016), she relocated to the United States from Canada in 2016. Dr. Razack is of Caribbean (Trinidadian) origin.

A feminist critical race scholar, Dr. Razack has published six single-authored books and three edited and co-edited collections, as well as over eighty journal articles and book chapters. Her publications illustrate the thematic areas and anti-colonial, anti-racist feminist scholarship she pursues.

Dr. Pamela Sugiman

Dean, Faculty of Arts, Ryerson University

Dr. Pamela Sugiman is a distinguished researcher and academic leader, committed to supporting and enhancing a vibrant culture of rigorous research and community engagement in the Faculty of Arts. Dr. Sugiman joined Ryerson in 2006, after 15 years as a tenured faculty member at McMaster University. She demonstrates a longstanding commitment to issues of social justice, equity and equality. These values are rooted in her personal history and have profoundly shaped her leadership style and priorities, scholarly pursuits and community involvement.

In addition to her many contributions at Ryerson, Dr. Sugiman has garnered experience in a number of external organizations. She has served as President of the Canadian Sociological Association, Director of the National Executive Board of the National Association of Japanese Canadians and a member of the Board of Directors, Pathways to Education Canada and the Atkinson Foundation.

Dr. Sugiman is a recipient of the Errol Aspevig Award for Outstanding Academic Leadership (Ryerson University), the Canadian Sociological Association Outstanding Contribution Award (Canadian Sociological Association), the Marion Dewar Prize in Canadian Women's History/Le Prix Marion Dewar en histoire des femmes au Canada (The National Capitol Committee on the Scholarship, Preservation and Dissemination of Women's History. She has also been honoured as the Landsdowne Lecturer in the Humanities (University of Victoria), Lecturer in the Distinguished Women Scholars Lecturer (University of Victoria) and the W.L. Morton Lecturer in Canadian History (Trent University). 

Enhancing undergraduate and graduate education, teaching and student life within the Faculty of Arts are among Dr. Sugiman’s priorities as dean. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto and specializes in oral history, memory studies, women’s history in Canada, racism and racialization, work and labour, and working-class history.