Faculty award recipients

Congratulations to the 2021-22 university- and faculty-wide award recipients in the Faculty of Community Services!

Esther Ignagni is an associate professor and the director of the School of Disability Studies. She is an award-winning researcher, teacher and community collaborator. Ignagni’s disability studies-informed research centres on digital literacy, design fiction and intimate citizenship. She uses arts-informed research to develop critical perspectives on emergent issues with the disability community. Ignagni commits to collaborating with and training students, postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty, and community researchers throughout her research, a commitment marked by the number of co-authored works in her funding and publication record. Ignagni’s commitment to teaching excellence was recognized in 2010 by her receipt of the Faculty of Community Service’s Sue Williams Teaching Award. In 2018, she was awarded the Tanis Doe Award for Leadership in Disability Culture by the Canadian Disability Studies Association in recognition of her significant impact on the cultivation of disability culture in Canada, including her commitment to mentorship and collaboration.

May Friedman is an associate professor in the School of Social Work. She blends critical thinking and a focus on student care into her teaching. Friedman’s experiences in the classroom draw on her research focusing on fat and racialized bodies as well as liminal experiences of identity. Friedman’s pedagogy is informed by a frame of care, kinship and affect which students experience as “passionate, caring and loving teaching.”

Friedman aims to provide spaces that allow students to access difficult conversations and messy realities. Students noted that Friedman, “emphasized making sure to love yourself and take care of yourself... She would open discussions that would make students naturally dig deep and critically examine and reflect on situations and topics. She was always so willing to help students and was so accommodating of each student’s individual needs.”

The student nomination explained that “May treats students as the experts of their own lives, and as such listens to everyone who brings forward information with her full attention.” 

Vanessa Barnett is a contract lecturer in the School of Early Childhood Studies. Barnett provides dynamic leadership and culturally relevant teaching in the arts. She believes qualitative visual arts teaching can fulfill human potential, promoting understanding and creativity.

Barnett taught in the Creative Arts Department at the ROM and in Toronto schools, becoming a visual arts instructional leader and program co-coordinator of the arts in the Toronto District School Board. She was seconded to the Faculty of Education at York University and also taught courses in the International Leadership Program.

Barnett was awarded The Ray Blackwell Award for Excellence in Art Education by The Ontario Art Education Association.

Barnett demonstrates exemplary service to students in the Creative Arts Program in the School of Early Childhood Studies at the university, cultivating rich educational experiences, encouraging participants to think critically, ask questions and release their imaginations.

She established a non-profit charity, Making Art Making Change (MAMC) working across communities with seniors, children, homeless, street-involved youth and newcomers.

Pamela Robinson is professor and director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning and a professional planner. She is an exemplary administrator whose leadership is defined by visionary, inclusive governance; transparent, proactive communication; and strategic collaboration underscored by integrity and compassion. As director, Robinson is committed to building bridges between research, teaching, and practice through which she fosters an inclusive culture of reciprocity and creativity, activating transformative learning opportunities for the school’s 600 students, 13 faculty and a wide network of communities. With three edited books and 90 publications, Robinson is an internationally recognized scholar whose research serves and supports the Canadian government and civil society to expand their capacities to respond inclusively and sustainably to the challenges of change. In all her work, from local committees to global advisory panels, across administration, research, teaching, and practice, with humour and humility, Robinson embodies exemplary and transformative leadership.

Julian Hasford is an assistant professor in the School of Child and Youth Care. By providing services for diverse populations, fostering an inclusive environment inside and outside the classroom, and addressing equity both within the university community and externally, Hasford’s contributions to the advancement of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) have had an extraordinary impact. His work demonstrates an agility to champion and promote EDI in all facets of his professional life. He addresses structural barriers that inhibit equitable participation at the university; creates EDI-specific curriculum through the introduction of targeted pedagogical strategies; and provides innovative opportunities for students and their communities from diverse backgrounds to become change-makers.

Julie James is an assistant professor in the School of Child and Youth Care. She deploys anti-racist, gender inclusive and decolonial critical social theory frameworks to guide trans youth-led, community-based research. This research centres the voices and needs of marginalized young trans people who are Black, Indigenous and/or racialized. Her scholarly, research, and creative activities have generated a trans youth-led model of care and services that can be applied to health care, education, legal and community services. Her research has program, practice, policy, and organizational implications that can be utilized at local, national and international levels.

Raktim Mitra is an associate professor and associate director in the School of Urban and Regional Planning (SURP). His knowledge production and policy making in the fields of transportation planning and health behavior have had global impact. Mitra published eight scholarly publications and garnered over 400 citations this year alone. Mitra secured two new SSHRC grants as principal investigator (>$300,00) and he was co-applicant on two external grants (>$550,000), leading him to train 10 PhD and master’s students. Mitra led two major international conferences as track/ paper review chair. Moreover, his leadership as SURP associate director, and in teaching, make him an example of excellence.

Julian Hasford is an assistant professor in the School of Child and Youth Care (CYC). Through his exceptional service efforts, Hasford is a valued peer and mentor on CYC faculty, a CYC community leader, and an extraordinary colleague across the institution and external community. He has made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of equity, diversity and inclusion that have significantly impacted countless individuals and groups. In sum, he is most deserving of this Dean’s Service Award because he embodies the mission of FCS: “to engage with our communities to challenge the status quo and enable meaningful change.”  

Chun-Yip Hon is an associate professor and associate director in the School of Occupational and Public Health. In 2020/2021, Hon was extremely active with respect to service activities having sat on numerous committees at the department (DHC, DEC, PAC and Curriculum Committee), faculty (FTC) and university level (RFA Reps Council).  Externally, he made contributions to his profession through his involvement with the Occupational Hygiene Association of Ontario as well as with two separate committees associated with the American Industrial Hygiene Association. Hon's services have led to positive contributions to the university at all levels while his external service contributions have helped to enhance the university’s  profile within the occupational health and safety community.  

Karen Arthurton is a contract lecturer in the School of Social Work. Arthurton has developed with LAS@R a dynamic simulation-based training that allows participants to practice addressing racism and microaggressions in a simulated session with a “client.” The university community had the opportunity to see Arthurton in action at the Reflect-&-Resist workshops focusing on anti-Black racism. Recognizing Arthurton’s deep expertise in anti-racism and anti-oppression practice, the Psychology department contacted Arthurton to help develop their own training. This new collaboration, ongoing since 2020, has resulted in highly popular workshops that have empowered Clinical Psychology graduate students to discuss racism and oppression with their BIPOCQT clients.

Odilia Yim is a contract lecturer in the School of Early Childhood Studies. Her teaching approach is to build an open and safe classroom environment conducive to learning and inquiry, where students are respected and can participate and experiment freely among their peers. Her philosophy stems from her passion in promoting diversity and inclusion in all her endeavours. Previously, she was awarded the Teaching Excellence Award from the Canadian Council of Psychology Departments and received an Honourable Mention for the Excellence Award for Teaching Assistants. She was also recognized for her volunteerism by Canadian Blood Services in 2013 and 2018.

Nicole Bennett is an associate professor in the Midwifery Education Program. Bennett is a highly respected and extraordinarily committed educator who excels in clinical teaching. She creates challenging and facilitative environments that support students to take ownership of their learning. She deftly integrates students’ needs and feedback, and evidence-based material, into any curricular revisions. As one of Bennett’s current students noted: “Nicole is a truly gifted professor. Not only is she knowledgeable and compassionate, but she is truly engaging to learn from.” Bennett works tirelessly to infuse the curriculum with diversity and inclusion with a particular attention to social justice issues and to increase the diversity of students and instructors

Funke Oba is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work. In today’s educational environment, the requisite combination of insight, commitment to social justice, personal courage, respect, sensitivity, adaptability and highly developed teaching skills is rare indeed. Oba is a master of these attributes, integrating reflexive teaching, intercultural analysis, and skills to achieve remarkable connections and outcomes with students. Oba is therefore not only an exemplar of teaching excellence but of excellence in the current direction of teaching for social justice and equity that Canada, this university and the profession of social work needs. 

Eliza Chandler is an associate professor in the School of Disability Studies. Her scholarship represents a new sphere of influence within disability studies and the arts. She was the founder and artistic director of Tangled Art + Disability, Canada’s first disability art gallery dedicated to showcasing disability art and advancing accessible curatorial practices. Building on this success, her program of research brings together scholars and artists to develop new ways of representing disability and experiencing art. She leads academic, artistic, and community partners in mobilizing arts-based research and research creation projects that animate the imbricated relationship between cultivating disability arts and disability social justice

Erin Ziegler is an assistant professor in the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing. She is an innovative researcher with exceptional expertise in knowledge mobilization and engagement. Focusing on access to health care for gender and sexual minority populations, her research is informed by and enacted through principles of cultural humility and health equity. Deeply committed to inclusion and access, she co-developed the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity eLearning Toolkit with community members to improve knowledge and competence among practitioners to promote health equity and well-being of gender and sexual minority communities. In addition to the 2021 Award of Excellence and Innovation in Instructional Design from the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education, her work is recognized nationally and internationally for its impact in shaping evidence-informed inclusive practice.

Erin Ziegler teaches in the undergraduate, graduate and nurse practitioner program in the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing. Her clinical practice and research are focused on access to healthcare and health outcomes of gender and sexuality minorities, and is informed by the principles of cultural humility and health equity. She co-developed the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity eLearning toolkit, which has been recognized for its significant international impact in shaping evidence-informed practice. She consistently demonstrates a commitment to inclusivity in teaching with direct impact on nursing education, practice and scholarship.

Kateryna Metersky is an assistant professor in the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing. She is well-known for contributions to educational innovation through creation of the CLLEAR framework as an approach to online teaching, poetry writing, research in education on novel approaches to deliver emerging topics in healthcare, and student engagement through design of activities that push students to reflect on their positionality, execute change and discuss thorny issues. Metersky’s inclusive, diverse and student-focused approaches are exemplary. Metersky recently received STTI’s Gail J. Donner Award for Excellence in Nursing Education from an international nursing honour society. She is also the past recipient of the Dean’s Teaching Award for CUPE 1 Lectures.  

Janelle Brady is an assistant professor in the School of Early Childhood Studies. She is an anti-racism educator, activist-scholar, and community organizer whose recent doctoral research examines Black mothers’ system navigation against anti-Black racism in education and beyond. She co-founded the Downsview Advocate, serves on the board of directors for Progress Toronto, and was recently elected as president of the Ontario NDP. Her co-edited book, “Critical Schooling: Transformative Theory and Practice,” brings together multiple scholars, activists, and practitioners committed to social justice in education. An assistant professor in the School of Early Childhood Studies, a media expert, and an in-demand speaker, Brady is committed to mentoring and supporting students and community members, which has led to her launching of an Empowerment Circle.