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This past June, the ¥������ and the OISE Alumni Association honoured alumni who are true leaders and legends in their circles.

Six exceptional alums—Dr. Maria-Cantalini Williams, Rochelle Prasad, Dr. Devon Healey, Dr. Debby Wilson Danard, Dr. Muhammad Waqar Ahmad, and Dr. Sofia Malik—received honours as part of the Leaders & Legends Awards program.

The awardees were celebrated at a luncheon ceremony at U of T’s Faculty Club, with OISE Alumni Association committee members, friends, and family in tow. Over the afternoon, all became acquainted with one another, engaging in warm conversation and embracing one another’s achievement. 

“The Leaders & Legends Awards luncheon was such an inspiring event and a moving reminder that our outstanding alumni are striving every day to build and sustain their community, to influence education through excellent research and teaching, and to create sustainable change,” said Professor Joseph Flessa, OISE Associate Dean, Programs. “Thank you so much for your thoughtful and ongoing work.”

Professor Flessa and Natalie Neumann Butler, OISE’s Senior Alumni Programs & Donor Relations Officer, presented honours for the ceremony.

• Learn more about our 2025 recipients

The 2026 nominations were led by OISE alum Sabrina Persaud, an active volunteer at the OISE Alumni Association, a business owner, and a former policy officer in the government administration industry.

“These awards celebrate alumni and friends who have made exemplary contributions toward educational excellence,” she said. “It was a true honour to review the nominations alongside our volunteer committee and to see our recipients recognized by the broader community in this meaningful way. I extend my congratulations to the six awardees — you make our global alumni community proud.”  

Below, learn about our winners and the significance of these awards for them:

• Excellence Award
• Emerging Leader Award
• Innovation Award
• Distinguished Service Award
• Global Service Award
• Mentor of the Year Award

Excellence Award
Winner: Dr. Maria Cantalini-Williams

In recognition of the impact of leadership, this award honours an individual who is committed to pursuing and achieving the highest levels of performance in their field. 

Dr. Maria Cantalini-Williams, Dean, Faculty of Education, Wilfrid Laurier University, is a remarkable scholar, professor and educational leader, illustrating national and international contributions across various school boards and postsecondary institutions. She has conducted large-scale research projects, published numerous scholarly articles and presented globally on her research throughout her career, assuming a teacher-researcher model. Maria has taught thousands of students ranging from Junior Kindergarten to PhD programs, in a variety of settings across Ontario, including having taught in the teacher education program at OISE.

Maria received the designation of Professor Emerita for her contributions to the Brantford campus of the Schulich School of Education at Nipissing University. She served as the Director/Associate Dean of the Laurier-Nipissing Concurrent Education Program. 

As Dean of Education at Laurier, she grew the Bachelor of Education program, expanded the Master of Education program, launched a PhD program and continued the experiential learning opportunities offered in settings such as Italy, Germany, and Yellowknife of the Northwest Territories. Maria also served as Chair of a Rideau Hall Foundation Committee working on the Education for Innovation Project across Canada. 

How do you believe you best encapsulated this award? Can you provide one example of how?

I hope that I exemplify excellence in my interactions with all interest holders in education. I believe that “an affective leader is an effective leader.” This value permeates my actions and interpersonal relationships with students, faculty, colleagues, parents and staff members of all the communities that I have served. 

I strive to build trust among those whom I serve in order to create respectful environments honouring diverse perspectives. I have assumed positions of responsibility in school boards, service organizations and postsecondary institutions. I hope that I have contributed to continuous inquiry, improvement and innovation to make a significant impact in my communities. 

Another one of my sayings is: “It takes a community to raise a university and it takes a university to raise a community.” I have tried to develop mutually beneficial relationships in all of my educational communities by fostering partnerships and positive outcomes.

How grateful are you to have been recognized with this award?

I am extremely humbled and honoured to receive this award since it is especially wonderful to receive an award from my 'home' institution. All of my undergraduate and graduate degrees are from the University of Toronto. I feel strongly that my experiences at U of T have shaped my perspectives, skills and values. 

I was an 18-year-old first-generation university student from Sarnia, Ontario, when I started my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto. It is rewarding to receive this award near the end of my career, which spans more than four decades. I am very grateful to receive an award that completes my cycle of learning, teaching, and leading in my various roles.

How would you like to pay this honour forward? 

I would like to pay this honour forward to all current and future educators/teachers in Ontario. They have an awesome responsibility to nurture our children and youth. The role of a teacher is pivotal to the optimal development of our citizens and societies. Teachers are role models of empathetic, caring, informed, curious and critical thinkers. I would like to honour all teachers for their dedication, diligence and commitment to their chosen profession.

Who would you like to thank?

Firstly, I would like to thank my husband Chuck, three children (Tonia, Chas and Marc) and their partners/spouses for their unrelenting support throughout my career. Secondly, I would like to thank my colleagues, especially Dr. Ardavan Eizadirad, Dr. Kathy Broad, and Dr. Sofia Ferreyro-Mazieres for the award nomination. Lastly, I would like to thank my doctoral supervisor, Dr. Andrew Biemiller, who was initially my instructor at the Institute of Child Study. Andy has been an excellent mentor and academic guide for almost fifty years!

Emerging Leader Award
Winner: Rochelle Prasad

This award recognizes an individual who has shown vision, initiative and great promise in inspiring and organizing positive change in their communities.

Rochelle Prasad has been an educator at UC Berkeley, Surrey Schools and University Canada West, designing postsecondary curriculum across political science and social impact fields. She is also a K-12 teacher and advisor, working at the intersection of education, workforce development, AI adoption and systems change. She is the founder of SPARK Foundation, an international education organization, designing learning experiences to reduce barriers to higher education and leadership across six countries, building partnerships with governments, universities, civil societies, and more.

Recognized as Forbes 30 Under 30 Education honouree, UN Young Leader of the Year, World Federation of United Nations Associations, Governor General’s Sovereignty Medal of Service among many other accolades, she embraces growth and change to strengthen opportunities in leadership and employment. 

How do you believe you best encapsulated this award? Can you provide one example of how?

I believe I best encapsulate this award by identifying barriers that young people face and working alongside communities to create solutions. One example is founding SPARK Foundation at age 14 after realizing many youth lacked access to leadership opportunities, mentorship, and life skills education. What started as a small local initiative has since grown to support more than 500,000 young people globally through workshops, scholarships, leadership programs, and educational resources.

How grateful are you to have been recognized with your award?

I am incredibly grateful and humbled by this recognition. OISE played a significant role in shaping my understanding of education as a tool for social change, so receiving this award from an institution that has influenced my own journey makes it especially meaningful. It is an honour that I will carry with me for a long time.

Who would you like to pay this honour forward?

I would like to pay this honour forward to the next generation of young leaders, particularly those who may not yet see themselves reflected in positions of leadership. Throughout my career, I have benefited from mentors who opened doors and believed in my potential. I hope to continue doing the same for others.

Who would you like to thank?

I would like to thank my family, who sacrificed so much to create opportunities for my sister and me. As the daughter of immigrants from Fiji and the first person in my family to complete higher education, their resilience and support have shaped every part of my journey. I am also deeply grateful to the mentors, colleagues, educators, students, and community partners who have walked alongside me over the years. This recognition reflects the collective efforts of many people who believed young people could lead and create meaningful change.

Innovation Award
Winner: Dr. Devon Healey

This award is given to those who have fostered novel ideas, approaches, or solutions in their field, and celebrates outstanding performance resulting in new or improved innovations.

Dr. Devon Healey is an Assistant Professor of Disability Studies in the Department of Social Justice Education, where her research and teaching are grounded in her lived experience as a blind woman. Her work reimagines blindness and disability as creative, perceptual ways of knowing the world, challenging conventional understandings of accessibility, performance, and perception. She is the author of Dramatizing Blindness: Disability Studies as Critical Creative Narrative (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), and her scholarship has appeared in leading journals including Disability Studies Quarterly, Performance Research, PUBLIC: Art, Culture, Ideas, and the Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies. With her longtime collaborator, , her work has also informed international collaborations with the Royal Ballet (UK), Queensland Ballet (Australia), Vienna State Opera (Austria), and the National Ballet of Canada.

Devon’s first play, (2025), developed with Outside the March, the National Ballet of Canada, and Peripheral Theatre, introduces Immersive Descriptive Audio (IDA), an innovative stagecraft practice that positions accessibility as an integral part of the creative process and theatrical experience. She is the inaugural  at Toronto’s , where her work explores how blind perception can transform dance and performance.

Through her scholarship, creative practice, and artistic collaborations, Devon continues to redefine accessibility not as accommodation, but as a source of innovation, artistic possibility, and new ways of understanding the world.

How do you believe you best encapsulated this award? Can you provide one example of how?

I have to admit that this is a difficult question for me because I do not often think about my work in terms of innovation. There is so much creativity, magic, and wonder already present in the world, especially within blind and disabled communities, that I understand my work less as creating something entirely new and more as learning how to listen, notice, and create in relationship with that creativity.

I have been guided by blind and disabled artists, scholars, and activists who have come before me, as well as those who continue to imagine new ways of being and creating today. Their work has profoundly shaped my own, and it is a privilege to be creating alongside them.

If there is one example that reflects the spirit of this award, it would be my work in Immersive Descriptive Audio (IDA) through projects like Rainbow on Mars and . Through these projects, I have been exploring access as an art form. Blindness has shaped how I listen, notice, and understand the world. It has revealed new ways of attending to performance, and IDA has become a creative practice through which these ways of knowing shape the making, experiencing, and sharing of art.

For me, innovation has never been about originality for its own sake. It is about remaining attentive, working in relationship, and trusting that access is not a destination but an unending creative practice. I receive this award with deep gratitude, knowing that my work has been shaped by so many others. I am continually inspired by the creativity, generosity, and imagination of blind and disabled artists and scholars, past and present. It is a profound honour to be creating alongside this vibrant community, learning from it every day, and contributing, in whatever ways I can, to the worlds we continue to imagine together.

How grateful are you to have been recognized with your award?

I am deeply grateful to be recognized with this award. I never imagined that my work in blind perception and Immersive Descriptive Audio would find its way into the conversations of the Leaders and Legends Awards committee. To have this work acknowledged in this way is both humbling and deeply meaningful.

What makes this recognition especially important to me is that it feels like recognition not only of my work, but of the ways of knowing that blindness continues to reveal. Everything I create is shaped by what blindness continues to teach me about perception, creativity, and new ways of experiencing the world. Blindness has continually shown me that there are different ways of attending, creating, and understanding that emerge when we engage the world differently. If this award encourages people to think differently about blindness, to approach it with intrigue, and to imagine new creative ways of knowing, creating, and being in the world, then that is incredibly rewarding.

It has also been an honour to be recognized alongside such inspiring colleagues. Sharing this moment with the other award recipients has been both humbling and energizing. The care that Natalie, the Leaders and Legends Awards committee, and everyone involved have shown throughout this process speaks to the spirit of these awards. Opportunities to celebrate one another and the work we do are rare, and I am truly grateful to be part of this community.

Who would you like to pay this honour forward?

I receive this honour as something that extends far beyond me, and I would like to pay it forward to the many blind and disabled artists, scholars, and activists whose creativity, wisdom, generosity, and imagination have shaped my own work. I am grateful to those who have challenged my thinking, expanded my understanding, and shown me that different ways of sensing, knowing, and moving through the world are profound sources of artistic and intellectual possibility.

I would like to recognize the mentors, teachers, colleagues, and friends whose work has guided and inspired me, including Rod Michalko, Alex Bulmer, Lynn Manning, Thomas Reid, Elliot Gibson, Hannah Thompson, Takashi Kikuchi, David Bolt, and Professor Tanya Titchkosky. Their contributions have expanded how I understand blindness, disability, access, and creativity, and I carry their teachings with me in everything I create.

I would also like to recognize Mitchell Cushman, whose encouragement, generosity, and belief in this work helped bring new ideas into focus. His willingness to engage with the possibilities of Immersive Descriptive Audio and to support the creative exploration of access as an art form was instrumental in helping this work take shape.

I am deeply grateful to the artists and collaborators at , whose openness, imagination, and commitment to creating together have helped bring new artistic understandings of access into being. Through this collaboration, I have experienced how meaningful innovation emerges through trust, shared imagination, and a willingness to create in relationship with one another.

I hope to pay this honour forward by continuing to create spaces where blind and disabled artists, scholars, and creators are recognized as the people imagining, shaping, and transforming the worlds we share. This award is a reminder that creativity is something we nurture together, and I am deeply grateful to be part of that ongoing conversation.

Who would you like to thank?

There are so many people who have shaped this journey, and this recognition truly belongs to a community.

First, I want to thank my partner, Nate Bitton, whose love, imagination, and unwavering partnership are woven through everything I do. He has embraced blindness with openness, wonder, and a willingness to imagine alongside me. So much of this work has been nurtured through the conversations we share, the questions we continue to ask together, and his steadfast belief in the ways of knowing that blindness continues to reveal. This recognition belongs to him as much as it does to me.

I also want to thank my daughter, Adelaide, who reminds me every day to hold onto wonder and the magic of the world. She has an extraordinary way of refusing to accept things simply because they have always been done that way. Instead, she reminds me to keep asking questions, to remain open, and to continually reimagine what is possible. I am especially grateful that she could be here today to experience the generosity and inspiration of this community.

My deepest thanks also go to my longtime collaborator, Robert Binet. It has been a privilege to imagine and create alongside him over the years. His artistic generosity, imagination, and unwavering faith in the creative possibilities of blind perception have enriched every project we've shared and have been instrumental in bringing these ideas to life.

I am grateful to Professor Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández, Chair of the Department of Social Justice Education, and to my colleagues and students, whose questions, care, and intellectual generosity continually challenge and inspire me. It is a privilege to be part of a department that creates the space to imagine differently and to pursue work that seeks not only to make change, but to create new and more expansive ways of being in the world.

I would also like to thank Jeff Hall, whose nomination for this award means so much to me. To know that someone you learn alongside recognizes the value of my work is an extraordinary gift. This award reminds me that none of us does this work alone. We create, question, and imagine in community. There is something genuinely magical about gathering to celebrate one another’s work, and I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of a community that continues to make that kind of magic possible.

Distinguished Service Award
Winner: Dr. Debby Wilson Danard

This award honours exceptional individuals for longstanding or distinguished service in an area of public importance.

Dr. Debby Wilson Danard is a Traditional Knowledge Practitioner, Indigenous Life Promotion Ambassador, artist, and lecturer in various institutes. With seven journal and magazine publications, she engages in community work across Ontario focused on cultural teachings and women's associations. She is the Owner & Consultant of the Union Star Consulting Life Teachings Lodge. Founded in 2015, the Lodge mobilizes traditional knowledge as a cultural intervention and aims to create paradigm shifts that support a sustainable community centred approach.

In partnership with principal Dr. Bonnie McElhinny of New College, the Askaakamigokwe-wigamig (The Mother Earth Learning Lounge) was raised at St. George Campus to support Indigenous students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Various Indigenous educators at U of T use it as a learning space to this day. 

An independent research project followed in 2021/2022 with Virtual Grounds: Platform and Trinity Square Video and the Digital Justice Lab, showcasing a video of the lodge with Debby providing a voiceover about the meaning the space for the Indigenous community. 

How do you believe you best encapsulated this award? Can you provide one example of how?

I believe I best encapsulate the OISE Distinguished Service Award through my lifelong commitment to creating educational spaces where culture, belonging, and relationships transform the lives of learners and communities. This work has always been grounded in the belief that education is not only the transmission of knowledge, but the creation of conditions where people can live more fully, connect more deeply, and imagine different futures together.

One example of this work is the raising of Askaakamigokwewigamig (Mother Earth Learning Lodge) in 2020 — a space that emerged through ceremony, community responsibility, and a commitment to creating a place where youth could experience belonging in a time of profound uncertainty.

Following the commitments of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, there was a growing desire for ceremony and for a sacred fire to be lit within the university community. That desire was shaped by longstanding questions of responsibility, care, and who holds responsibility to tend to such spaces within institutions of higher learning.

Over time, these questions of cultural protection became intertwined with questions of authority, approval, and belonging within the university context. Before this work could fully take form, the world entered a period of global isolation through the COVID-19 pandemic.

During that time, people were separated from family, from ceremony, and from community. For many students and young people, this did not only create isolation, but a deepening sense of uncertainty and heaviness. In that moment, the need for spaces rooted in life, belonging, and relational care became urgent rather than abstract. The teachings carried through this time reminded us that living traditions are not preserved in isolation — they are sustained through relationship, participation, and renewal across generations.

Through ceremony, reflection, and collective responsibility, the lodge began to take form. With borrowed canvas and shared intention, a small group gathered to raise Askaakamigokwewigamig (Mother Earth Learning Lodge) within the New College quad. And in that moment, a sacred fire was lit.

What emerged was not only a structure, but a living educational space — an architecture of well-being that shows what becomes possible when students, educators, Elders, and community members come together to create conditions of belonging within the university. This moment reflects the work I have committed my life to, and my scholarship in Life Promotion: the understanding that futures are not simply inherited, but actively shaped through relationships, responsibility, and care.

How grateful are you to have been recognized with your award?

I am deeply grateful to be recognized with the OISE Distinguished Service Award. I received this honour not only as recognition of my own journey, but as recognition of the many relationships, teachings, students, colleagues, Elders, community members, and knowledge-holders who have shaped and sustained this work.

The work that led to Askaakamigokwewigamig was formed through many hands, many responsibilities, and many acts of care. Each contribution—whether through ceremony, teaching, labour, or presence—became part of what continues to hold the space today.

This recognition is meaningful because it affirms that educational spaces rooted in culture, ceremony, belonging, and relational responsibility are not supplementary to university life — they are essential to it. I carry this recognition forward as responsibility: to continue supporting and protecting spaces where learners and future generations can find connection, purpose, and belonging.

Who would you like to pay this honour forward?

I would like to pay this honour forward to the young people who continue to seek spaces of belonging, connection, and possibility. They are the reason this work matters. Their questions, courage, and willingness to imagine otherwise have shaped the path forward in ways that continue to teach me.

Who would you like to thank? 

I extend deep gratitude to the many people who have carried this work alongside me — the students, colleagues, Elders, community members, cultural knowledge holders, and partners who contributed their time, care, teachings, and relationships to the creation and continuation of Askaakamigokwewigamig.

I am especially grateful to those who helped gather the poles of this Lodge — those who understood that building a space for belonging requires many people carrying different responsibilities. Some carried ceremony, some carried teachings, some carried care, and some carried vision forward when it was not yet fully visible.

In 2026, Askaakamigokwewigamig continues to live. As a living educational space grounded in traditional knowledge and relational practice, it requires sustained institutional commitment and support to remain accessible and properly resourced for future generations. Its continued presence reflects both its significance and the shared responsibility of ensuring that spaces such as this can endure within the university.

I offer gratitude to the ancestors and those who came before us, whose teachings continue to guide this work, and to the future generations who will carry it forward and shape what comes next.

Global Service Award
Winner: Dr. Muhammad Waqar Ahmad 

This award celebrates an extraordinary individual for commitment to addressing the world's social and humanitarian challenges with notable global impact.

Dr. Muhammad Waqar Ahmad is currently a Strategic Communications & Public Diplomacy Advisor at Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Waqar is committed to creating measurable outcomes and driving social impact through collaboration and strategic vision. Through his work, he devises advocacy programs and digital diplomacy initiatives while advising senior leadership, including the foreign minister on public outreach strategies. 

He worked for five years in the U.S. Department of State and for four years at the NATO Association of Canada, where he built strong relationships and solutions with partnering countries both physically and digitally and established the first support network for sexual minorities in Pakistan.

How do you believe you best encapsulated this award? Can you provide one example of how?

One conviction has defined my entire professional journey: the most important investment we can make is in people. Throughout my career—be it at the University of Toronto, with the U.S. Department of State, the NATO Association of Canada, or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan—I experienced firsthand that sustainable change rarely comes from the institutions themselves. It comes from people who are empowered, mentored, trusted and enabled to lead. This belief shaped each and every phase of my professional life. From supporting international exchange programs and leadership training to initiatives in the field of public diplomacy and the mentoring of young leaders — I have always tried to create opportunities that go far beyond a single project or event. My goal is to help others gain self-confidence, improve the skills, and build networks to make an impact.

One example that reflects this commitment is my work in public diplomacy and strategic communication. Over the years, I have helped students, scientists, journalists, political stakeholders and future leaders connect and engage beyond borders. Even though most of my work happens behind the scenes, success can be seen through the networks and opportunities that I help cultivate for others. I have had the privilege of leading what I like to call an "army without weapons". Public diplomacy is about ideas, trust, and understanding. It is based on the conviction that stories travel faster than any plane could and that ideas force developments long before political measures. In times of conflict, be it through education exchange, cultural engagement, digital diplomacy or strategic communication, I have seen how uncertainty combined with sensible commitment can bring people together.

What makes this award so meaningful to me is that it recognizes a philosophy that I was first been introduced to by OISE: leadership is not about accumulating success, but multiplying chances. It’s about building institutions in which people don’t have to leave their values at the door, in which mentoring is part of the culture and service to others is a parameter for success. If my work will have any lasting effect, it is only because I have tried to honour the faith and support others have placed in me, by investing in people and helping them on their way.

How grateful are you to have been recognized with your award?

I feel deeply honoured and I am grateful from the bottom of my heart.

Receiving the Global Service Award from OISE and the University of Toronto means so much to me because it comes from the organization that has most broadened and shaped my understanding of leadership, citizenship and service.

As an international student, I joined OISE in pursuit of knowledge and new insights. However when I left, I had gained something far more precious: a profound understanding for the role of education in strengthening the mutual understanding between cultures, communities and countries. The collaborative specialization program between OISE and the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs has further enhanced my experience. Thanks to that program, I learned about international cooperation and the complex interplay of today‘s global challenges and stakeholders' motives and actions.

Since my graduation, I was lucky enough to work in various functions in the fields of government, diplomacy, international cooperation and higher education. I participated in impactful programs such as the Professional Fellows Program and the European Union Visitors Programme, and I had the privilege of supporting international initiatives. For example I served as the Press Site Assistant for the former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during ASEAN Summit.

What makes me appreciate and value the award even more, is the fact that it comes from my alma mater. OISE has shaped the standards and values that govern my work every day. Receiving this award from a community that has invested so much in my personal development, is a great honour and a big asset. I accept the award with gratitude and the commitment to support others in any way I can.

Who would you like to pay this honour forward?

I would like to pay this honour forward to young people who might have not recognized their own potential, yet.

In my life and my career, mentors, teachers, colleagues and friends have invested their time, trust and encouragement in me. Many of the opportunities that have shaped my path would not have been possible if not for the support of others, whether they “opened doors“ or believed in me, when I did not. This experience taught me an essential lesson: talent is universal, chances are not! This is why I always try to create chances for others, be it through mentoring, the exchange of knowledge, initiatives for leadership development or simply by encouraging someone to go the next step on his way.

During my entire career, I was always convinced that people should not leave their values at the door when they enter the workplace. The most powerful institutions are those who create an atmosphere in which integrity, empathy, authenticity and motivation can thrive and where people feel respected, supported and enabled to progress in their development.

If there is any legacy I want to leave behind, it’s not a title, position or achievement. It’s people who feel more confident, capable and empowered because somebody has taken the time to invest in them. That is the spirit in which I accept his honour, and it is also the spirit I wish to pay forward.

Who would you like to thank?

There are many people who played a key role on my way to this recognition.

Firstly, I would like to thank the OISE community. OISE not only made my education possible, it also shaped my views on leadership, service and my responsibility to make the world a better place. I am especially touched because along the way OISE always was a source of encouragement for me. From celebrating my selection as the first Canadian of Pakistani origin to be recognized by NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division and participate in a NATO summit in 2018, to now receiving the Global Service Award, OISE has always proven that service beyond borders matters.

I am especially grateful to Natalie Neumann Butler, whose stewardship of the Leaders and Legends Awards celebrates alumni making meaningful contributions to their communities and professions. I am also deeply thankful to Satpal McCaughey, my former supervisor at the University of Toronto Division of University Advancement, whose flexibility and mentorship enabled me to balance my studies at OISE with my professional responsibilities at the University. I also thank Dr. Meng Xiao for supporting me throughout the nomination process, my fellow OISE alum Dr. Jibran Ahmed for his encouragement, and Her Excellency Saima Sayed for her faith in my nomination and steadfast support.

I remain profoundly grateful to my doctoral supervisors, Njoki Wane and Abigail Bakan, whose guidance and scholarship shaped my academic journey and deepened my understanding of equity, justice, and global engagement. I am equally grateful to the professors, mentors, classmates, colleagues, and friends who have shaped my journey. My time at OISE, including my involvement with the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, broadened my perspectives and reinforced the importance of dialogue, partnership, and international engagement.

Most of all I would like to thank my parents. Long before stepping into OISE’s classrooms, they have taught me that education is much more than just getting degrees and building one‘s career.

It is about broadening one’s horizon, strengthening mutual understanding and promoting peace in a world of conflict.

Thus, this recognition is not the result of a single achievement or one evening, it stands for decades of learning, countless flights, sleepless nights, restless days and the faith other’s had placed in me and for that, I am deeply grateful.

Mentor of the Year Award
Winner: Dr. Sofia Malik

This award honours an individual who has offered exceptional support, guidance and encouragement to members of the OISE community.

Dr. Sofia Malik, Scholar and Assistant Professor of Practice, Educational Leadership and Policy Department, University of Texas, made a lasting impact within OISE.

Previously an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education and Sessional Lecturer, Educational Leadership & Policy at OISE, she has been an active member within OISE’s community for several years. Establishing herself as a leader, she coordinated the Doctor of Education program, served as co-director of the International Educational Leadership and Policy Doctor of Education program, an alumni representative on the U of T College of Electors, and continues to serve as a doctoral committee member within U of T.

Her work has focused on leading high-performing teams on education policy and eliminating systematic barriers for students. Her research examines how educational evidence can be effectively shared and applied to inform policy, practice, and organizational decision-making.

Sofia, a 2019 Arbor Award winner, has explored strategies that strengthen connections between researchers, educators, and policymakers. Her scholarship has contributed to a deeper understanding of how educational organizations can improve the accessibility and impact of research, supporting evidence-informed practice across the education sector.

How do you believe you best encapsulated this award? Can you provide one example of how?

Mentorship, for me, has never been about a single conversation; it's about building something that lasts. What connects all of my mentorship is a commitment to knowledge mobilization, the belief that research only fulfills its promise when it moves into the hands of people who can act on it. My own career has taken me from the Ontario Ministry of Education and leading the Peel District School Board’s research department to OISE as a faculty member and the University of Texas at Austin, and that boundary-spanning experience is something I deliberately bring into how I mentor.

I could point to two kinds of examples, one organizational, one academic. When I co-founded the MEd Policy Internship with OISE’s Educational Leadership and Policy Program and the Ontario Ministry of Education, I wanted to create a real bridge between the rigour of OISE and the world students were stepping into. Students who came through that program, as well as students I mentored through the OISE Mentorship Program, now hold positions across Ontario's public service and academia.

But I also think of Dr. Muhammad Shah, a former master's student at OISE in 2018, who is now a faculty member overseas. Several years later, we have co-authored publications and presented together at AERA in Los Angeles. That trajectory, from student to scholarly collaborator, is what mentorship looks like when it takes root. That kind of impact, both structural and relational, is what I hope this award reflects.

How grateful are you to have been recognized with this award?

I’m deeply honoured to receive this award. This recognition is especially meaningful as I mark a decade as an alum of OISE, an institution I graduated from in 2016 and have never really left no matter where I am in the world. To be recognized by the very community that gave me so much feels like a full-circle moment that I will carry with me always. Mentorship is something I give from the heart — so to have it seen and celebrated here means everything.

Who would you like to pay this honour forward?

I would like recent and future OISE graduates to see themselves as part of a lifelong network of educators, scholars, and leaders who are shaping what education looks like locally and globally.

My message to them is: your OISE identity doesn’t expire at convocation. The relationships you build here, the intellectual commitments you develop here — those travel with you and they create a sense of responsibility in the best sense. We owe it to each other to keep that network alive and pay it forward.

Who would you like to thank?

I am here because of the mentorship I received, and I am acutely aware of that. I want to thank my doctoral committee Dr. Carol Campbell, Dr. Jane Gaskell, and Dr. Ruth Childs whose guidance shaped my scholarly identity.

I also want to acknowledge the LHAE community and the OISE Alumni Association. In particular, I want to thank those whose quiet, consistent leadership has meant the world to me: Sim Kapoor, Natalie Neuman Butler and Sabrina Persaud. And I am genuinely grateful to my nominators—Umar Qureshi, Muhammad Shah, and Samra Sheikh—whose generosity in putting my name forward is the highest compliment.