Windsor native Mary Jo Haddad (CM, LLD, MHSC, BSCN), former president and CEO of the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), and recipient of a 2005 honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Windsor, will be installed as the eighth Chancellor of the University of Windsor during the 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 28, session of Convocation.

Dr. Haddad, who is well known for her innovative leadership and commitment to children’s health in both Canada and internationally, has served as a corporate director and president of MJH & Associates, providing strategic leadership and healthcare advisory services since her 2014 retirement from SickKids.

She serves as a member of the Board of Directors of TD Bank Group and TELUS, where she is chair of the Human Resources and Compensation Committee. She continues to volunteer her time as an advocate for children and youth as chair of the board of Children First Canada, and is a member of the capital campaign for SickKids. Haddad has also held board appointments as founding chair, MaRS Innovation; chair, Provincial (Ontario) Council for Maternal Child Health; director at the Vector Institute; director of Kids Health Links Foundation and trustee (ex-officio) SickKids; and director, SickKids Foundation Board.

She was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2010 and received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. She is a recipient of the Premier’s Award for Outstanding Achievement.

As Chancellor, Haddad will serve as the titular head of the University and confer all degrees and diplomas on behalf of the Senate. The Chancellor also represents the University in an official capacity at external functions.

Haddad’s appointment follows the announcement this past August that Ed Lumley would be stepping down as Chancellor. Following his appointment in 2006 Lumley worked tirelessly to promote the University and conferred degrees on nearly 55,000 graduates — 40 per cent of the University’s 136,000 alumni.

Nearly 3,900 graduands will receive degrees during eight sessions of Convocation — two sessions daily at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. from May 28 to 31 in the St. Denis Centre.

The University will also award honorary degrees to six individuals who have made outstanding contributions to politics, science, business, the arts, law, and public service.

Receiving honorary degrees are:

• Edward C. Lumley (PC, CM, LLD, BComm 1961), outgoing University of Windsor Chancellor, former MP and cabinet minister, entrepreneur, and former vice-chair of BMO Nesbitt Burns;
• Datta Pillay, biology researcher, community booster, and professor emeritus;
• Sherry Cooper, economist and writer;
• Tom McCamus (BA 2007), award-winning Canadian actor;
• Maureen Jensen, chair and CEO of the Ontario Securities Commission;
• Agnes Di Leonardi (CM, LLB 1986), general counsel, Sym-Tech Dealer Services, women’s leadership advocate.

Lumley will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree during the 3 p.m. Tuesday, May 28, session of Convocation. As outgoing University of Windsor Chancellor, he has been an outstanding advocate for the University of Windsor.

Prior to his appointment as Chancellor, Lumley had a distinguished record of achievement as an entrepreneur and mayor of Cornwall, Ontario, before serving 10 years as a Member of Parliament. He held several senior cabinet portfolios, including Ministers of Industry; International Trade; and Science and Technology.

Following his service in cabinet, he was vice-chair of BMO Nesbitt Burns for more than 25 years, was a member of a number of domestic and international corporate boards of directors, and has been involved in numerous non-profit organizations. On July 1, 2014, he was appointed as a member of the Order of Canada.

Lumley’s support of the University resulted in the naming of the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation in 2013. The $112-million building was the largest capital investment in campus history. It was supported in part by a 2012 benefit event that raised $5.3 million in honour of Lumley which was attended by former prime ministers, premiers, and federal and provincial cabinet ministers.

In fall 2014, the late Ron Joyce, chair of the Joyce Foundation, announced a $10-million gift in support of students at the University of Windsor in the form of a bursary to be named the Ed Lumley Bursary, to recognize the Chancellor’s commitment to the University and the Windsor-Essex community. Since 2015, 58 students have benefited from the bursary and each will qualify for as much as $32,000 in assistance during their four years of study.

Dr. Pillay will receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree during the 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 29, session of Convocation. He joined the University of Windsor’s biology faculty in 1963 and retired in 1997 after 34 years of service.

Pillay served on University Senate, Board of Governors, and for 10 years as the dean of science, as well as a one-year term as president of the Windsor University Faculty Association.

As an NSERC-funded researcher throughout his career, he established a 20-year research collaboration with the University of Strasbourg, and was the first person in Canada to construct a soybean chloroplast tRJNA gene map.

Since his retirement he has been active on the executive of the Windsor University Retirees’ Association and received the University’s Clark Award in 2009 for community service. As well, he was honoured by the United Way Centraide with an Ambassador Award for his 20-year efforts with the campus United Way campaign.

He has received lifetime achievement awards from the National Indo-Canadian Council and India Canada Association of Essex and Windsor, as well as the South Asian Centre’s Professional of the Year Award, and the Ontario Ministry of Services Award for voluntary service.

Dr. Cooper will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree during the 10 a.m. Thursday, May 30, session of Convocation. She is a renowned economist, writer, and recipient of such honours as the Women of Influence Award, the Women’s Executive Network Top 100, and the Golda Meir Leadership Award.

She is currently chief economist, Dominion Lending Centres, and TMX Industry Professor of Financial Economics, DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, as well as principal, Sherry Cooper Associates.

Cooper has served as chief economist for BMO Nesbitt Burns and BMO Capital Markets; chief economist and director, vice-chair, and co-head global fixed income of Burns Fry Limited; director of financial economics U.S. Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae); and economist, Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System.

She is the author of The New Retirement: How it Will Change our Future; Ride the Wave — Taking Control in the Acceleration Age; and The Cooper Files. As well, she was a columnist for the National Post.

Cooper has served on various boards of directors and advisory boards, including SOS Children’s Villages; National Council, C.D. Howe Institute; the Toronto Chapter of the International Women’s Forum; and the Ontario Advisory Council for Investment and Trade.

McCamus will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree during the 3 p.m. Thursday, May 30, session of Convocation. McCamus is an award-winning Canadian actor most widely known for his work on the television show Mutant X; drama film Room; his Genie-nominated performance in Atom Egoyan’s Oscar-nominated 1997 film The Sweet Hereafter; as well as various roles at the Stratford and Shaw Festivals.

He starred in the CBC film Waking Up Walter: The Walter Gretzky Story as hockey dad Walter Gretzky; in the Canadian production Shake Hands With the Devil; and in the miniseries At the Hotel.

McCamus’ most celebrated film role is as struggling actor Henry Adkler in 1993’s I Love a Man in Uniform, for which he won a Genie Award. He was also nominated for a Genie for the 1996 film Long Day’s Journey into Night.

Jensen will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree during the 10 a.m. Friday, May 31, session of Convocation. She is the chair and chief executive officer of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), which administers and enforces securities law in the capital markets of Ontario. She has also served previously as the organization’s executive director and chief administrative officer.

Before joining the OSC, Jensen was senior vice-president for surveillance and compliance at the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), the national self-regulatory organization that oversees all investment dealers and trading activity on debt and equity marketplaces in Canada.

Prior to the formation of IIROC in 2008, she was president and CEO of Market Regulation Services Inc., the independent national market regulation services provider for Canadian equity markets. She also served previously as the organization’s vice-president, market surveillance, and later as vice-president, market regulation Eastern Region. She has also held senior positions in regulatory and business portfolios at the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Jensen is a Registered Professional Geoscientist (P.Geo), holds the ICD.D designation, and had a 20-year career in the mining business where she held both executive and technical management positions with several resource companies.

Di Leonardi will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree during the 3 p.m. Friday, May 31, session of Convocation. She is general counsel for Sym-Tech Dealer Services, where she leads the company’s in-house and compliance team and holds overall responsibility for legal and compliance matters.

After graduating among the top 10 in her class at Windsor Law, she articled and practiced corporate-commercial law at Borden & Elliot before joining Ford Motor Company of Canada Ltd. in 1993 as an in-house lawyer.

Di Leonardi has also served as corporate counsel at several OEMs, including Mazda Canada; Ford Credit Canada; and Ford Motor Company of Canada’s Premier Automotive Group.

She was the first Canadian to serve as general counsel and corporate secretary of Mazda Canada, which is headquartered in Japan, and was the first-ever female board director of Mazda Canada.

Di Leonardi has played key roles in such automotive industry associations as the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association of Canada, Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association, and the Global Automakers of Canada, and has worked on many automotive industry-related issues with impact in Ontario — particularly Windsor — Canada, and globally.

She has been recognized as a world-leading general counsel by the Legal Era Group, as well as a leading Canadian general counsel by the Legal500 GC Powerlist Canada.

In May 2018, Di Leonardi was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in recognition of her leadership in the automotive industry, and for her commitment to mentoring and supporting Canadian women leaders through her work with the International Women’s Forum of Canada, a global organization with a mission to advance women’s leadership.

Convocation Schedule

Tuesday, May 28, at 10 a.m., graduands of the Odette School of Business and the Faculty of Graduate Studies will receive degrees; at 3 p.m., graduands of the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Graduate Studies will receive degrees.

Wednesday, May 29, at 10 a.m., graduands of the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Graduate Studies will receive degrees.

In sessions Thursday, May 30, at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., graduands of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Faculty of Graduate Studies will receive degrees.

Friday, May 31, at 10 a.m., graduands of the faculties of Education, Human Kinetics, Nursing, and Graduate Studies will receive degrees; at 3 p.m., graduands of the Faculty of Law will receive degrees.

Local students will have the opportunity to turn new pages of history this September — pages of a comic book, that is.

A 10-page comic book along with a teachers’ guide is the latest development to grow out of the Breaking the Colour Barrier: Wilfred (Boomer) Harding and the Chatham Coloured All-Stars project.

Created by local artist Scott Chantler with help from UWindsor librarian and history professors Heidi Jacobs and Miriam Wright, the comic brings to life the story of the 1934 Chatham Coloured All-Stars victory game.

Chantler joined the Harding project team in 2016, when he created a series of baseball trading cards and a four-panel cartoon for the official launch of the Breaking the Colour Barrier website.

The art was so well received the team decided to collaborate on a longer version as a component of the “Telling the Stories of Race and Sport in Canada” project, for which Drs. Wright and Jacobs received a SSHRC Connections Grant in 2017.

In addition to the comic, the team reached out to English professor and comics studies scholar, Dale Jacobs, to help develop a teachers’ guide to help educators bring the comic and story of Boomer Harding and the Chatham Coloured All-Stars into classrooms. The guide builds on the curricular resources local teacher Shantelle Browning Morgan created for the Breaking the Colour Barrier project.

What started as a collection of old photographs and frail newspaper clippings quickly developed into one of the strongest examples of storytelling, preservation, and community collaboration involving Leddy Library to date.

Copies of the comic will be distributed to schools and libraries this summer and are available to purchase online and at the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society. The cost is $5; proceeds from the sale will support the CK Black Historical Society.

View the Chatham Coloured All-Stars mini-comic at Leddy Library and learn more about the Harding Project online.

—Marcie Demmans

The “Go Grey in May” cause is close to her heart, says Karen Metcalfe, co-ordinator of the Windsor Cancer Research Group and organizer of an associated walk to raise funds and awareness in the fight against brain tumours.

Her daughter Mckenna was diagnosed with a brain tumour at the age of four years old. Now 14 years old, she is a proud spokesperson for the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada.

Metcalfe notes others on campus have felt the impact of the disease, including psychologist Mary Anne Johnston, who died in July 2018, and professor Alan Scoboria, who died in April 2019.

“We want to take a day to remember those we have lost, support those who need it, and raise awareness,” Metcalfe says.

A national campaign encourages people to wear grey apparel or a grey ribbon during the month of May. Campus organizers will host an event at 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 22, in the CAW Student Centre Commons.

“We’d love to have people take 30 minutes out of their day, wear grey, and join us,” says Metcalfe. “It’s a small commitment with a big impact.”

The Brain Tumour Walk Windsor is set for Saturday, June 8, starting at the Riverside Sportsmen Club. A new team this year will honour Dr. Johnston’s memory. Learn more, register to join, or make a donation on the foundation’s website.

A symposium bringing together artists, writers, and researchers from across North America will examine the idea that anticipation is as much a social phenomenon as a psychological one.

“Nervous anticipation, buoyed by real time political events on social media, creates a charged atmosphere where 240 characters or click-bait memes overwhelm fact, and evoke an intensity of responses,” say the organizers of the “Structures of Anticipation” symposium.

“Information drowns out meaning and thoughtfulness, generating the ‘sensation’ of anticipation. Anxiety and trepidation swirl as we navigate social, political, and economic turbulence that seems infinitely deferred.”

The symposium will include two public events.

A book launch and readings from Feelings of Structure: Explorations in Affect, edited by UWindsor professor Karen Engle and Alberta University of the Arts professor Yoke-Sum Wong, will take place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 23, at SB Contemporary Art, 1017 Church St.

An exhibition entitled Structures of Anticipation will have its opening reception at the same location on Friday, May 24, from 5 to 8 p.m.

For more information, contact Dr. Engle at kengle@uwindsor.ca.

─Sarah Sacheli

Family, friends, and colleagues came together on May 7 to honour psychology professor Ben C.H. Kuo as the 2019 recipient of the Mary Lou Dietz Equity Leadership Award.

Dr. Kuo was nominated by Shelagh Towson who spoke to his many contributions over the years to equity and diversity.

The award was established by Status of Women, Diversity and Equity Action Committee of the Windsor University Faculty Association in memory of Mary Lou Dietz. It honours members of the association who demonstrate the spirit of leadership through their contributions to creating an equity culture on campus.

Adding to the special occasion was the presence of Dr. Dietz’s daughter Evanne Dietz, son Leif Lorenz, and granddaughter Nadia Dietz.