Congratulations to the nine Engineering staff members who were honoured by the Faculty at the 6th annual Celebrating Engineering Excellence reception on April 24th.

This year’s winner of the Agnes Kaneko Citizenship Award is Mary Stathopoulos, Administrative Coordinator in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE). Named in memory of a valued staff member, this award recognizes staff who have served with distinction and made contributions to the Faculty’s mission above and beyond their job description. Mary has been with ECE since 1986, and prior to that spent seven years at the Faculty Registrar’s Office. Over the last three decades, her dedication to the Department and the Faculty has been exemplary. Above and beyond her meticulous and professional approach to her challenging administrative role, Mary’s caring and compassion have helped to make the working environment at ECE positive, inclusive and welcoming for all its members.

Tom Nault, Director of Admissions and Director of Academic Scheduling, received the Harpreet Dhariwal Emerging Leader Award. This award, which was renamed this year in honour of the late Harpreet Dhariwal, recognizes a staff member who demonstrates potential to assume a more senior leadership role. Tom was instrumental in the creation of an action plan to modernize our administration of courses and programs and provide our students with more flexibility and choice in their curricula. He is also leading an effort of create a new timetabling system which will improve the way classroom space is allocated. During Tom’s tenure as Director of Admissions, the Faculty has seen a significant rise in applications and our highest-ever entrance average.

The Influential Leader Award, for a staff member who demonstrates exemplary support for the Faculty’s endeavours and has made significant sustained contributions to the Faculty, was awarded to Sandra Walker. Currently on secondment as Acting Director of the Dean’s Office, Sandra has been with the Faculty since 2000, and has served as Manager of Operations for IBBME since 2007. In addition to her exceptional work managing the Institute’s complex day-to-day operations, she has expertly overseen such challenging projects as the rebuilding of the IBBME teaching lab. Sandra has assembled an outstanding administrative team and established a formal communication and review process to help them reach their career goals.

The team of Khuong Doan, Adam Fox, Linda Marsh, Sergei Metropolitanksy and Dan Pettigrew, of the Office of the Registrar, received the Innovation Award, which recognizes staff members who have developed an innovative new method, technology or system. This team developed the Faculty’s new Online Petition and Information System, an intuitive and user-friendly web-based portal which allows students to conveniently and securely submit petitions and supporting evidence online. The result is a more efficient process for our staff, better service to our students, and a significant step towards the Faculty’s goal of a paperless office. This team recently received an Excellence Through Innovation Award from U of T in recognition of the impact of this new system.

This year’s recipient of the Quality of Student Experience Award, which recognizes a staff member who has made significant contributions to the quality of student experience in the Faculty, is Deborah Peart. Through her full-time role in ChemE and her current secondment in MIE, Deborah has made outstanding contributions to the quality of student experience in these departments – through her direct involvement with the students and her work behind the scenes. In both roles, she has been instrumental in running the departmental Leaders of Tomorrow programs and in creating a number of innovative and successful student and alumni events. Deborah was a co-recipient of the Faculty’s Inaugural Innovation Award for her contributions to ChemE’s Graduate Recruitment Weekend.

“These awards acknowledge the outstanding contributions that our staff are making to the Faculty’s research and educational missions and the essential role they play in our success,” said Cristina Amon, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “I offer my congratulations and gratitude to the awardees, and thank all our staff members for their dedication and commitment to excellence.”