Faculty award recipients

Congratulations to this year’s award-winning professors, lecturers and staff at FCS!

Cristina Catallo is a professor and graduate program director in the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing (DCSN). As graduate program director, she has worked to establish a holistic admissions strategy to support equity-deserving applicants’ entry into graduate education. As academic lead for the PhD in Urban Health, Catallo helped launch this new program during the pandemic. She seeks innovative ways to bring interdisciplinary faculty and a diverse group of  graduate students together to carry out collaborative research opportunities that have lasting impact. As a professor, Catallo is committed to student engagement and mentorship and collaborates with graduate scholars on student-centered scholarly, research and creative activities.

Lauren Munro is a professor in the School of Disability Studies. Munro is an innovative teacher who cultivates classroom environments that are compassionate, thought provoking, and spark critical thinking. Munro brings her whole self into the classroom, encouraging students to approach their work in ways that are humble, personally meaningful and reflexive. As a mad, queer, fat activist scholar, Munro encourages students to see the classroom as a site of personal and social transformation and a space to explore how the world could be otherwise. She is also the consummate collaborator, working across academic units and institutions to demonstrate how we can learn interdependently.

Eliza Chandler is a professor in the School of Disability Studies. A passionate critical disability studies scholar, curator and activist, Chandler promotes pedagogical practices that anticipate, welcome and embrace difference as a valued way of being and knowing. During the nine years since she began teaching in the School of Disability Studies, Chandler has drawn on research and creative practice in disability arts and culture to develop innovative curriculum. Her courses on Cripping the Arts and Disability Cultural Production, the first of their kind in Canada, disrupt normative aesthetics and foreground critical access with broad appeal to students across the university.

Jennifer Ajandi is a contract lecturer with the School of Social Work. Ajandi is truly deserving of this award as an exemplar of a critical educator who thrives in the role of a mentor to her students. With 15 years of experience as a contract lecturer, activist in the community, and previously elected public school board trustee, education and equity are at the heart of her work. Students’ well-being is at the centre of her teaching, while engaging in difficult discussions and challenging dominant discourses in practice. She goes above and beyond what is expected of an instructor, listens, and facilitates shared knowledge building in the classroom.

Mandana Vahabi is a professor in the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing. Vahabi is an outstanding researcher and scholar. She has the unparalleled ability to mobilize knowledge uptake among diverse stakeholders. Her work focuses on population health promotion and health equity. She attends to social determinants of healthcare access, chronic diseases and health outcomes among marginalized populations. Drawing on her extensive expertise in social epidemiology and community health, she collaborates with community stakeholders and multidisciplinary researchers, locally and globally, to develop and implement innovative interventions to mitigate health disparities. She employs mixed methodologies and secondary analyses of population databases to generate critical knowledge to advance inclusive programming and policy change.

Samantha Biglieri is a professor in the School of Urban and Regional Planning, and the director of the Health, Access + Planning (HAP) Lab. Biglieri’s scholarly, research and creative contributions in the area of aging and experience of people living with dementia in North American communities are internationally recognized. Her works, which focus at the intersection of research and practice, have also been highlighted in professional venues. As an emerging scholar, she has published prolifically, secured several large research grants, and has demonstrated major academic leadership through the publication of a recent book entitled Aging People, Aging Places (external link) .

Linda Rothman is a professor with the School of Occupational and Public Health. Rothman has made significant contributions to the field of injury prevention — currently focusing on social inequities in unintentional injuries as related to the COVID-19 pandemic. She provides expertise to researchers and municipalities across Canada in evaluating built environment infrastructure to promote safe active transportation. Rothman was awarded the Early Researcher Award from the provincial government, and secured two CIHR grants (as principal investigator, co-principal investigator) and a municipal contract, while holding four additional grants/contracts (three CIHR). Her research makes a significant impact on society, as it recently contributed to City Council’s decision to make new ActiveTO cycling infrastructure permanent.

Susan Silver is a professor in the School of Social Work and has dedicated her 28-year career at TMU to advocating for equity, diversity, and inclusion, ensuring all have voice and opportunity. Her research, teaching, and service have been guided by social justice. Silver has established a legacy of hiring social work faculty with diverse and intersectional identities including race, gender, sexual orientation and disability. As co-chair of the Employees with Disabilities Community Network and co-chair of the Late Career Faculty Group, she continues to tirelessly promote accessibility, accommodation and inclusion. She truly deserves the Alan Shepard Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Award for Faculty.

Susana Neves-Silva is manager of the Central Placement Office and Simulation for the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing. Neves-Silva has a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and passion as a nursing leader. She shows genuine compassion for students and staff. She persistently advocates for resources to support the nursing program and enhance the student experience. Neves-Silva demonstrated perseverance throughout the pandemic and helped to vaccinate community citizens during the TMU COVID 19 vaccine clinic. She committed to keeping the clinical labs open to nursing students during provincial lockdowns by collaborating with various teams to create pandemic safety protocols with no outbreak incidents. Neves-Silva is a trusted, valued, and respected leader truly deserving of this recognition.

Yu Ying (Linda) Ling is an outstanding research account support officer in the Faculty of Community Services. She has earned tremendous respect for her expertise and effectiveness in research finance support. She is solution-focused and prompt in responding to queries from colleagues across departments. She is highly praised — by faculty, research fellows and student researchers alike — for her unassuming attitude, thoughtful generosity, genuine enthusiasm, and unwavering commitment to professional excellence. She goes above and beyond her duties to promote capacity building, pragmatic engagement, and meaningful collaboration that contribute to everyone's positive experience and success.

We celebrate Milene Ferreira, a graduate program administrator for the School of Early Childhood Studies and the School of Social Work, who epitomizes client service excellence, compassion, big picture vision and painstaking attention to detail. The magnificent Ferreira is student-focused, energized by challenges and adept at collaboration. Transcending the call of duty to facilitate student completion and graduation, she is the heroine of the Master of Social Work (MSW) program. Indefatigable, sensitive, and knowledgeable, she makes students feel welcome and valued, contributing to the program’s recruitment and retention. We know of no one more deserving than this remarkable professional who has anchored the MSW program since its start.

Ian Young is a professor with the School of Occupational and Public Health. Young has provided significant leadership in the development, approval, and planning process for a new Master of Science program in Occupational and Public Health over the past several years. This included leading the letter of intent, full proposal and peer review process. The program was approved by the Senate in May 2021 and officially launched in fall 2022. This was a substantial achievement as the first graduate program in the School of Occupational and Public Health. Young has also been engaged in numerous other service roles the past year, including Senate, Academic Integrity Council, and Departmental Hiring and Evaluation Committees, among others.

Magdalena Ugarte is a professor with the School of Urban and Regional Planning. Since joining the school in 2018, Ugarte has made exceptional contributions to service that seeks to advance racial justice within and beyond TMU, far exceeding expectations for pre-tenure faculty. As the Departmental Hiring Committee’s equity advocate and founding co-chair of the School’s Anti-Systemic Racism and Discrimination Working Group, she has helped identify gaps and led initiatives regarding anti-racism in curriculum redevelopment, student mentorship, hiring practices, and community-engaged teaching and research that serve community priorities. She also sits on diverse faculty- and university-wide committees. Externally, she has served as co-chair of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning’s Gender and Diversity Track and the Executive Director of the Network of Chilean Researchers in Canada.