Awardees (2023)

The Teamwork Initiative is an innovative program within E-IDEA (Engineering Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity Advancement) with the goal of incorporating teamwork skills and applied concepts of equity, diversity, and inclusion into undergraduate courses in the Faculty of Engineering. The Teamwork Initiative partners with course instructors across departments to offer in-class workshops, along with support, advising, and pedagogical tools. Their approach aims to build instructors’ capacity to improve student teams’ abilities to work together in more effective, equitable, and engaging ways.

Adi Sneg (she/her/elle) is the Equity Education Program Administrator at Teaching and Learning Services (TLS). She oversees the Our Shared Spaces (OSS) program which offers equity programming to McGill students of all levels. Adi connects with on- and off-campus student groups and sits on various EDI working groups, bridging McGill students’ equity needs with local and global conversations as they evolve over time. She is passionate about moving past theory and towards actions grounded in accessibility and anti-oppression, as well as modelling equitable labour practices in her supervision of OSS’ workshop facilitators. Adi holds a BA in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies and Sociology from McGill.

Dr. Charles Gyan is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at McGill University. Dr. Gyan embodies a harmonious blend of intellectual pursuits and a deep-rooted passion for effecting social policy change, transnational social work practice, and community development. His multifaceted journey has seamlessly interwoven his academic and research interests with a profound dedication to advancing social justice. At the heart of Dr. Gyan's scholarly pursuits lies a conviction that society can be transformed through the pursuit of equity and fairness. His program of research reverberates with a resolute commitment to dismantling systemic barriers and championing the rights of marginalized communities. In every inquiry, he seeks to unveil the invisible threads that perpetuate inequality and inequity, striving to pave a more just and inclusive path forward. Dr. Gyan is the founding chair of Black Access McGill (BAM), an initiative that echoes his unwavering mission to create pathways that empower Black students within the McGill School of Social Work. Under his leadership, BAM has ignited transformative pathways, forged avenues that amplify outreach, recruitment, retention, and the graduation of Black students within the McGill School of Social Work.

Laura Nilson joined McGill in 2000 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology. She held a Canada Research Chair in Developmental Genetics from 2001-2011 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2017. In 2012 she took on an administrative role as Associate Dean, first at Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and then in the Faculty of Science as Associate Dean (Graduate Education). Through her work in the Faculty of Science, she chose to take on an additional role in thinking about issues of equity, diversity, inclusion and institutional climate. In 2018 she launched the Faculty of Science Equity and Climate Committee (SECC). With representation from each department and other Faculty units, the SECC serves as a hub for communication, capacity building, and initiative development. In general, the SECC focuses on addressing equity, diversity, and inclusion directly, through the development of targeted policies and support mechanisms, and also indirectly, by promoting a climate for working and learning in which all our students, faculty and academic and administrative staff feel included and capable of success as full participants in McGill’s academic mission.