Architecture
Alina Payne, BSc(Arch)’76, BArch’77, was named a 2026 fellow of the Society of Architectural Historians. The SAH’s highest honour, it recognizes members for significant contributions to architectural history as a discipline and profession. The author, editor and co-editor of several books, she is the Alexander P. Misheff Professor of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University and the Paul E. Geier Director of Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence (Italy).
Arts
Ruth R. Wisse, BA’57, PhD’69, a professor emerita of Yiddish literature and comparative literature at Harvard University, delivered the 52nd Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities on March 25 in Washington. The lecture is the highest honor the U.S. government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities, and speakers are selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Past Jefferson Lecturers include Martin Scorsese, John Updike, Tom Wolfe, David McCullough, Barbara Tuchman, and Lionel Trilling. A former professor at McGill, she helped found the University’s Department of Jewish Studies.
Vera Frenkel, BA’59, a multidisciplinary artist, is presenting her new exhibition As If by Chance… at Koffler Arts in Toronto from May 21 to June 14. The video and photo installation was prompted by an “aversion to ageism at both ends of life’s arc” and a love of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence & of Experience. The exhibition explores what happens when very young children and elders ten times their age meet. She is a past recipient of the Governor General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts.
Reesa Greenberg, BA’67, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new member in 2025. An art historian, she writes and teaches about exhibition histories, museums, and the internet. She has helped advance the digital documentation of Canadian art and as a philanthropist, she played a central role in restoring Canada’s Pavilion in Venice, ensuring its legacy for future generations.
Mary Jane Mossman, BA’67, a professor emerita at Osgoode Hall Law School and the former director of Osgoode’s Institute for Feminist Legal Studies, was awarded an honorary degree by Queen’s University during its spring convocation ceremonies. An influential legal scholar, her work has spanned family law, legal professions, economic dependency, property law, and access to justice, and she helped expand community legal aid clinics across Ontario.
Elaine Bander, BA’68, PhD’81, who taught English at Dawson College for three decades, recently published Reading with Jane Austen (Bucknell University Press). The book explores Austen’s works and examines how she deliberately constructed her novels to set readerly expectations, only to disrupt or confound those expectations by challenging her readers’ assumptions and values.
Peter Howitt, BA’68, a professor emeritus of economics at Brown University and the co-recipient of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences “for the theory of sustained growth through creative destruction,” was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters at Brown University during its commencement and reunion weekend in May.
Michael Carin, BA’72, recently published Edisson and Jeremiah (Guernica Editions). The novel chronicles a magic show unlike any ever staged, performed by a 14-year-old boy, and its impact on a onetime celebrity journalist whose life was shattered by religious fanaticism and the deep fracture in American culture.
Susan Stromberg, MA’75, received an Award of Excellence for her sculpture “Life Within a Tree” at The Great Canadian Art Show, a national juried online exhibition and competition hosted by Artists in Canada last October. Her work was selected from more than 300 sculptures in the exhibition. Her artistic career spans more than four decades and many of her works can be found in public, museum and corporate art collections across Canada and beyond.
Judy Illes, MA’83, a pioneer of the field of neuroethics, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new officer in 2025. She is a professor of neurology at the University of British Columbia and the director of Neuroethics Canada. She was the academic lead of the working group convened by Health Canada on neurotechnology ethics, Canada’s delegate to UNESCO on this subject, and has served as an expert advisor for the World Health Organization and Amnesty International.
Daniel Carey, BA’84, was recently elected as the new president of the Royal Irish Academy, Ireland’s independent learned society encompassing all disciplines. An Established Professor of English at the University of Galway, his teaching interests include Renaissance literature, Shakespeare, Renaissance drama, the eighteenth century, and Romanticism. He has published in a range of interdisciplinary journals on literature, the history of philosophy, history of science, anthropology, and travel.
Maria Eitel, BA’84, was appointed as the chair of the board of directors for LawZero in January. She has held leadership roles at the White House, Microsoft and Nike, where she became its first VP of corporate responsibility. She founded the Nike Foundation and Girl Effect, launching a global movement focused on helping girls build better futures for themselves and their communities. LawZero, created by Yoshua Bengio, BEng’86, MSc’88, PhD’91, DSc’25, the founder of Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, is a nonprofit developing technical solutions for highly capable, safe-by-design AI systems.
Peter Bowering, BA’85, is a Montreal-based musician and real estate broker (known as “The Broker with a Hat”). He did mixing for the Night Lunch album Wall of Love, including the songs “Wall of Love” and “Your Body” which were both featured on the hit television series Heated Rivalry. He recorded “Your Body” in his MOD studio. “Wall of Love” and “Your Body” are also part of the Heated Rivalry official playlist on Spotify.
Stacy Kravitz, BA’91, was part of the 2026 group of individuals named to Grocery Business magazine’s Hall of Fame for their contributions to Canada’s grocery industry. She is the president of UNFI Canada, Canada’s largest distributor of organic, natural, kosher and specialty foods, and natural health care products. Before joining UNFI Canada in 2015, she was the customer vice president for Loblaw Companies LTD.
Reza Satchu, BA’91, is the host of The Founder Mindset with Reza Satchu, a new podcast examining what it takes to become a founder – not in hindsight, but in the moments before outcomes are known when the path is unclear. He is a senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School, and the podcast is produced by HBS’s Foundry initiative. The founder and managing partner of Alignvest Management Corporation, he is also the founding chairman and co-chair of NEXT Canada, a national non-profit committed to supporting young entrepreneurs and innovators. Guests on The Founder Mindset with Reza Satchu include Reese Witherspoon and Kevin O’Leary.
Anne Beaulieu, BA’92, MA’94, is the author of Revealing Relations: Knowledge Infrastructures for Liveable Futures (Bristol University Press), a book that uncovers how knowledge infrastructures – including satellite tracking, climate models, machine learning and citizen science apps – shape our understanding of contemporary crises. She holds the Aletta Jacobs Chair of Knowledge Infrastructures at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands.
Jonathan Wilkinson, MA’92, was appointed by Prime Minister Mark Carney to serve as Canada’s new ambassador to the European Union. He has been a member of Parliament since 2015 and held several senior roles in the federal government, including minister of fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, minister of environment and climate change, and minister of energy and natural resources.
Monica Flores, BA’93, was named as one of the 2025 TLN 10 most Influential Hispanic Canadians. Hosted by TLN Media Group in partnership with the Hispanic Business Alliance, the recognition program celebrates leadership, achievement, and impact within Canada’s Hispanic community. A communications and government relations executive, she is the co-founder of the Canadian Latin American Women Executive Network and former secretary general of the International Women’s Forum (Montreal). She has served on boards for McGill and other institutions.
Patrick Lee Miller, BA’93, has been appointed to a five-year term as the first director of the new Washington Center for Civics, Culture and Statesmanship at West Virginia University. He had been an associate professor of philosophy at Duquesne University, with previous positions at Duke University and Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. His recent philosophical writing uses Platonism to address a range of topics, including gender, sexuality, child psychology, education, natural evolution, virtual reality, spirituality, indecision, truth-telling, and liberal government.
Ana Serrano, BA’93, will receive the 2026 Fire Horse Award at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival in June. She is the president and vice-chancellor of OCAD University. A trailblazer in digital media in Canada, she founded the award-winning Canadian Film Centre Media Lab. The Fire Horse Award recognizes an individual in the media arts and/or screen-based industries who has dedicated their energy and talents to breaking down barriers, uplifting Asian Canadian communities, and sparking cultural change.
Martha Langford, PhD’97, an art historian and a prominent scholar in the field of photographic arts, was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2025 as a new member. A distinguished professor emerita in Concordia’s Department of Art History, she was the founding director of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography.
Eric M. Adams, BA’98,was recently appointed a justice of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta in Edmonton. He had been a professor of law at the University of Alberta, where he had been teaching since 2007. An expert on Canadian constitutional law and Canadian legal history, he is the co-author of Exile: Japanese Canadians and the Wartime Constitution. He has received awards for his teaching and research including the Canadian Association of Law Teachers Academic Excellence Award.
Craig Lockwood, BA’98, a partner with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, has been named as the national chair of the firm’s disputes group. He has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada numerous times and at all court levels in Ontario, Quebec, BC, and New Brunswick, and has served as a member of the Ontario Securities Committee’s securities proceedings advisory committee.
Ziya Tong, MA’99, an author, science journalist and filmmaker with a focus on making science accessible, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new member in 2025. Much of her work highlights urgent environmental issues like the climate crisis and wildlife conservation while promoting actionable solutions.
Effrosyni (Faye) Diamantoudi, PhD’00, began a five-year term as the new provost and vice-president, academic, of Concordia University on May 1, 2026. She had been in the role on an interim basis since September 2025. A professor of economics at Concordia, she has held several leadership positions at the university, including dean of graduate studies and interim vice-president of research and graduate studies. In the past few months, she has led Concordia’s efforts in reviewing its model of academic operations and its program offerings with a view to enhancing the sustainable delivery of its mission.
Kent Glowinski, BA’00, senior legal counsel, privacy and freedom of information, at the Ontario Securities Commission, and a law instructor at Toronto Metropolitan University, has been selected to take part in the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference. The conference was created to broaden the perspectives of “high potential individuals” and to facilitate interactions between emerging leaders from business, labour, government and the broader community.
Christopher Essert, BA’01, became the new dean of the University of Toronto’s Henry N.R. Jackman Faculty of Law in February. Since joining U of T in 2018, he has served as associate dean of the JD Program (2020–2025) and held visiting academic appointments at UCLA School of Law and Auckland Law School. His research focuses on private law, property and tort theory, and legal and political philosophy, and he is the co-author of the main Canadian textbook in tort law.
Scott Gilmore, BA’01, an international human rights lawyer, has joined DiCello Levitt as a partner. He has represented clients from across the globe, including the heirs of slain war correspondent Marie Colvin, survivors of the Darfur genocide, indigenous communities threatened by climate change, families seeking the recovery of Nazi‑confiscated artworks, and whistleblowers exposing global corporate fraud. He also serves as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center.
Jeremy Kuzmarov, BA’01, MA’02, is the co-author of Syria: Anatomy of a Regime Change (Baraka Books), a book that examines the longstanding interests of the U.S. regarding regime change in Syria. His next book, Political Assassinations in America: The Intricate Nexus of Deep State Crime, will be published in August.
Catherine V. Weiler, BA’02, was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario in Toronto. She had been serving as a crown counsel with the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario where her work included arguing sexual assault and homicide appeals before the Court of Appeal for Ontario and conducting financial crime and justice prosecutions. Previously, she had been a senior litigation counsel with the Ontario Securities Commission.
Jessica Trisko Darden, BA’04, PhD’13, an associate professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, recently published The Accused: How Women Faced Justice for Nazi-Era Crimes (Yale University Press). Analyzing records from German, French, Hungarian, Soviet, and Israeli trials, the book examines atrocities that women committed during the Nazi era, as well as the range of legal outcomes that they faced in the wake of the Second World War.
Sarah Marcotte, BA’05, is the co-author of From the Ground Up: Prospect Research (Tanagram Editions), a plain-language guide to all things related to prospect research that can be used by people in different sectors and roles. She has almost 20 years of experience in the nonprofit space, focusing on prospect research, prospect management, and data management. She is currently senior specialist, data steward at SickKids Foundation.
Kat Borlongan, MA’12, was named a knight of the Ordre national du mérite, one of France’s highest civilian honors. A tech entrepreneur, she led the French Tech Mission, helping to design a national startup strategy to strengthen France’s tech ecosystem. She served two consecutive terms on the board of the European Innovation Council and continues to support EU startup policymaking as an EIC ambassador.
Lou Laurence (aka Lauren Clinton), MA’14, a musician and comedian, recently released her debut vocal jazz album Montréal Romantic. The album showcases her conversational, jazzy musical style. She was the lead singer and co-songwriter on DJ Champion’s 2016 album Best Seller. She has performed her solo show Love, Sharks & Frenching: a hot date w/ Lou Laurence at the Victoria Fringe Festival, the Montreal Fringe Festival, the Edmonton Fringe Festival and Halifax Fringe.
Cheryl Thompson, PhD’15, is an associate professor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Performance. Her new book, Staging Blackface in Canada: Public Amusements, Variety Shows, and Racial Acts in an Age of Imitation, 1898–1919 (Wilfrid Laurier Press), explores a moment in the early 20th century when variety shows flooded Canadian stages and new forms of blackface emerged. The book examines how the Canadian stage of that era became a playground for ethnic jokes, racial caricature, and women’s emancipation.
Viktoriya Manova, BA’19, MA’21, a PhD student in counselling psychology at McGill, is the co-founder of Promptd. The promptd app was designed to assist people in finding mental health care practitioners quickly, providing information on pricing, approach, and areas of expertise.
Matthieu Mazeau, BA’19, is a historian and part of the team at Atelier d’histoire Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve which won a 2025 Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Community Programming. The award-winning Géo-visualiser les patrimoines de Mercier–Hochelaga–Maisonneuve (Geo-visualizing the Heritage of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve) project, which also involved the Montreal History and Heritage Laboratory at UQAM, showcases 2,800 archival photographs that document the working-class neighbourhood’s history.
Angelina Mazza, BA’21, is a writer, editor, producer, and fact checker based in New York. She is also a contributing editor at Slate. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Salon, Literary Hub and Vulture, where she recently interviewed fellow McGill alum David Bernad, BA’04, about Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat, a documentary-style comedy he produces for Prime Video.
Robert Contofalsky, BA’22, a doctoral student pursuing a PhD in cognitive science at Rutgers University, is the host of R-Academy, a podcast that features interviews with experts on psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, physics, and other subjects. Available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts, past episodes of R-Academy have featured interviews with cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, BA’76, DSc’99, and McGill psychology professors Richard Koestner and Jeffrey Mogil.
Continuing Studies
Cynthia Miller, CertHRMgmt’03, is the National Film Board of Canada’s new director general, people and culture. She began working at the NFB in 2011 as a HR advisor and brings more than 25 years of experience in human resources to her new role. She oversees functions at the NFB related to human resources, facilities, material resources, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), security and official languages.
Dental Medicine & Oral Health Sciences
Alexander Kerr, DDS’89, is the 2026 recipient of the IADR Distinguished Scientist Award in Oral Medicine & Pathology Research, presented by the International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research. A clinical professor at the New York University College of Dentistry and the NYU School of Medicine, his research is primarily focused on current and emerging methods for the screening, diagnosis, and management of patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma and oral potentially malignant disorders. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles that collectively have been cited over 11,000 times.
Education
Suzanne Reisler Litwin, BEd’85, received the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers from Governor General Mary Simon in recognition of her fundraising efforts for Breakthrough T1D, formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Over the course of more than 40 years, she has played a major role in raising more than $650,000 for Type 1 diabetes research.
Cindy Schwartz, MEd’89, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new member in 2025. She is the founder and former director of Les Muses, Canada’s first full-time professional performing arts training program for neurodivergent adults and people with disabilities. Its graduates include actor Gabrielle Marion-Rivard, a Canadian Screen Award winner.
Dan Pontefract, BEd’94, CertEdTech’95, recently published The Future of Work Is Grey: The Untapped Value of Age in the Workforce (Page Two Books). The book urges business leaders to abandon outmoded models that assume younger workers will always outnumber older generations and that older employees have little left to offer. A leadership and culture change strategist, he has more than two decades of senior executive experience at SAP, Telus, and Business Objects and is an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business.
Thomas Downey, BSc’94, BEd’96, a physics educator at Selwyn College in Westmount, Quebec, received a certificate of excellence as part of the 2025 Prime Minister’s Awards that recognize exceptional Canadian teachers and early childhood educators. He was honoured for his ability to make complex concepts engaging and accessible through humour, storytelling, and creative experiments, like the student-favourite “Smoke and Mirrors” laser tag game to explore light propagation. He integrates real-life experiences, technology, and pop culture references to help students understand science’s role in daily life.
Val St. Germain, BEd’97, was selected for induction into the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame. He played 15 seasons as an offensive lineman in the CFL, winning a Grey Cup as a member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2007. He is a recipient of the CFL Alumni Association’s Indigenous Champion Award for advancing Indigenous representation within the game. A two-time all-Canadian guard with the McGill football team, he received the Forbes trophy as McGill’s male athlete of the year in 1993-94.
Patrick Delisle-Houde, BSc’15 (Kinesiology), MSc’17, was appointed the new head coach of the Carleton Ravens men’s hockey team. He leaves McGill after spending five years behind the bench as an associate coach with the Redbirds. Before joining the McGill coaching staff, he was the strength and conditioning coordinator for the Montreal Canadiens. He is completing his doctoral studies at McGill.
Latoya Belfon, BEd’19, a teacher with the English Montreal School Board, was selected as one of the Black History Month Round Table’s 2026 laureates. The recognition pays tribute to 12 Black individuals who have made major contributions to the community. She is the author of several children’s books and the co-founder of Empowered Women in Lit, an online platform promoting diverse authors and combating bias in literature. She is also the CEO of Labworks Publishing, which offers a variety of services, including editing and cover design, to authors interested in publishing their work in book form.
Engineering
Pedro J.J. Alvarez, BEng’82, Rice University’s George R. Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and director of the Rice WaTER Institute, was awarded the 2026 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Civil Engineering. His research has spanned nanotechnology, microbiology, chemistry and hydrogeology — all with the goal of making water cleaner, safer and more sustainable. Among his most influential innovations are “trap-and-zap” nanotechnologies that selectively capture and destroy contaminants, methods to control antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and bioremediation strategies for polluted aquifers. The Franklin Institute Awards have honored some of the greatest minds in science, engineering, and industry, and past recipients include Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Marie Curie and Jane Goodall.
Steve Milette, BEng’96, became the new managing director of Nissan Oceania in April. He joined Nissan in 2017 in Canada as vice president of sales and later served for more than five years as president of Nissan Canada. More recently, he was the division vice president for dealer network development, customer resources, training and customer experience for Nissan and Infiniti across the United States and Canada.
Abhishek Bhattacharjee, BEng’05, joined Princeton University last fall as a professor of computer science. He previously taught at Yale University, where he was the A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of Computer Science. His research interests include memory address translation, virtual memory, computer and operating systems, and brain sciences. His work has been integrated into commercial operating systems, chips and microprocessors produced by companies including Nvidia and Meta.
Ryan Caverly, BEng’13, an associate professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, is one of the 2026 recipients of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education. He was recognized for creating novel instructional material tied to real-world problems, establishing in-depth practical projects and incorporating hands-on experiments to engage students. He also mentors numerous undergraduate researchers each year.
Angela Wang, BEng’25, was one of 14 young female engineering graduates in Canada to receive a 2025 Order of the White Rose scholarship from Polytechnique Montréal. As a team lead at NeurotechX, she developed a brain-computer interface spelling system for nonverbal users. Working with non-profit organizations, she also designed tools that enable students with disabilities to play drums in music therapy programs. The Order of the White Rose scholarships pay tribute to the memory of the 14 young women whose lives were tragically lost on December 6, 1989, at Polytechnique Montréal.
Information Studies
Andrea Nechita, MLIS’15, recently self-published her first book My Student Toolbox, From Struggling to Thriving: Your Student Success Guide. This book was designed to help new and returning students improve their study skills, get organized, and succeed in school. My Student Toolbox has been listed as a recommended reading for several course syllabi at Wilfrid Laurier University’s Faculty of Arts and is available through Amazon.
Law
Ian M. Solloway, BA’70, BCL’73, joined the Montreal family law firm of Goldwater Droit in July 2025 as counsel. A fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers, he celebrated his 50th anniversary of admission to the Barreau du Québec in March 2025 and received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the English-Speaking Section of the Bar of Montreal in May 2025.
Mayo Moran, LLB’90, the Irving and Rosalie Abella Chair in Justice and Equality at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, is the 2026 recipient of the Vivek Goel Faculty Citizenship Award. The prize recognizes U of T faculty members who have served the institution with distinction in multiple leadership capacities and whose sustained contributions exemplify exceptional citizenship. She was U of T’s dean of law from 2006 to 2014 and the provost of Trinity College from 2014 to 2024. She recently published Making Amends for Historic Wrongs: Reparative Justice and the Problem of the Past (Oxford University Press).
Kirsten Hillman, BCL’93, LLB’93, who served as Canada’s ambassador to the United States from 2020 to 2026, has joined the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy as a distinguished fellow. Over her 30-year career with the Government of Canada, she held some of the country’s most senior diplomatic, policy, trade, and legal roles, and advised three prime ministers.
Allison Bond, LLM’94, is the new chief executive officer of the Royal BC Museum. A former deputy minister with BC’s Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, she oversees the museum’s operations as well as BC Archives. The museum’s collection includes more than seven million objects.
Howard Leibovich, BCom’90, BCL’94, LLB’94, was appointed regional senior judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario for the Central East Region. He previously served as a judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario in Oshawa. The former director of the Crown Law Office – Criminal at the Ministry of the Attorney General in Ontario, he is also the former chair of the Ontario Criminal Conviction Review Committee, whose mandate is to examine past cases for potential miscarriages of justice.
Amiram Y. Kotler, LLB’96, BCL’96, was appointed a judge of the Court of King’s Bench of Manitoba in Winnipeg. He worked as a crown attorney for the Government of Manitoba for more than 20 years. In 2013, he was appointed general counsel and assumed supervisory responsibility over all criminal appeals to the Manitoba Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. He consulted on complex prosecutions throughout the province and helped develop Manitoba’s strategy to address the rise of hate crimes and hate-motivated offences.
Mercedes Glockseisen, BCL’00, LLB’00, became Bombardier’s new senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary in January. She had led contracts and legal services teams within Bombardier for more than 10 years, most recently as the vice president of contracts and legal services. Prior to joining Bombardier in 2011, she practiced litigation and corporate law at Ogilvy Renault (now Norton Rose Fulbright).
Alexandre-Philippe Avard, BCL’01, LLB’01, was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montreal. At the time of his appointment, he was a partner at the Montreal law firm Dentons with experience in administrative and constitutional law, international law, municipal and regulatory law, and construction law. Between 2019 and 2024, he focused on Indigenous law as a senior lawyer in Hydro-Québec’s legal affairs department.
Tasha Lackman, BSW’99, BCL/LLB’03, is the new president and chief executive officer of Centraide of Greater Montreal, a public foundation that supports a network of 375 community agencies and projects in Laval, Montreal and on the South Shore that improve the living conditions of vulnerable people. Before joining Centraide, she led The Depot Community Food Centre for four years, where she guided the agency through a major period of growth to improve food security for people living on a low income.
Marianna Ferraro, BCL/LLB’07, was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montreal last December. From 2011 to 2017, she worked as a prosecutor at the Autorité des marchés financiers, focusing on insider trading and market manipulation cases. Since 2017, she had been a prosecutor with the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions in Montréal. As part of her duties, she worked with the appeals team and the trials team. She argued high-profile criminal and penal cases before all courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada.
Anya Kortenaar, BCL/LLB’11, was appointed as a judge of the Ontario Court of Justice and assigned to Ottawa. She had been working at the Ottawa Crown Attorney’s Office since 2016, most recently as an assistant Crown attorney with the Guns and Gangs Team (East Region), advising police and prosecuting firearm cases. Before that, she was a Crown counsel with the Provincial Human Trafficking Prosecution Team.
Management
Gabriel Safdie, BCom’63, a businessman and former literature teacher, recently published Affair with China, a book that covers four decades he witnessed during his extensive travels through the country from the 1980s to 2020s while working in trade and in the arts. Employing both narrative and photography, Affair with China traces China’s remarkable transformation over that period, exploring the contradictions and complexities that have defined the country’s rise.
Michael Brownstein, BCom’70, the CEO of Browns Shoes, is the 2026 recipient of the Retail Council of Canada’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The prize recognizes the pivotal role that he has played in transforming Browns from a popular Montreal-based chain into a national retailer, expanding the Browns banner to over 70 locations across Canada. He also launched a successful sister chain, B2, which has grown to nine locations nationwide.
Kathleen Fox, MBA’86, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new member in 2025. A member of Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame, she held senior positions with NAV Canada before serving as the chair of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. A former member of the Canadian Precision Flying Team, she represented Canada at three world championships.
Darren Entwistle, MBA’88, LLB’13, the president and CEO of Telus, and his wife Fiona Entwistle, recently made a personal donation of $1 million to the Telus Friendly Future Foundation’s Student Bursary Program. Introduced in 2023, the program has awarded 2,000 bursaries to Canadian post-secondary students. The gift will officially launch the Entwistle Technology Bursary, designed to open doors for underserved youth pursuing post-secondary education in science, math and technology. The new fund will focus on students in Quebec and British Columbia
Kathleen Lizé, BCom’95, began a five-year term in January as Concordia University’s new chief financial officer. She worked at Concordia once before, as the head of internal auditing from 2014 to 2020. She has more than 25 years of experience in audit, internal controls implementation, risk management and governance in large organizations.
Matthew Curtis, BCom’02, became the senior vice president, equity research, at D.A. Davidson Equity Capital Markets last fall. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two children. His father Mark A. Curtis, BSc’67, MSc’69, PhD’73, was a faculty member at Macdonald Campus for three decades before retiring.
Nadine Djoury, BCom’04, writes for CBC’s The Great Canadian Baking Show and recently appeared as an actress on the anthology comedy series, I’m Also Here, which premiered in February on Bell Fibe TV1. She earned a Canadian Screen Award nomination for best performance for her work on the ABC.com/CBC Comedy web series, Newborn Moms, a show she co-created.
Stacey D. O’Neill, BCom’04, was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia (Family Division) in Halifax. She has worked in various areas of the family justice system, including in private practice with a local Halifax law firm, as a conciliator and court officer at the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia (Family Division), and in various roles with the Nova Scotia Department of Justice, Court Services division, most recently as the family division adjudicator.
Medicine & Health Sciences
James C. Hogg, MSc’97, PhD’69, DSc’15, is a professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia and one of Canada’s leading pulmonary pathologists. His career was the subject of a special edition of the Canadian Journal of Respiratory, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine last fall. In 2010, he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
Karen Kost, MDCM’82, is the 2026 recipient of the Prix Irma-Levasseur, awarded by the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec to a female physician for exceptional career achievements. She has devoted more than 35 years to shaping the evolution of voice surgery by developing innovative surgical procedures that address previously underserved needs, particularly for transgender individuals and geriatric patients. She also provided specialized care in Nunavik for more than 20 years. A professor of otolaryngology at McGill, she is the director of McGill’s Voice and Dysphagia Laboratory.
Anne-Marie Mes-Masson, PhD’84, was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2025 as a new officer. A professor in the Department of Medicine at the Université de Montréal, she is known for her pioneering contributions to biobanking. In 2009, she launched the HEART program, a pan-Canadian project dedicated to ovarian cancer research. She is the author of more than 300 research publications and led the Cancer Research Network of the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS) for 20 years.
Susan Kahn, BSc’81, MDCM’85, MSc’97, a professor of medicine at McGill and the director and founder of the Centre of Excellence in Thrombosis and Anticoagulation Care at the Jewish General Hospital, has been named a recipient of the 2026 Esteemed Career Award from the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis. Selected by peers from around the world, the award recognizes her lifetime contributions to advancing thrombosis research and patient care.
Allan Peterkin, Medical Resident’90, DipPsych’92, is the first recipient of the new CAHH National Award for Excellence in the Health Humanities from the Canadian Association for Health Humanities. He is a professor of psychiatry and family medicine at the University of Toronto where he heads the Program in Health, Arts and Humanities. He also serves as humanities faculty lead for undergraduate medical education and post-MD studies and is the co-author and co-editor of several books, including Staying Human During Residency Training.
Jennifer Chan, MDCM’98, has been reappointed as the director of the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine. An expert in brain tumour biology and genetics, she holds the Alberta Cancer Foundation Chair in Brain Tumour Research and is the director of the Clark Smith Neurologic and Pediatric Tumour and Tissue Bank.
Vinay Badhwar, MSc’99, was elected earlier this year as the new president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, an 8,000-member organization. A surgeon-scientist with expertise in robotic cardiac surgery, he has authored over 400 peer-reviewed publications and holds eight patents in cardiovascular technology. A senior editor of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, he is the executive chair of the West Virginia University (WVU) Heart and Vascular Institute and the chair of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at WVU.
Julia Chabot, MDCM’12, is the 2026 recipient of the Prix Marthe-Pelland, awarded by the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec to a young female physician who has demonstrated outstanding potential. An associate professor in McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, she is the site director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine at St. Mary’s Hospital Centre and the program director of McGill’s Geriatric Medicine training program. The first woman to head the Association des médecins gériatres du Québec, she has launched several initiatives to better support seniors, including an interdisciplinary team in the St. Mary’s emergency department.
Tohid Didar, PhD’13, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at McMaster University, was one of the six 2025 recipients of an Arthur B. McDonald Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. He has developed antimicrobial sprays, implants and medical catheters with built-in infection resistance, and created food packaging that uses DNA-based sensors to detect pathogens in real time without opening the package. The Arthur B. McDonald Fellowships recognize outstanding early-stage academic researchers in the natural sciences and engineering.
Music
Steve Holt, BMus’81, is a pianist, composer and bandleader. He and the other members of the Steve Holt Jazz Impact Quintet received a 2026 Juno Award nomination for Jazz Album of the Year for Impact. This was the second time he was a finalist for a Juno, having previously been nominated for his 1983 album The Lion’s Eyes.
Minna Re Shin, BMus’89, MMus’91, PhD’00, is a pianist and producer who has performed in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The official launch of her new album and performance project, Sonate des Saisons, will take place at Joseph-Rouleau Hall in Montreal on Wednesday, June 10. Through the intimate interplay of solo piano, choreographed movement, expressive logograms, and cinematic design, Sonate des Saisons becomes a multidimensional narrative. All net proceeds generated by the launch will benefit the Cedars Cancer Foundation.
Paul Frehner, BMus’94, MMus’98, DMus’04, a composer and conductor, recently released the album Horizon: Madog (Navona Records). He is an associate professor at Western University, where he teaches composition and directs the CEARP electroacoustic music studio. Horizon: Madog, a trilingual chamber opera, performed by Ensemble Paramirabo and solo baritone Jeremy Huw Williams, is set in a future devastated by climate-driven flooding and the collapse of global communications.
Eric Smeaton, BMus’94, became the new executive director of the Kawartha Community Foundation in March. A former elementary school teacher and city councillor, he is the co-founder of the Trillium Lakelands Arts Camp and, as a musician, once led the percussion section of the Peterborough Symphony.
Yoko Hirota, DMus’99, a pianist, recently released Aeris et Spiritus (Navona Records), a collaboration with her composer husband Robert Lemay. The EP consists of four pieces for brass instruments and piano. A professor emerita at Laurentian University, she has performed in solo and chamber recitals with major organizations and festivals across North America.
Science
Eddy Isaacs, BSc’69, was appointed to the Order of Canada as a new member in 2025. As the CEO of Alberta Innovates – Energy and Environment Solutions, he was responsible for Alberta’s strategic directions and technology investments in the areas of energy, renewables and emerging resources, and water and environmental management. He also once led the Alberta Energy Research Institute. He is currently the president of Eddy Isaacs, Inc.
Marva Moxey-Mims, BSc’79, chief of the Division of Nephrology at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., received the Henry L. Barnett Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Nephrology for her career achievements. Before stepping into her current role, she served as deputy director for clinical science in the Division of Kidney, Urologic and Hematologic Diseases at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. With more than 125 scientific publications, she has made substantial contributions to the understanding of glomerular disease and chronic kidney disease (CKD) in children.
Yoshua Bengio, BEng’86, MSc’88, PhD’91, DSc’25, has been elected co-chair of the United Nations’ Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, alongside Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, recipient of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. The election took place during the inaugural meeting of the expert group, which brings together 40 international specialists tasked with informing government decisions on the impacts and governance of artificial intelligence. A professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at Université de Montréal, he is the founder of Mila, the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, and the co-recipient of the 2018 Turing Award, often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Computing.”
William Gordon Frankle, BSc’91, will become the new chair of the Department of Psychiatry at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine in September. He is currently the vice chair of the department and the chief of psychiatry service at NYU Langone Hospital. Under his leadership, the behavioral health program at the Family Health Centers at NYU Langone has grown into one of the largest in New York State, and he developed clinically innovative programs, such as the Enhanced Treatment and Recovery program for patients with serious mental illness, which received the American Psychiatric Association’s Silver Award for Psychiatric Services Achievement in 2024. His research uses positron emission tomography to investigate neurochemical abnormalities in schizophrenia.
Lesley-Ann L. Dupigny-Giroux, MSc’92, PhD’96, the Vermont state climatologist and a professor of climatology at the University of Vermont, is the 2026 recipient of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Mani L. Bhaumik Award for Public Engagement with Science. She is an expert on floods, droughts and severe weather, and has worked extensively with K-12 teachers and students, bringing the use of satellites, climatology and climate change to all levels of the pre-university curriculum. She has collaborated with farmers, emergency managers, scientists, state officials and educators in making climate science accessible to a wide range of audiences.
Karin Fekko, BSc’99, a storyteller and comedian focused on disability awareness, will be releasing her solo storytelling show Multiple Neurosis on YouTube on May 30. Performed at fringe festivals in Edmonton, Ottawa and Winnipeg last year, the show chronicles 17 years of keeping her multiple sclerosis a secret while partying, dating, and trying to land her dream job. She’ll be back on tour this summer at the Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Saskatoon Fringes with her new show about disability and (in)dependence: Who’s Gonna Push Your Wheelchair? In her other life, she’s Karin von Ompteda, a design professor at OCAD University. For more information, visit https://www.instagram.com/karinfekko.
Lauren Curtis, BSc’03, recently joined Mount Auburn Hospital, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, as its new chief of hematology and oncology. Prior to joining Mount Auburn, she was a hematologist and oncologist at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, a community-based teaching hospital. She previously served as a faculty clinician researcher at the Johns Hopkins Cancer Center at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC, and at the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health.
Andrea Terceros, BSc’18, who recently completed her doctoral studies at Rockefeller University, was selected as one of the 2026 recipients of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center’s Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, which honors exceptional achievements by graduate students in the biological sciences. Her thesis research on memory development was published in Nature, and she recently moved to California to begin the next phase of her career at Genentech.
Social Work
Myriam Denov, BSW’94, a professor of social work at McGill and the Canada Research Chair in Children, Families and Armed Conflict (Tier 1), received a 2026 Governor General’s Innovation Award for her innovative research methods involving war-affected youth as co-researchers. A leading expert on the effects of war on children, she engages young people as co‑researchers in data collection, analysis, and knowledge sharing, and her work has supported youth in rebuilding their lives after conflict.