2022-2023 Awards and Scholarships Committee Report


The Awards and Scholarships Committee oversees awards and scholarships that are sponsored and co-sponsored by the Faculty Association, as well as the events celebrating FA award recipients. As Chair, I was assisted this year by committee members Cora Gilroy, Susan Graham, Krishna Thakur, Sarah Hewko, Shannon Murray, and William Stoughton.

We celebrated on February 10, 2023, the Faculty Association entrance scholarship recipients, and medalists. Thanks to the support of the Faculty Association Office and the Awards and Scholarships Committees our members engaged in a casual event at Fox and Crow to celebrate the recipients of medals and scholarships. Our Entrance Scholarship recipients are Kadence Banks and Gabrielle Samson. Recipients of the Undergraduate Medals are Bronze Medal – Zahrah Purahoo; Silver Medal – Andrew Bourgeois; and Gold Medal – Aadesh Nunkoo. The Graduate Master Medal was awarded to Toyin Adekanmbi and the Doctoral Medal to Justine Brown. For our new members, the entrance scholarships and medal awards are funded entirely by the Faculty Association, including through individual contributions by members. If you are interested in supporting our awards, go to the UPEIFA website https://www.upeifa.ca/get-involved/donate/ for details on how to set up a donation through payroll deduction. 

At the time of writing this report, nominations for FA Member Awards are about to close with files being turned over to the four adjudication sub-committees. We would not be able to celebrate the accomplishments of our students and colleagues without the service of quite a few people. We have four sub-committees that will be adjudicating nominations our FA awards in the coming few weeks. We’d like to acknowledge these FA members for the careful consideration they give to these nominations. Amy MacFarlane is chairing the Hessian Merit Award for Excellence in Teaching Subcommittee, joined by Rachelle Gauthier, Krishna Thakur, Gail Macartney, Richard Raiswell, and Chris Vessey. The Merit Award for Scholarly Achievement Subcommittee is chaired by Michael MacLellan, and composed by Emily John, Tejal Shah, William Whelan, Caroline Ritter, and Malcom Murray. Our third subcommittee for the Merit Award for Outstanding Service is chaired by Laurie Brinklow, joined by Lara Cusack, Xiao Chen, Kuljeet Grewal, MacKenzie Johnson.

Finally, our fourth sub-committee for the Janet Pottie Murray Award for Educational Leadership will be adjudicated by Stacey Mackinnon as chair and committee members Philip Smith, Libby Osgood, Cora Gilroy, Rosie Le Faive, and Sam Kolahgar. We appreciate the time and care dedicated to the adjudication of awards during a very challenging semester and we are looking forward to celebrating this year’s recipients.

As hard as we have worked, we deserve some celebration, so let’s have an evening celebrating our hard work, celebrating old and new friends during the Faculty Association Celebration Night on Friday May 19, 2023, at the Fox Meadow Golf Course. We will be celebrating our FA award recipients as well as recognizing retirees, this year the evening is more casual with appetizers and drinks as a courtesy of the Faculty Association. 

Submitted by Nadja Bressan

Chairs, Awards and Scholarships Committee


Other news

  • CBC – “Faculty Association says COVID-19 case linked to UPEI not properly communicated”

    CBC – “Faculty Association says COVID-19 case linked to UPEI not properly communicated”

    Case was announced Saturday, link to UPEI only confirmed publicly on Tuesday. CBC News · Posted: Sep 28, 2021 8:27 PM AT | Last Updated: September 28 The UPEI Faculty Association says staff members are concerned about the lack of information from the university about a recent COVID-19 case connected to the school.  Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison confirmed Tuesday that a COVID-19 case has been linked to the university. She said that the school’s administration was notified […]

  • 2022-2023 Research and Advocacy Committee Report

    According to its formal mandate, the UPEIFA Research and Advocacy Committee is: “tasked by the Executive with completing research and making recommendations on issues being discussed by the Executive. In addition, the Committee serves an advocacy function to external groups and organizations, and to governments.” In practice, the Committee has generally focussed on its research role, supporting the FA Executive (and the Negotiating Team, in years when negotiation positions are being prepared), and this continued […]

  • 2022-2023 Communications Committee Report

    May 2022 – May 2023 The communications committee included the following members: Michael Arfken (Co-Chair) Kim Mears (Co-Chair) David Hickey (Member-at-Large) Ariana Patey (Member-at-Large) Nia Phillips (Member-at-Large) Chris Vessey (Member-at-Large) Activities this year focused on communications to support the collective bargaining process, including significant email and social media campaigns. The FA website also required maintenance. A new theme was selected and implemented on the site and it migrated to a new hosting service (WP Engine […]

  • 2022-2023 Awards and Scholarships Committee Report

    The Awards and Scholarships Committee oversees awards and scholarships that are sponsored and co-sponsored by the Faculty Association, as well as the events celebrating FA award recipients. As Chair, I was assisted this year by committee members Cora Gilroy, Susan Graham, Krishna Thakur, Sarah Hewko, Shannon Murray, and William Stoughton. We celebrated on February 10, 2023, the Faculty Association entrance scholarship recipients, and medalists. Thanks to the support of the Faculty Association Office and the […]