Leadership Awards

2020 LEADERSHIP AWARD: Dr. Gary V. Nelson

2020 Leadership Award Recipient Dr. Gary V. Nelson

Gary Nelson is a proud western Canadian who is passionate about the big sky and prairie life. His roots to the Maritimes are deep, however. He is the grandson of Gordon S. Vincent Nelson, former Pastor of West End Baptist Church in Halifax, NS and Woodstock Baptist Church in New Bruswick. Over the years he served in pastoral roles in California, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Alberta.

In 2000, Dr. Nelson assumed the role of General Secretary of Canadian Baptist Ministries, an organization that leads the national and global work of Canadian Baptists. During those years, CBM experienced a striking capacity of growth, expanding the organization’s global impact in the areas of leadership development, theological education, sustainable community development, and the development of key educational resources for congregations across Canada. It furthered its influence in the Baptist World Alliance as well, where he served as Vice President from 2005-2010.

In 2010, Dr. Nelson took up the role as President of Tyndale University and served in that capacity for 10 years. It was a time of expansion and growth for Tyndale as the institution moved to university status as legislated by the Province of Ontario and expanded programs both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. During his time at Tyndale, Gary Nelson navigated the development of a multi-million dollar renovation project that positioned the university for the future. The seminary alone grew to over 900 students with a variety of graduate programs including a reshaped Counselling program recognized by the College of Psychotherapists of Ontario. He stepped down from that role in June 2020. His heart has always been for the church and in particular in the revitalization and renewal of urban congregations. As Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church, Edmonton in the 1990’s he was involved in the revitalizing and renewing of this historic downtown congregation into a creative and dynamic contemporary congregation. Dr. Nelson received the Bachelor of Education degree from the University of British Columbia and graduated with doctoral and master’s degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary. As an educator, Dr. Nelson has been involved in numerous creative approaches to theological and ministerial training. Most significant was as founding director of a post-seminary urban leadership training initiative called BUILD (Baptist Urban Involvement in Leadership Development) in the city of Toronto that shaped pastors and international workers to work in urban settings. He has lectured and taught at universities and seminaries across Canada, the United States, and on three continents on topics and themes that focus on missional living as the church, contemporary ministry, urban missiology as well as leadership and governance for Christian organizations. A recognized urban missiologist, he has authored and presented numerous papers that focus on theological and missiological ecclesiology. Gary is married to Carla, a former public school teacher who served as the founding Director and Associate Professor of the Bachelor of Education program at Tyndale. She is also a previous Leadership Award recipient of Crandall University in 2007. They have one married daughter (Stacy) who lives in Edmonton where they now are located so that they can enjoy their four wonderful grandchildren.

2021 LEADERSHIP AWARD: Mrs. Kim Phuc Phan Thi

2021 Leadership Award Recipient Mrs. Kim Phuc Phan Thi

Kim Phuc Phan Thi is known around the world as the girl in the picture. In 1972, at the age of 9, she was immortalized in a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph that shows her screaming and running naked down a road in Trang Bang, Vietnam after having her clothing burned off by napalm. A living symbol of the atrocity of war, she is the founder of the Kim Foundation International, a nonprofit dedicated to providing funds to support the work of international organizations that provide free medical assistance to children who are victims of war and terrorism.

Mrs. Phan Thi has suffered many hardships since that day in 1972, including several years of painful burn therapy, but her spirit has always remained strong. Inspired by the physicians who helped her survive, she decided to become a doctor, but her pre-medical studies in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) were interrupted in 1982 when the Vietnamese government removed her from school to act as a “national symbol of the war.” Four years later, the government permitted her to continue her studies in Cuba, but health issues put an end to her plans to become a doctor.

It was in Cuba that Mrs. Phan Thi met her husband, Toan. They married on September 11, 1992. While on the way back to Havana after their honeymoon in Moscow, the couple defected to Canada during a one-hour layover in Newfoundland, Canada. They now live near Toronto with their two sons, Thomas and Stephen, and Mrs. Phan Thi travels the world as a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Goodwill Ambassador for the Culture of Peace.

Kim Phuc Phan Thi has received seven honorary doctorate degrees from universities in Canada, Australia, United States, and Mexico for her efforts to help children and to end world conflict. She is an honorary member of Kingston Rotary, St. Albert Rotary, and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. She also sits on Advisory Boards for the Wheelchair Foundation, the Free Children’s Foundation in Canada, and she is a member of the Board of Directors of the World Children’s Center in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Mrs. Phan Thi is also a recipient of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and the 2004 Order of Ontario.

Mrs. Phan Thi received the International Peace Prize in Dresden, Germany in February 2019. She is also the author of Fire Road, which has been translated into eleven languages.