Honorary Degrees and Medals

Honorary Degrees

In conferring honorary degrees, the University seeks to honour individuals whose accomplishments demonstrate a standard of excellence that U of G hopes will inspire its graduates. The committee considers candidates from a broad range of categories, including the arts and sciences, business, public service, professions, and the voluntary sector, including long-standing or exceptional service to the University. The committee, from time to time, may recommend those whose outstanding contributions to their fields or to society have not yet been widely recognized.

Sheila McGuirk

SHEILA MCGUIRK

A pioneer in calf health and disease prevention, Dr. Sheila McGuirk is internationally renowned as a clinician, teacher and researcher and as a role model for women in the veterinary profession.

Dr. McGuirk taught in the large animal medicine group at the University of Wisconsin College of Veterinary Medicine from its inception in 1983 until her retirement in 2016. She has received numerous awards for teaching and research and for service to the veterinary profession and dairy industry, including being the only woman named as the World Dairy Expo’s Industry Person of the Year and receiving the American Association of Bovine Practitioners Award of Excellence.

Among the first academic clinicians to focus on neonatal calf health management as a primary interest, she is also a highly skilled equine clinician and cardiology expert. Throughout her studies, she has ensured that her research results have been translated into clinical practice through new diagnostic approaches and treatment strategies for animal and herd health.

Dr. McGuirk studied at Cornell University and the University of Georgia. Early indications of Dr. McGuirk’s commitment to education and to the veterinary profession and dairy industry surfaced during her large animal internship at the University of Guelph, where she received a teaching award for her impact on veterinary students in the Class of 1978.

Janice O’Born

JANICE O’BORN

Janice O’Born has provided remarkable leadership that improves the lives of Canadians through her philanthropy, service and commitment to sustainable food systems and rural communities as well as health care and the arts.

Ms. O’Born is founding chair of The Printing House Charitable Office, the philanthropic arm of TPH Ltd., which has raised more than $63 million to support important community-based initiatives ranging from the SickKids Foundation and Sunnybrook Hospital Foundation to the Banff Centre.

Her transformational gifts have included more than $3 million to support children’s health and, along with her husband, Earle O’Born, a $10-million contribution to the National Arts Centre Foundation, where she has served as chair of the board of directors. She is currently an active board member to Mount Sinai hospital.

In Rosemont, Ontario, she led development of a food and culinary destination organization to attract economic activity and people and to foster a sense of community.

A long-time supporter of U of G, Ms. O’Born has created scholarships in food animal health and welfare and sustainable food systems, has volunteered with the OVC Pet Trust, and has helped lead fundraising for key initiatives in the Ontario Veterinary College and the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics.

For volunteer work and community philanthropy, Ms. O’Born has received the Order of Ontario as well as the Queen’s Diamond and Golden Jubilee Medals for Volunteerism.

Richard Pound

RICHARD POUND

Throughout his nearly 60-year career, including leadership of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Olympic movement, Richard Pound has engaged in global, impactful, principled action as a lawyer, leader, volunteer and advocate for ethics in sport.

Known for supporting fair play, safe sport and honest business, Mr. Pound made significant, lasting contributions to the world of sport. As WADA’s founding chair, he engaged with athletes and sport personalities over doping in sport.

Mr. Pound served as vice-president of the International Olympic Committee and president of the Canadian Olympic Committee. By negotiating media and sponsorship, he revolutionized the Olympic movement, helping increase IOC revenues from media and sponsorship to be shared with National Olympic Committees and their athletes and coaches worldwide. As a top swimmer, Mr. Pound competed in the Olympic and Commonwealth Games and was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.

His career reflects the University of Guelph mandate to improve life and the goal of U of G’s Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics to develop business leaders with conscience. Mr. Pound received the 2010 Lincoln Alexander Outstanding Leader Award from the University of Guelph, and he chairs the executive advisory board of the Lang School’s International Institute for Sport Business and Leadership.

Among numerous honours, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada and an officer of the National Order of Quebec.

Suzanne Stewart

SUZANNE STEWART

One of the most recognized names in Indigenous psychology in Canada, Dr. Suzanne Stewart of Yellowknife Dene First Nation has helped numerous Indigenous clients, students and cultural allies through her academic and clinical work and through her activism and advocacy for Indigenous rights.

She is one of the few Indigenous practising or academic psychologists in Canada, where she has been engaged in community-based research as the Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Homelessness and Life Transition.

Now director of the Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, Dr. Stewart served as special adviser on Aboriginal education to the dean at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at U of T and as director of the Indigenous Education Network. She helped to establish the master of public health program in Indigenous health at the Dalla Lana School, the first of its kind in Canada.

Among her leadership roles, she has chaired the Indigenous Peoples’ Psychology section of the Canadian Psychological Association and created the annual Indigenizing Psychology Symposium offered along with U of T and the University of Guelph-Humber.

A powerful role model for all students in Indigenous health research, she has provided invaluable opportunities for Indigenous students to study in the field.