Alumni News

Notes on the milestones and achievements in the lives of our alumni. There are plenty of ways to stay in touch! www.utsconnect.ca

alumni@utschools.ca @utschools @utschools / @rosemary_evans @utschools

Praised for her student-centred approach, and dedication to resident wellness and faculty learning, the muchlauded Dr . Marion Dove ’84 was appointed Chair of the Department of Family Medicine at McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine in November 2019.

As Chair, Marion oversees the running of the Department, which includes approximately 950 family physicians and a rapidly growing research and graduate education presence. She is building on the department’s strengths in participatory research, health services delivery and policy, and clinical research, while nurturing its training programs. Promoting innovation in medical education, clinical care, faculty development, and continuing medical education also falls under her mandate.

Previously she had served as Associate Chair of the department, and also supervised the Faculty’s largest residency program, with approximately 250 trainees at nine sites. She received the Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) Program Director Leadership Award in 2018.

The extraordinary life and work of Rabbi Lisa Grushcow ’92 was featured in the New York Times’ Saturday Profile last July. Named one of “America’s most inspiring rabbis” by The Forward, a prominent American Jewish news publication, Lisa broke new ground as the first female senior rabbi at the Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Montreal, and also the first openly gay rabbi of a large synagogue in Canada. Her denomination is Jewish Reform, which accepts gay rabbis and gay marriage.

“Being a divorced and lesbian rabbi and mom deepened my understanding of human experience,” she told the New York Times. “It broadened who I can relate to.”

Prior to taking her post in Montreal in 2012, the Rhodes Scholar was associate rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Sholom on New York’s Upper West Side. She was ordained as a rabbi in 2003 at the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City.

PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Maria Cusimano ’07, a resident physician in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Toronto and a PhD student in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, received the prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship in 2019. The award supports her studies on the long-term effects of removal of the ovaries on women’s health. Maria was also named one of 10 distinguished Women’s Health Scholars by the Council of Ontario Universities in 2018-19, recognizing research that promotes a stronger health system for women in Ontario.

// Racialized people and racialized land are disproportionately impacted by climate change, so why is climate organizing so white? HyunGu Kang ’16 was

featured in the Globe and Mail in November 2019 for a UBCstudent-directed seminar she created on “conversations on race and climate change.” UBC encourages students to create three-credit seminars to address academic gaps, and hers was the first to take place at UBC’s Faculty of Forestry. In this photo, she shares her seminar websites at a forestry conference she co-organized last summer.

// Playwright and director Kat Sandler ’04 debuted her new play, Yaga, last fall at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. Actress Seana McKenna starred as a 60-year-old femme fatale and a person of interest in a small-town whodunit inspired by the notorious fairy tale witch Baba Yaga. “We’re rediscovering that there is power in age and wisdom and rage and sex and motherhood, and there’s power in retelling the stories that men have traditionally told about us,” said Kat, about the creation of the play.

Radovan (Alex) Vasic, M .D . ’09 received an American Society of Hematology’s 2019 ASH Honors award in the Resident Student category. He is currently a resident student at University of Toronto and University Health Network. He earned his A.B. at Harvard University, and a joint M.D. and Master of Health Science at Yale.

Kai Chan ’93 delivered brilliant testimony at a House of Commons Standing Committee in July 2019 about how the world can achieve a transformation toward sustainability. He passionately summarized the findings of the global assessment report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, carried out by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). As the Coordinating Lead Author, he outlined five key actions the report called for, including going carbon neutral and strengthening environmental policies at home and abroad. Kai is a professor at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia.

Dr . Jessica Ware ’95 started her “dream job” as the curator of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in January. Her purview ranges from dragonflies to grasshoppers, silverfish to firebrats, roaches and more. She studies the evolution of behavioural and physiological adaptations in insects, with an emphasis on how these occur in dragonflies and damselflies, and insects referred to as Dictyoptera, mainly termites and cockroaches. She is currently president of the Worldwide Dragonfly Association.

Kiva Dickinson ’08 is tapping into a growing market of consumer wellness. He co-founded a boutique investment firm, Selva Ventures, that invests in emerging consumer brands in the food, beverage, beauty, and wellness space. Based in San Francisco, California, it partners with brands that have less than $10 million in sales, supporting them with the capital and resources they need to scale.

Jennifer Andrews ’89 is finishing a two-year term as the elected President of the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English, the primary association for English professors across Canada. In this role, she co-led a webinar funded by the Federation of Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada, which explored the implications of defamation law for its 10,000 Canadian members. Currently, she is writing her third academic book, Through American Eyes:

Gillian Butler

The west entrance of the new design for the Ottawa Public Library and the Library and Archives Canada by co-designers Diamond Schmitt Architects, the firm of Donald Schmitt O.C. ’70, and KWC Architects.