Angela Hildyard Recognition Award

Angela Hildyard Recognition Award

The annual Angela Hildyard SWAAC Recognition Awards, of $1,000 each,  recognize an influential and an emerging leader who have continually demonstrated innovative and impactful leadership in advancing the mission of, and achieving outstanding contributions to, their institution and/or to higher education.  A donation will be made on each recipient’s behalf to an institution of their choice, in the form of a contribution to an endowment or fund that supports students, or to a registered charitable organization supporting educational initiatives.

Eligibility

All SWAAC members in post-secondary institutions.

Influential Leader Selection Criteria

Evidence of leadership, through:

  • Rich and meaningful contributions at an institutional, community and/or system level
  • Demonstrating a commitment to the advancement of institutional vision, mission, values and major goals
  • Improving the educational experiences of post-secondary students at all levels  
  • Promoting and supporting equity, diversity and inclusion within institutions
  • Engaging the community of institutional stakeholders
  • Communicating a vision and commitment to new initiatives and continually contributing to innovation
  • Demonstrating exemplary support for administration and/or teaching and research endeavours, and held in high regard by colleagues, staff, students and faculty
  • Fostering positive and lasting impact on the department/division/institution, colleagues, faculty, students and alumni
  • Consistently and demonstrably coaching and mentoring the next generation of Canadian educators by providing them with the opportunity, inspiration, and/or best practice tools to pursue professional excellence
  • Enhancing the experience of peers by employing innovative techniques to motivate, mentor and inspire others to realize their potential
  • Providing students with academically challenging, exciting, well-taught programs


Emerging Leader Selection Criteria

Evidence of leadership, through:

  • Demonstrating a commitment to the advancement of institutional vision, mission, values and major goals
  • Promoting and supporting equity, diversity and inclusion
  • Demonstrating leadership on the engagement of the community in relationship to  institutional priorities
  • Communicating a vision and commitment to new initiatives and continually contributing to innovation
  • Held in high regard by colleagues, student, staff
  • Recognized as an outstanding and inspiring mentor within the institution


Each nomination must address the key areas that form the basis for nomination

The nomination should be accompanied by a one page summary and two letters of support from senior colleagues, one of which is written by a constituency that has benefited from the work of the nominee.

The deadline for submission of nominations: February 14, 2025.

The Selection Committee shall be the elected members of the Executive.

Nominations for the 2025 award must be sent via electronic mail to:

SWAAC President
Dr. Donna Kotsopoulos
Western University
Email to: swaacadmin@uwo.ca

If you have any questions about the award or require further information please contact Megha Ajmani, SWAAC Registrar and Treasurer at swaacadmin@uwo.ca




Recent Award Recipients

Pavlina Radia
Influential Leader


Dr. Pavlina Radia is Provost and Vice-President, Academic at The University of Winnipeg. She was previously Dean and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science, Associate Dean, and Professor in English Studies at Nipissing University, where she was also the co-founder and director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Collaboration in the Arts and Sciences. Her focus is on interdisciplinary research, teaching and research excellence, Indigenous achievement and success, and equity, diversity, and inclusion. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Toronto. She also earned a Certificate in Human Rights for Education Professionals from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. She is a member of the Senior Women Academic Administrators of Canada (SWAAC). She served on the Executive of the SWAAC and was a member of the SWAAC Subcommittee on EDI. Dr. Radia has been a life-long advocate of positive change, social justice, human rights, and inclusive leadership. With her UWinnipeg team, in March 2025, she convened the annual West VAC/West VPR leadership conference, “The University of Tomorrow: Confident Pluralisms, Diverse Spaces, and New Technologies.”

Dr. Radia’s publications include 2 monographs, 2 co-edited monographs, numerous chapters, over 20 articles in scholarly journals, keynote presentations, and other creative collaborations. Dr. Radia is the author of Nomadic Modernisms and Diasporic Journeys of Djuna Barnes and Jane Bowles: “Two Very Serious Ladies” (2016) and Ecstatic Consumption: The Spectacle of Global Dystopia in Contemporary American Literature (2016). With Drs. Sarah F. Winters and Laurie Kruk, she also co-edited The Future of Humanity: Revisioning the Human in the Posthuman Age (2019). Her publications include a chapter on war memorials and postmemory in Mobilities, Literature, Culture (Palgrave) and a chapter in Modernist Objects (Clemson University Press). She also contributed chapters to DeLillo and the Arts (Edinburgh University Press) and Posthumanist Modernism (Brill). Dr. Radia also co-organized several international conferences, including The Future of Humanity (Nipissing University, 2016) and The Hunger Artist: Food and the Art Double Dialogue Conference (University of Toronto, 2010).

Immaculate Namukasa
Emerging Leader


Immaculate K. Namukasais a STEM Mathematics Curriculum and Pedagogy Professor and academic leader (Associate Dean Graduate and Post Doctoral) in Education. She has edited journals, special issues of journals and open-source resources for school education and teacher professional development. Based on this work, she was named a distinguished teaching fellow by the Western University’s Center for Teaching and Learning, and an Amazing Human of Thames Valley by a school board in the area. As a Black Canadian Researcher and Educator, of African origin, she is grateful for Canadian education contexts. Professor Namukasa has served on more than 20 university committees, task forces and advisory boards and on committees in the community. She joined Western University in 2004, immediately after her doctorate at the University of Alberta. At Western she has also led research teams, collaborations and degree programs. Professor Namukasa is grateful for the recent SWAAC Angela Hildyard Recognition Award for Emerging Leader.

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