Guelph The Portico Magazine, Fall 2011

UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH ALUMNI AND FRIENDS

ovc

~ (!) ,....

z z

0

:i a. ...J w :::>

(!)

:i a. ...J

trains e o ealtH experts

w :::>

(!)

Ll.

0

~ a: w >

u;

z

:::>

ui

z

~

Students follow in the steps of veterinary pioneers

~

:2 0

(.)

~

0

a.

w

;.;

Cf)

z

0

~

u

::J [])

::J Q_

Whatever the future brings, you can be prepared with Alumni Term Life Insurance.

• • • •

Available exclusively to alumni at affordable rates.

Same great rates apply for spouses.

Choose from $35,000 to $770,000 in coverage.

Save 70% if you have $280,000 or more in coverage.

Visit www.manulife.com/uofguelphmag to get a free quote, apply online, and learn about the other alumni insurance products available to you.

Or call1-888-913-6333 toll-free to speak to a licensed insurance advisor.

Underwritten by:

UNIVERSITYA W'GUELPH

lum n1• ASSOCIATION

rin Manulife Financial I

For your future"

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

Manulife. Manulife Financial. the Manulife Financial For Your Future logo and the Block Design are trademarks of The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company and are used by it. and by its affiliates under license.

No purchase necessary. Contest open to Canadian res idents who are the age of majority in their province or territory of res idence as of the contest start date. Approximate value of each prize is $519.00 Canadian.

Chances of winning depend on the number of val id entries received by the contest deadline. Contest closes Friday. January 6, 2012 at 11 :59 p.m. ET. Only one entry per person accepted. Skill test ing question required. See ful! contest rules for details at www.manuli fe.com/uofguelphmag.

3 - president's page • great Guelph grad - 22 • grad news - 28

- 14 -

in and around the university

G

UELPH PHYSICISTS

prepare for their role in the next Mars rover mission, while other U of G researchers look at the genetic causes of spo rts-related heart failure, food waste in restaurants and the work fallout from caring for a family member with a chronic ailment.

cover story

VETERINARIANS BECOME ECOHEALTH EXPERTS As the Ontario Veterinary College celebrates its 150th anniversary, the school prepares future veterinarians to take an ecosystem approach to solving animal and human health problems.

12

alumni matters University of Guelph Alumni Association begins a new scholarship fund to honour deceased graduates and give future Guelph grads a helping hand.

The BetterPlanet Project fundraising campaign is halfway to its $200-million goal, Gryphon football celebrates coaching, and Guelph-Humber grads hold their first alumni reunion.

T

HE

SHOPPING IN ESTONIA U of G retail expert studies marketing strategies and pronwtes Canadian products in a former Soviet republic.

on the cover PhD student Sherilee Harper is

-20-

part of a new cohort graduating from OVC as experienced ecohealth experts.

PHOTO BY DEAN PALMER

FOOD NOURISHES BODY AND SOUL Even the elderly who suffer extreme loss of cognition benefit physically and mentally from sharing meals with loved ones.

Gold medal magazine The Portico won the 2011 award for "best magazine" at a Canadian university from the Canadian Council

Portico online

for the Advancement of

More U of G news at

Education .

uoguelph.ca/theportico

I

Leaders for a Sustainable World: Unique MBA and MA programs .

The College of Management and Economics at the University of Guelph has a profound commitment to community well-being, sustainable commerce and global competitiveness.

theportico Fall 2011 •

Vo LU ME

43

ISSU E 3

Editor Mary D ickieson Assistant Vice-President Cha rles C unnin gham

...

Art Direction Peter Enneson D esign Inc.

Become part of the solution.

A unique MBA:

A transformational MA (Leadership):

• Community, ethics and sustainability as integral to competitive strategy • Hybrid of residential and interactive online learning • A focus on industries that reflect Guelph's historic strengths (food, agribusiness, hospitality, and tourism)

• Learning about leadership, thinking , communicating , diversity • Influence that begins with understanding yourself, and then others • Leaders from corporate, government, professional, military and not-for-profit sectors learning from each other

ICIMIEI COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS

ontact Patti lago: toll free at .1·888·622·2474 • plago uoguelp .ca www.mba .uoguelph.ca • www.leadership .uoguelph .ca

You Remember U of G So Do Your Future Customers

Contributors Susan Bubak D eirdre H ealey Lori Bona Hunt Wendy Jesp ersen Teresa Pitman Andrew Vowles, B.Sc. '8 4 Advertising Inquiries Scott Anderson

519-827-91 69 Direct all other correspondence to: C ommuni ca tions and Publi c Affairs U nive rsity of Gu elph Guelph , Ontario, C anada N1 G 2W1 E- mailm.dicki eson @exec. uogu elph.ca www.uogu elph. ca/th eportico / Th e Portico magazine is published three tim es a year by C ommuni cati on s and Public Affairs at th e University of Guelph. lcs mission is to enhance the relation ship between th e University and its alumni and fri ends and promote pride and commitm ent within th e University community. All material is copyright 20 11. Ideas and opini o ns expressed in the articles do not necessa rily reflect the ideas o r opinions of the University or the editors.

Publi cations Mai l Agreement # 40064673 Printed in C anada -

ISSN 17 14-8731

To update your alumni record , contact: Alumni Affairs and Development Phon e 519-82-t- 4120 , Ext. 56550 Fax 519-822- 2670 E-mail alumnirecords@uogu elph. ca

f.} ~

..J.,_)

• Promote your business in The Portico • Reach more than 93,000 educated consumers • Three issues per year, insert opportunities

2

TH E P OR TI C O

For advertising inquiries: www.uoguelph.ca/adguide/ Scott Anderson Tel: 519-827-9169 Fax: 519-827-9 174 Email: theandersondifference@rog ers.com

MIX Paper from

FSC

responsible sources

~~'"o"'

FSC" C002609

AFRICAN FAMINE SH

I

TRAV ELL ED TO the Horn of Afri ca this summer to help increase access to education for girls and women in eastern Kenya. As fate would have it, I was there when th e United Nations issued a declarati on of famine in neighb ouring Somalia. Already co nsidered the larges t refu gee camp in the world, th e ca mp outside D abaab, Kenya, was trying to care for 1 ,300 new arriva ls a day from Somalia see king food , wa ter and hope.

I was overcome by the tragedy and found it difficult to make se nse of something so se nseless . Only th e aid workers prevented m e from being co mpl etely heartbroken, as they demonstrated how individuals can make an enormous difference in such a crisis.

I also have hope for the education proJeCt being considered and the students it will help. Education offers hope for a better life and perhaps a way for people to prevent future episodes like this one - mass starvati on brought on by prolonged drought, allowed to happen because of political chaos that seems to foster poverty and preventable diseases while encouraging desertifi cati on and deforestation practices that destroy the reso urces needed by the area's 20 million nomadic livestock farm ers - all compounded by a lack of foresight that could have encouraged agriculture and allowed people to stoc kpil e food to see them throu gh the inevitable next cycle of drought.

On my fli ght hom e, l reflected on my perso nal witness of th e situation - w hat see ms like th e perfec t exa mp le o f w hy we need the "o ne health " approac h.

One health is a concept that is shaping th e future of th e ve terinar y profession and parti cularl y teac hin g and research at th e Ontario Veterinary Coll ege . As it prepares to celebrate its 150th anniversa ry, O VC is addressing th e urge nt need for an integrated approach to animal , human and environmental health .

H ow ca n we ve terinarians improve li ves to ck and w ildlife health in Somalia witho ut also co nsidering the welfa re o f th e farmers w ho share the sa me wa ter and food sources? How can we reach th e goal of ensuring a safe and sec ure food supply, in Somalia or in C anada, w ith out addressing environm ental health? Or health infrastru cture? Or public policy?

At Guelph , we have fin e-tun ed our ve terinary program to help OVC graduates develop a broad und erstandin g of these areas and work closely with physicians and environmental scientists. Our gradu ates also need to be prepared to contribute to planning for national and glo bal responses to specifi c challenges, outbreaks and ca tastrophes like the one l w itn essed in Afri ca .

In this issue of The Portico, you w ill read more about OVC's pion ee ring role in th e grow th and acce ptance

-u

I

~

~

G)

~ ~

;;:: )>

-~-__....~ 路~ ~ of ecohealth as a legiti mate and important area of study.

We still need to work on implem enting this "one health - o ne wo rld " app roach here in Canada and beyo nd .

The role of th e veterinary profession and environm ental scientists is not clearly understood nor wid ely accepted by the m edi cal profession. For example, we must be prepared, and prepare all U of G graduates, to advoca te for better co- ordinati on of the activities of hum an, ani mal and environmental health experts.

There are many challenges to this effort, not least the finan cial issues involved in curriculum development and providing appropriate teaching fa cilities and in ternational experi ences for stud ents. T hese are necessa ri ly am o ng th e pri oriti es of the University's BetterPl anet Proj ec t.

Since OVC's founding in 1862, veterinary medi cine in C anada has co me a long way. Today we are teac hin g students not just to think about individual ani mal health but to take a more holistic approach. If we ca n co nn ect human, animal and environmental health more eB:ectively -and the H orn of Africa demonstrates that we must we will have the capacity to bring about positive change.

AL ASTA IR SUM MERL EE, PR ES IDENT

Fall 20113

I

I

& Study Looks at Sports-Related Heart Failure

Marissa Dahari, left, and Ana Loncar

I

NCIDENTS OF HIGH SCHOOL athletes collapsing on the field due to heart failure are rare but devastating. Often they are linked to an underlying genetic condition.

New Guelph research suggests these sudden deaths may be preventable with genetic scree ning that detects the molecular mutations responsible.

The causes of heart failure are complex and depend on a number of factors, incl uding genetics, says Prof. John Dawson, Molecular and Cellular Biology. Researchers in his laboratory are looking at the und erlying molecular mechanisms to find out why young, seemingly healthy athletes can die un expectedly.

At the molecular level, proteins bind together to produce muscle contractions.

"Actin is a very important protein in the cell," says lab technician Ana Loncar, M.Sc. '09. "It's involved in a lot of cellular processes such as muscle contraction."

Found in all types of organisms, from yeast to insects to hum ans, actin provides structural support to the cell, and also plays

a role in cell division and movement.

A mutation in the actin molecule could lead to heart problems like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a condition that affects one in 500 people, and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) . In people w ith HCM, a thickened ventricular wall reduces the size of the left ventricle, inhibiting its ability to pump enough blood into th e body. DCM is characterized by abnormally thin ventricular walls that make the heart too weak to pump efficiently.

"At some point, the heart just ca n't compensate for the genetic deficiencies," says master's student Marissa Dahari, who is producing mutant actin proteins in the lab to see how they behave. "These mutations can put you at risk for decreased systolic function." But if people could be screened ahead of time, they would know what the risk factor is.

Restaurants That Waste Not Want Not

T

~

ffi ~ ~

~

ยง if

4

RINK BACK TO the last time yo u went out to eat. Did you clean your plate or leave something behind? Chances are you didn't finish the bread that was served as part of your meal.

"We've allowed ourselves to create excess and accept waste as a cost of doing business," says Bruce McAdams, a professor in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management who has worked in food service management for more than 20 years.

He says the economic and environmental cost of food waste is forcing restaurants to re-evaluate the way they serve food, from offering smaller portions to serving bread only on requ est.

According to a recent paper, "Bread: A Business Case for Change in Foodservice," an average of 25 to 35 per cent of bread went to waste at the full-service restaurant,

THE PoRTICO

Bruce McAdams says restaurants might charge for bread to reduce waste.

hotel restaurant, golf club banquet hall and conferen ce facility that took part in his study. The paper was prepared for Leaders in Environmentally Accountable Foodservice, an organization that promotes sustainable foodservice practices.

Many consumers expect their meal to come with a serving of bread, but McAdams says 85 per cent of those who responded to his survey were in favour of bread being served upon request.

When it comes to portion sizes, bigger isn't necessarily better. McAdams says he 'd like restaurants to focus more on the quality instead of the quantity of food they serve. One way to reduce food waste is to offer consumers a choice of portion sizes, but he says restaurant owners are reluctant to adopt changes that may complicate their operations.

YOU ARE READING A GOLD MEDAL WINNER

T

he University of Guelph's BetterPianet Project and The Portico magazine received

gold medals from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE) during the organization's annual Prix d'Excellence competition held in June. CCAE is the national association for advancement and communications professionals.

The Portico magazine published by Communications and Public Affairs won first place in the "best magazine" category. It beat out more than 30 entries from across the country and was recognized for writing style, quality, interesting design and strong photos.

Alumni Affairs and Development received top honours in the "best fundraising case statement and campaign materials" category for The BetterPianet Project. Calling the campaign's posiGrad student Nicholas Boyd, left, and principal investigator Ralf Gellert prepare

tioning "inspiring ," the judges lauded its com-

for the installation of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer sensor head during

pelling, motivating writing and clear, consistent

testing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

brand. Read the web version at www.thebetterplanetproject.ca.

Physicists Ready for Mars Expedition

In the "best use of social media" category, U of G's Admission Services won silver for intro-

A

I

u

llJ

':::;

() _j

o._

~ ~

li

§ § it

N EYE -CATCHIN G DISPLAY in the lobby of the MacNaughton Building tells the story of a new APXS operations centre being readied for a 2012 Mars rover mission. The Guelph facility will be the only Canadian operations centre - and one of only a few outside the United States - for the Curiosity rover mission.

"We are the 'keepers' of the APXS," says Nick Boyd, research associate in the Department ofPhysics.That's th e alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, an instrument mounted on the rover's robotic arm to examine rocks and soil.

Physics professor Ralph Gellert was the lead scientist for APXS systems attached to Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit; they have been roaming the surface of Mars since 2004.TheAPXS picked up the data that enabled Gellert's faculty col-

leagues Joanne O'Meara and lain Campbell to detect the first "on-the-spot" evidence of water on the red planet.

In 2008, the soup-can-sized APXS device spent three weeks at U of G for testing by Gellert's tea m. It w as then assembled on the rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

This summer, the rover was flown to th e Kenn edy Space Centre in Florida.

It will be launched in late November or early December, and will land on Mars in August 2012.

During the two-yea r mission, Guelph's operations centre will serve as a conduit between the rover, the JPL and numerous scientists worldwide, helping to guide the rover's APXS explorations.

Funding for the operations centre came from the Canadian Space Agency.

ducing quick response (OR) codes in its recruitment material. U of G was one of the first institutions in Canada to use this new technology, based on a square barcode that can be scanned by a smartphone. Give it a try by scanning the OR code on page 8.

f Nature's , perfect 1 food gets 1 better l

i

·1

\

\

I

BetterPia~~ Project

Fall 2011 5

•

•

•

tne encourages people to invest." The risk of something happening might be very small, but that doesn't mean it cou ldn 't happen tomorrow.

Parnaby interviewed more than 45 financial planners and was also able to record meetings between financial planners and their clients. Two of the questions he asked financial planners highlight the problem. The first was: "Do you ever have clients assume you can see the future?" Parnaby says, "The financial planners laughed and joked that clients seemed to think they had a crystal ball. They readily acknowledged that they couldn't predict the future." He followed up that question with another: "How certain are you that the markets will a/ways bounce back?" Most planners responded that they were absolutely certain. Only one seemed to genuinely see the contradiction , admitting that it was really a leap of faith.

magine you are about to invest some money

I

logical error" by speaking of an artificial timeline.

through a financial planner. How much faith

For example, the financial planners would

Recognizing the limits of certainty hasn 't

should you have in your planner's definition of risk?

tell clients thinking of investing in the stock mar-

stopped Parnaby from seeking professional advice regarding his own finances, and he

It may be more complex than you think, says

ket that the risk of a market crash was very

U of G sociology professor Patrick Pamaby. He's

small. Then they'd add: "So you don 't have to

stresses that his research wasn't about decep-

been conducting research on the ways that

worry about it happening in the next month or

tion insofar as the people he interviewed were

financial planners communicate with their clients

the next year." That timeline , says Parnaby, is

caring and well-trained professionals.

about risk and says he was stunned that the

entirely artificial: "Risk has nothing to do with

Learn more about Pamaby's research on com-

financial planners often made "a fundamental

when something might happen. But saying that

municating risk at www.uoguelph.ca/theportico.

YOU CAN SPICE UP YOUR LOVE LIFE

I

F YOU'RE TRYING tospiceupyoursex life, try adding ginseng and saffron to your diet. Both are proven performance boosters, according to a new scientific review of natural aphrodisiacs co ndu cted by food science professo r Massimo Marcone and master's student John Melnyk.

Indulge in wine and chocolate, too, but know that thei r amorous effects are likely all in your head . Stay away from the more obscure Spanish fly and Bufo toad. While purported to be sexually enhancing, they produced the opposite result and can even be toxic.

The study was published in th e journal Food Research International. "Aphrodisiacs have been us ed for thousands of years all around the wo rld, but the science behind the claims has never bee n well understood or clearly repo rted," says Marcone.

There is a need for natural products that

6

THE PORTI CO

Saffron flower

en hance sex without negative side effects, adds Melnyk. Currently, conditions such as erectile dysfunction are treated with synth etic drugs , including sildenafil (com-

monly sold as Viagra) and tadalafil (Cialis).

"But th ese drugs can produce headache, muscl e pain and blurred vision, and can have dangerou s interactions with other m edi ca tions. They also do not increase libido, so it do es n't help peopl e experiencin g low sex drive."

The researchers examined hundreds of studi es on commonly used consumable aphrodisiacs to investigate claims of sexual enhancement- psychological and physiological. Ultimately, they included only studies meeting the most stringent controls.

Among the results, they found that panax ginseng, saffron and yohimbine, a natural chemical from yohimbe trees in West Afi-ica, improved human sexual fun ction. And people did report increased sexual desire after eating muirapuama, a flowering plant found in Brazil, and maca root, a mustard plant from th e And es.

Read U of G daily news at www.uoguelph .ca

Caregiving Has Economic Costs for Caregivers, Employers

C

ARING FOR an aging parent or a family member with a disability or chronic ailment is becoming a normal part of life for an increasing number of Canadians. But Guelph researcher Donna Lero says caregiving is also hurting finances and employment.

About 2.3 million working Canadians provide unpaid care to a family member or friend, says Lero, a professor in the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition and holder of the Jarislowsky Chair in Families and Work.

"While caregiving is a positive experience for many, people often have to miss work or reduce work hours and forgo job opportunities to provide care; ' she said. "This has economic costs for caregivers, their families and employers."

Employers bear the costs of caregiving through absenteeism, lost productivity, and recruitment and training of new personnel. Lero and co-researcher Prof.

Janet Fast of the University of Alberta estimate the loss of productivity to the economy to be the equivalent of157,000 full-time employees annually.

They say Canadians and policymakers need to better understand this

phenomenon and its impact on paid employment.

They analyzed Statistics Canada's 2007 General Social Survey- the most recent data available - to compile a snapshot of employment consequences of unpaid caregiving across the country.

Among their findings: • Of all employees aged 45 and older, 37 per cent of women and 28 per cent of men are unpaid caregivers.

• Employed caregivers spend on average the equivalent of one full workday per week providing direct care and support.

• Caregiving affects employment, earnings and long-term economic security more for women than for men.

• 38 per cent of caregivers believe that using support systems such as flexible scheduling offered in some workplaces would harm their careers.

Lero and Fast are now studying how employers are adapting policies and practices for caregiving employees.

"Work-family conflict continues to be a serious problem in Canada," Lero said. "These findings have important implications for public policy and business practice."

NOTEWORTHY • In July, the U of G Chamber Singers won first place at the National Competrtion for Canadian Amateur Choirs in the mixed-voice collegiate choirs category. "Our choir has made the finals consistently since 2006, but this is their first win," says conductor and music professor Marta McCarthy. In 2006, the Women's Chamber Choir placed third out of 78 entries in the contemporary class.

• Louise Arbour, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and Supreme Court justice who gained renown for her role in the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, received the Lincoln Alexander Outstanding Leader Award May 18.

Presented annually by the College of Management and Economics, the award recognizes exemplary and dedicated Canadian leaders whose careers have included groundbreaking, socially significant pursuits.

• The Ontario Veterinary College opened a new Large Animal Clinical Skills Building to better prepare veterinary students headed for careers in rural veterinary practice.

Support for the facility included a $2.3-million investment from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

• Economics professor Eveline Adomait has published a new book, Cocktail Party Economics, which aims to help the average person navigate through tricky conversations that can pop up while networking or simply meeting with friends.

• A play by drama professor Sky Gilbert has won two prestigious Dora Mavor Moore Awards from the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts. The Situationists was named outstanding new play in the independent category. Its star, Gavin Crawford , won best-actor honours.

The play was also nominated for outstanding set design.

l

Fall 2011 7

Tbe Bette Egg Farmers Fund OAC Chair

, r STUDENTS SET GOALS FORA BETTER PLANET A recent PhD graduate in philosophy, Aaron Massecar is interested in the philosophy of action. His doctoral thesis might be used as a primer on how to achieve success by learning to exercise "intelligently controlled" habits - patterns of behaviour that you choose and cultivate to help you achieve your goals.

Massecar's U of G success

S CONCERN FOR THE WELFARE of food animals increases worldwide, the Ontario Agricultural College has gained a new partnership to establish the Egg Farmers of Canada Research Chair in Poultry Welfare.

Tina Widowski, a professor in the Department ofAnimal and Poultry Science and director of the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare (CCSAW), has been appoint-

A

ed to the prestigious chair, whic h is supported by a $770,000 gift from the Egg Farmers of Canada (EFC) . She will collaborate with researchers studying welfare oflaying hens and egg production.

"A lot of scientists in Canada are doing work in dairy, beef and swine welfare," says Widowski. "Through industry support we can now also focus on poultry welfare."

Said EFC chair Peter C larke: "Egg Farmers of Canada is very pleased to be teaming up with Tina Widowski, an outstanding researcher we've had a chance to work with in recent years."The national organization represents more than 1,000 regulated egg farmers in all 10 provinces and the Northwest Territories.

As director ofCCSAW,Widowski leads the largest concentration of animal behaviour and welfare researchers in North America. The centre supports research and offers graduate and undergraduate programs that provide professional leadership to industry.

Added Clarke: "We need the brightest minds in our academic institutions to guide our industry forward, which is why we're delighted to partner with the University of Guelph on poultry research."

included serving on the Board of Governors, Senate and the Graduate Student Association, and working as a teaching

Accounting+ Program Grows

assistant and an advancement intern in the Department of

A $200,000 gift from the Certified General

Alumni Affairs and Development.

Accountants of Ontario (CGA) is helping Guelph students who hope to enter the accounting profession. CGA is supporting scholarships for bachelor of commerce students as well as a fellowship for sessional lecturers who teach in a new accounting major launched last fall by the College of Management and Economics.

The Accounting+ curriculum includes all CGA-required courses and introduces students to diverse areas of professional importance such as corporate social responsibility, hw'l'lan resource management and entrepreneurship.The fellow-

Scan the OR code w ith your smartphone to see how he and other students are setting goals for a better future.

~

OOjjj

8

THE PORTICO

ship will support three CGA-accredited lecturers for courses related to the CGA designation.

The CGA Ontario Scholarships will benefit full-time students entering the fourth year of the Accounting+ major. Selection criteria for the annual $1,000 award will include the completion of electives in a non-accounting area such as leadership, small business or corporate sustainability.

Both the CGA scholarship and fellowship are designed to help CME increase enrolment in the new accounting progran< and encourage students to pursue a professional CGA designation.

Plane_l_P[oject BetterPianet Campaign Passes Midpoint fficially launched last September, the $200million BetterPianet Project campaign has already raised $110 million from communities, industries, governments and individuals. Last year alone, the project drew contributions from more than 14,000 people.

Alumni support is the foundation of our success, says Joanne Shoveller, vice-president (advancement), but The BetterPianet Project has also generated confidence among philanthropists, organizations and companies who have invested large gifts.

"Several have stepped forward to support faculty who will be change agents in our food strategy, our environmental platform and our role in society. And new individual donors are supporting students in their learning and in outreach activities that improve quality of life for people and communities around the world.

"This unique campaign is transforming the levels and the ways that people and companies give; it's also transforming the University through these investments," she says.

Shoveller credits the leadership of campaign chair and 1980 alumnus Tye Burt, president and chief executive officer of Kinross Gold Corp. and vice-chair of the University's Board of Governors. She also cites the efforts of U of G administrators, deans, faculty, students, alumni, staff, board members, volunteers and donors.

"This is an ambitious effort that we are undertaking together," she says. By focusing on its strengths, the University has developed a unique niche in university fundraising. "The campaign goal is to enhance work by U of G professors in food, water, environment, health and communities - pillars of The BetterPianet Project and issues at the root of many of the world's challenges.

"It's an incredible opportunity to work alongside a growing, passionate community of people."

But we must maintain the momentum, she adds, to exceed the campaign's $200-million goal by 2014.

0

OVC Health Sciences Centre chief operating officer Sherri Cox, left, and radiation oncologist Valerie Poirier view the site of the college's new linear accelerator, which will open in November to treat cancer in pets.

Gift to Pet Trust Supports Animal Cancer Centre

T

he Angel Gabriel Foundation

has partnered with Pet Trust to begin leading-edge radiation therapy for pets undergoing cancer treatment at the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC).The foundation's $1-million gift provides principal support to purchase a linear accelerator and prepares OVC to offer safer, more effective radiation treatments for its patients.

Key to that service is the arrival of radiation oncologist Valerie Poirier, who joined the OVC Health Sciences Centre in August. Originally from Quebec, she studied and worked at the Universities of Montreal, Wisconsin and Zurich and has diplomate status from both the American College ofVeterinary Internal Medicine (Oncology) and the American College ofVeterinary Radiology (Radiation Oncology). In 2007 she moved to Australia to work at the Brisbane Veteri-

nary Specialist Centre, wh ere she developed the only radiation unit for animals in the southern hen"lisphere.

Poirier's position is funded by Pet Trust, Canada's first charitable fund dedicated entirely to advancing the health and well-being of companion animals. The Angel Gabriel Foundation is a previous supporter of Pet Trust initiatives in learning health care and research. This new gift pushes Pet Trust over the $1 0-million mark toward raising $15 million to establish an animal cancer centre intended to afford pets the most advanced and effective treatments. Construction of the cancer centre at OVC began earlier this year.

A gala fundraising dinner planned for Oct. 13 will also support the acquisition of the linear accelerator. For information about the gala and/or the OVC Pet Trust Fund, contact managing director Karen Scott at or 519-824-4120, Ext. 54370.

Fall 2011 9

I

_Tbe_Betterf)lanet_p[oject _

,

Arts Student Praises Scholarship Donor

A

v

$260,000 gift from Hamilton, Ont., lawyer Ted Morwick, BA '70, is providing new

entrance scholarships for students studying in the College of Arts.

The Ted Morwick Undergraduate Scholarship endowment will provide four $8,000 scholarships, payable over four years, to students from any program within the college.

Morwick already supports graduate students in English and creative writing.

Matthew Harris, a graduate student in the University of Guelph-Humber creative writing CME business students, faculty and alumni walk together to bring different perspectives and help change organizations in sustainable ways.

New Course Takes Care of Business Students GuELPH ALUMNI Anne Lockie, B.A.Sc. '73, and Lt. Cdr. Frederic Promoli, BA '70, have given $500,000 to the University to create the Anne Lockie and Frederic Promoli Professorship in the College of Management and Economics (CME).This new position will be funded for five years to develop and implement a new "Introduction to Business" course for first-year bachelor of commerce students.

Lockie chairs the CME advisory board. She recently retired as president and CEO ofRBC Financial Group's Royal Mutual Funds Inc.; Promoli is retired from a career as a physical education teacher.

Their gift will help CME efforts to engage and empower students. Offered each year to about 700 incoming B.Comm. students, the course will feature small classes and inquiry-based seminars to help students learn and develop skills and attitudes for life and career success.

The professorship will also focus on the scholarship of teaching and learning for use in this and other business courses.

SCHOLARSHIPS WIN DONOR SUPPORT

in his first year of the two-year program. "I was very excited," says Harris. "Having support from someone can help you take the plunge into a program. The award helped push me in the right direction."

Of his benefactor, Harris says: "He's just a regu lar person who has a love of literature.

There are people out there who still care about the arts and want to make an impact."

Open Learning Bursary Honours Virginia Gray

students in financial need.

These OAC classes have often A May 25 campus event was held to thank

growing number of Guelph alum-

joined forces for key projects and now

ni and friends are investing in a

plan to establish a graduate scholar-

Desire2Learn Inc. for a $60,000 gift to a bur-

better future by supporting scholarship

ship in sustainable food production to

sary fund in memory of Virginia Gray, for-

endowments for Guelph students.

enhance Guelph research, develop

mer director of the U of G Office of Open

Many donors, such as the OAC class-

highly qualified leaders for the food

Learning. The bursaries, which are also sup-

es of 1971 and 1972, are also taking

industry and help Canada to produce

ported by her family, friends and colleagues,

advantage of the Ontario Trust for Stu-

food sustainably

A

dent Support (OTSS) program to leverage matching funds.

The OTSS program doubles the size of private donations that support

10

MFA program, received a $3,500 scholarship

THE PORTICO

will benefit learners registered in distance

For more information about the

courses. From left are Mrs. Gray's sister,

OAC '71 and '72 class project or the

Susan Fowlie; husband, physics professor

OTSS program, call Alumni Affairs and

Chris Gray; and John Baker, president and

Development at 1-888-266-31 08.

CEO of Desire2Learn Inc.

Save Up to 40°/o on Your Mortgage Alumni of the University of Guelph can SAVE on a mortgage through preferred group rates while enjoying outstanding service. Whether purchasing your first home, considering a renovation, renewing or refinancing, trust National Group Mortgage Program to help with your mortgage.

Call us for a pre-approval today!

Contact us about your mortgage and you could

YOUR DREAM ~~·LVACATION

1-877-243-1255 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Mortgage program recommended by

UNIVERSITYA w<GUELPH

lum n1• ASSOCIATION

National Group Mortgage Program is a company of registered Mortgage Agents licensed with Argentum Mortgages FSCO No. 11892

www.nationalgroupmortgages.com/guelph

king vodka move The yea r 2011 marks 20 years since the Baltic states achieved independence from the Soviet Union and seven years since they joined the European Union. That's 20 years of a new political and economic reality for these small co untri es and, from marketing professor Brent McKenzie's point of view, a fascinating opportunity to study how retail sales strategies have evolved since Soviet control evaporated. " I'm Canada's expert on retailing in th e Baltic states," McKenzie says. He 's visited Estonia 14 times and has been to Latvia and Lithuania some half- dozen times each since the 1990s to study th e shopping behaviour of citizens and tourists in those countries and the changes made by retailers. H e's also spent some time in Poland, Bosnia and C roati a.

"Wh en I first went to Estonia, the Soviet influences were still very apparent. Du ring my first visit, I went into a department store to bu y a bag. I took the bag I wanted off the shelf and brought it up to the cashi er.

Without a word, she took the bag away, put it back on the shelf and disappeared. Eve ntually she brought me an identical bag from the bac k," recalls M cKenzie.

H e realized that the store was still working o n remnants of the old Soviet sys tem , w here shoppers would line up first to tell an employee what they wanted, line up again to pay for the item, then move to a third line w here th ey'd finally receive what they 'd bought. M cKenzie noticed that employees still worked in a very hierarchical system and had an attitude of "don't do anything unless you're explicitly told to, or you'll be blam ed if somethin g goes wron g."

H e's not surprised that some of those attitudes lingered. " It all happened so quickly: it was like 'today you 're conmmnist, tomorrow yo u're not,"' he says . " Nobody had studi ed marketing because marketing was considered evil. So it's been quite a learning curve."

But big steps have been made. Today yo ur shopping experi ence in an Estonian sto re will be mu ch more like a visit to a Canadi-

an mall, says McKenzie, a fac ulty m emb er in the Department of M arketing and C onsumer Studies since 2007. H e has bee n working w ith the m ajor department store Tallinna Kaubamaja in Estonia's capital city.

T he store is one of the few that was open during th e Soviet era and rem ains o pen to day; it was privati zed in th e 1990s.

M cKenzie is planning to w rite an academic bo ok about th e store's hi story and has wo rked with the store's cur rent owners to research a commemorati ve book that was released last year.

Th e retail sector in Esto nia , Latvia and Lithuania is not the only as pec t o f commerce that has changed si nce the Cold War ended. If you love tru e crime and histo ry books, you might be a good candidate for th e " dark tourism " opp o rtuni ties now offered. Dark tourism is one of M cKenzie's interes ts and the subj ec t o f a course he teaches at U of G. H e explains: "These countries are beginning to develop tourist attractions and tours that focus on the darker parts of their histories, including the atrocities conuni tted.Yo u ca n do a Soviet tour thro ugh th e city of Tallinn that takes you around in an old-fashioned Soviet car, teaches yo u how to shoot an AK-47 , and walks yo u throu gh a Soviet priso n . Or you ca n stay in th e KGB hotel (H otelViru) , where the KGB had the rooms bugged and recorded every conversation. People bring their kids on th ese tours, but they are controversial, and some of the older residents who lived throu gh th ose times obj ect to th em . It's still very raw for some people."

Too dark for you' Latvia is also looking at a different aspect of its past - the sa un a culture. "Their slogan is Latvia: Best Enj oyed Slowly; ' says McKenzie. "They offer traditional sa un a experiences where yo u bea t yo urself with birch branches as you sweat it out in th e sauna and then go out to roll in th e snow."

Not so much into heat and cold' Maybe vo dka tours w ill be m ore to yo ur tas te. " Vodka is cheap in E sto ni a, and th ere is a

Retail expert says former Soviet states are open to Canadian products, eager for w estern tourists

for Canadian beer

n

over

By Teresa Pitman Photo by Dean Palmer

says Estonia's largest department store has survived the dramatic change from communism to free enterprise .

strong vodka culture in the country," says McKenzie. In the past, a man who wanted to propose to the woman of his dreams was expected to first give the woman's grandmother a gift of vodka. "Vodka was always part of weddings, funerals, all the big events."

Now there are reg~lar ferries arriving from Finland with tourists who are visiting Estonia for a taste of the vodka culture.

McKenzie adds that the experience starts as soon as the boat docks. Little plastic cups with pull-off paper lids - they look like the snack cups of chocolate pudding available hereare sold from ice-filled tubs at the dock. Each cup is filled with a serving of vodka, ready for the thirsty travellers. McKenzie also collects vodka bottles, primarily the red-label Smirnoffbrand, and uses them in his classes to illustrate the ways vodka is marketed.

Last fall, he took part in Estonia's Canadian Food Days celebration where foods and beverages, including ice wine, Moosehead beer, wild rice and Voortman's cookies, were promoted. McKenzie was invited to the gala dinner and wrote about Canadian food culture for the local newspaper. The dinner included food from each region of Canada in five or six courses, with matched Canadian wines. He says he appreciated being able to promote the foods of his homeland.

Even without the Moosehead beer, the relationship between Canada and the Baltic states, particularly Estonia, is generally positive. "Estonians see Canada as a kindred northern culture," he says. The countries are similar in other ways as well: they are relatively small markets, and they can be overshadowed by their larger neighbour."

McKenzie adds: "One challenge is that many retailers see the Baltic countries as not large enough to bother with. They had a terrible time during the economic downturn a few years ago.Things had been going up and up because of the pent-up demand from the Soviet era, but they really hit a slump for a while." One problem McKenzie sees is too much duplication. "You might have three large stores close to each other, all selling the same items and the same brands for the same prices:' While they may have room for improvement in retail marketing, technology in these countries is very advanced. Skype was founded in Estonia and a high percentage of the citizens own mobile phones. "They do elections over the Internet and pay parking fees by cellphone." â&#x20AC;˘

â&#x20AC;˘ Fall201113

-

Study ecohealth at Guelph and you might end up anywhere in the world .

Lea Berrang Ford is a University of Guelp h grad who connects the dots among indigenous communities in Uganda, Peru and the Canadian North.

But it was back at U ofG that she honed her ecohealth smarts as a PhD student.

And it's here where students, fac ulty members and researchers are now taking up the ecohealth baton from the concept's founders, mainly in the Ontario Veter inary College (OVC) but also in other places around campus.

Think health and yo u may think of doctors and clinics. Beyond medicine, eco health brings an ecosystem approach to looking at health problems - one that considers how our own well-being connects to that of our surroundings, to echo

a definition used by the In ternational Development Research Centre (!DR C) based in Ottawa.

"Treating people and providing food and improving health care is important, but it's like trying to come at a leaky tap by sticking a finger in the faucet end," says Dominique Charron, a 1990 DVM grad who completed a Guelph PhD in population medicine in 2001. Since 2006, she has led the IDRC program in ecosystems and human health; that program provides between $6 million and $10 million a year to research projects intended to improve health and environments in developing regions. Widening the view, she says: "We need to look upstream and ask, 'Why do we have so many infectious diseases? Why do people not have access to income or nutritious food?' It's a systems approach to tackling hLUnan health."

By Andrew Vowles I Photo Illustration by Paul Watson IMAGES PROVIDED BY THE OVC GRADS INTERVIEWED, INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTRE, INTERNATIONAL LIVESTOCK RESEARCH INSTITUTE AND DEAN PALMER

Or call it " one health" - th e m ee ting place of people, animals and the environment embodied by ecohealth studi es at U of G. "We live in one world," wrote population m edicine professor David WaltnerToews in One Health for One World, a book of case studies he edited in 2010.

Witness the scope of examples in that volume covering human-animal-environment ties: the H1Nl pandemic in North America and Europe, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa, bird flu and SARS in Asia. "There's a w hole set of interactions between human society and nature," says Waltner-Toews.

H e retired this summer, some 20 yea rs after he began promoting ecohealth through research and teaching at OVC. In 2010, his contribution was recognized by an awa rd from the International Asso ciation for Ecology and H ealth.

H e asks:" How does that complex set of interac ti ons res ult in good or po or health for people, animals or the ecosystem itself?

The w hole point of ecohealth is multipl e persp ec tives and broad interdi sciplinary approa ches to very complex problems."

That's also the point ofB errang Ford 's research in Africa. She studied sleeping sickness in U ganda for her doctorate in veterinary epidemiology. Her PhD was co-supervised by Waltner- Toews and populati o n medicine professor John M cDermott, who is also depu ty director general of the Intern ational Livesto ck Research Institute (ILRI) based in Nairobi, Kenya. For Berrang Ford, studying the parasitic disease in East Africa meant going beyond medicine for a broader look at environmental, economic and sociopolitical fa ctors, including cattle, vegetati on, land- use changes and even civil conflict.

Ecohealth concerns are public health issues N ow, as a health geographer at M cGill University, B er rang Ford is helping U ga nd an resea rchers improve the lives of indigenous Batwa pygmies . Creation of a national park in so uth wes tern Uganda in 1991 fo rced 8J about 800 people to move from a forest to if nearby communities. Having lost their traz ditional fo ods and remedies and being forced ~ to adju st to farming, they now fa ce hi gher in mortality, lower life expectancy and even th e threa t of extinction.

I " These people will be very sensitive to o._

s

5

16

TH E P O RTI C O

David Waltner-Toews, PhD '85, and many of his faculty colleagues at OVC have been taking an ecosystem approach to studies in epidemiology and advocating its merits - for the last 20 years. changes in climate. They are th e poorest of th e poor," says B errang Ford , w ho wo rks with partner researchers and orga ni zatio ns in Africa. "These people are trying to learn agriculture but have no history."

T he Ugandan project is one of three global study sites for ecohealth researchers in a five-year multi-million- dollar study fund ed

by IDRC. The Indigenous H ealthy Adaptation to Climate Change (IHACC) research program looks at effects of climate change especially on food and water security, and vector- borne disease - o n rem ote health systems in U ganda, the Peru vian Amazo n and the Canadian Arctic.

In all three cases, researchers visit communities to learn about problems and priorities and to train local people to document th eir own experi ences, using cam eras and by participating in research. Berrang Ford's team hopes to learn about current health impacts of the environment and devise ways to reduce th e expected impact of climate change on those communities.

Another of those researchers in U ganda is 2009 DVM grad Bl<i naid D o nnelly, w ho join ed th e proj ec t this fa ll following eco health proj ec ts in South eas t Asia. Fo r the

practi cum semester in her master of public h ealth p rogra m co mpl eted at Guelph in 2010, D onnelly first landed a public health placem ent in Laos. This summer, a j oin t intern ship saw her working on related projects in Laos w ith ILRI .andVeterinarians Without Borders.

The livestock proj ect, funded by IDRC in two provinces of the country, aims to use ecosystem approaches to manage emerging zoo noti c di seases, or infecti o ns that move betwee n animals and people. Livestock are vital parts of subsistence agriculture for many Laotians, including snu llholder pig fa rm ers.

T he resea rch team , including gove rnment agencies, hopes to help manage zoonotic diseas es involvin g people and swin e, su ch as hepatitis, encephalitis and foot-and - m outh disease. Donn elly helped plan and design survey materials and collect data from villages.

T h ro ugh Vets W ithout Bord ers, she helped train and m entor villagers to provide basic veterinary care. "There is currently no veterinary program in Laos, and veterinarians are scarce;' she explains. She also help ed famili es improve poultry rearing to produce chickens that grow faster and lay more eggs. " The fa mili es w ill be able to improve their nutritio n by using the products for household consumption.T hey'll supplement their incom e w ith egg and chicken sales .Within a year, parti cipants w ill be required to give chickens back to the project to be passed on to oth er fa mili es ."

Those who know Donnelly as president of the O VC Alumni Asso ciation may be interested in her blog about her work in Laos: http: I I vetswithoutborders.cal blogl lao- pdrl .

This is the meeting place of people, animals and the environment By this fall , Do nn ell y expected to shift her fo cus to U ga nda, workin g o n that IHACC climate change p roj ec t as a PhD stud ent with Berrang Fo rd. "With my background in veterinary medi cin e and public health, I hop e to bring a new perspective to th e health geogra phy and social science-based team ," says Do nn ell y, who traces her interests in veterinary public health to seeing the effec ts of bovine spo ngiform encephalopathy and foot-a nd- mouth disease while growing up in N orth ern Ireland.

W riting this summ er from Laos, she said:

" I th o ught that the links betwee n hum an and animal health were so inextri cable and complex that I was excited to learn nw re.

Ecohealth takes th e human-animal health fo cus a step further by including environm ental health and sustainability. To m e, the approach just made a lot of sense - to stop trying to fix the symptoms and go back to the root of th e problem to see if we can solve the underlying cause. We have to stop thinking about human health without considering the contexts in w hich ill health occurs."

An o th er IHACC principal is M cGill geographer Jam es Ford, who completed his PhD at Guelph w ith geography professo r Barry Smit in 2006. Ford helps run the Arctic component of this international proj ect, including loo king to improve food secu rity for Inuit people. " It's about finding ways to help the Inuit take adva ntage of opportunities," he says.

About 50,000 Inuit people live in Canada's Arcti c, including about 1,400 in the three study communities : Rigolet, home to the Nunatsiavut Inuit in Labrador; Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut; and Inuvik, on the M ackenzie delta in the Northwest Territories.

Ford says he'd been surprised o n ar riving in Ca nada from England to learn how little work had been don e on adaptati ons to climate change in the Arctic. In 2010, he and Berrang Ford - alo ng w ith colleagues at th e University of Alberta and Trent U niversity - published a paper calling for m ore health support for aboriginal Canadians facing th e impac ts of climate change, w hi ch th ey called " potentially the bigges t health threa t of th e 21st century."

Says Ford : "By looking at how current health problems are managed , we can ga in insights into how aboriginal health systems will be able to respond as the climate continu es to change."

Also on the team is Sheril ee H arp er, a Guelph Ph.D student in population medi cine.

She has worked in the Arctic and East Afri ca, studying the effects of climate change on th e qu ality of drinking water and community health .That means looking not just at public health but at biodiversity, communities, policy and politics "We need to understand th e whole system ," says Harper, who co mpleted a master's degree at Guelph before beginning her doctorate as a 2010Vanier scholar.

R eferring to ecohealth, she says, " It's not

Dominique Charron, DVM '99 and PhD '01, leads a $1 0-million research program in ecosystem and human health at Canada's International Development Research Centre. a discipline, it's more an approach to research.

It's a big, messy approach to dealing with big, messy problems."

Ecohealth research blends many disciplines Back at Guelph, populati on medi cine p rofess or Karen Morrison also pursues the varied health connections among people, ani mals and their environment. She returned to U of G in 2010, having completed a master's degree here in environmental engineering (199 5) and a PhD in rural studi es (2006).

Ecosystem approaches to health underlie her wo rk , from C anadi an wa tershed management to fish poisoning in C uba and capacity-building proj ects in Southeast Asia. She's interested in how freshwater algae can cause disease outbreaks that threaten livestock, animals and humans, including th e effects of climate change and nutri ent loading in water bodies . Further afi eld, she has p ro posed a study of how people in mo untaino us parts of C hina adapt to climate change. " If you look throu gh an eco health lens, you ask different questi o ns," says M orrison, a board member of the internati onal group th at honoured Walther- Toews . "We mi ght

rethink a lo t of urba n design if yo u loo k throu gh an integrative lens."

She has helped teach ecosystem health courses involving Guelph and other schools, including a two-wee k annual course funded by IDRC thro ugh th ~ C anadian Com munity of Practice in Ecosystem Approac hes to H ealth. T hat CoPEH -Canada co urse - developed in 2008 by Waltner- Toews, pathobi ology p rofesso r Bru ce Hunter and philosophy professor Karen Houle - rotates each year amo ng participating schools.

At Guelph , M orriso n has also taught a grad co urse o n ecology and health w ith pathobiology pro fessor C laire Jardine, B. Sc. ' 92. T he latter studi ed w ildlife biology at Guelph and completed her DVM degree at the University of Saskatchewan before j oining th e O V C fac ulty in 2006 . " M y m ai n interest is w ildli fe health and disease," says Jardine. "That's linked to the ecosystem. You ca n't loo k at w ildlife health w itho ut co nsideri ng ecosystem s. It's a way of thinking about things."

She's studying antimicrobial resistance in small animals - racco ons and skunks that might spread bugs harbouring resistance genes to fa rm anim als. Referring to path ogens, hos t animals and th e env iro nm ent, she says, "Yo u need to consider all aspec ts to und erstand health."

The ecosystem approach brings multiple perspectives T hat idea resonates with Jane Parmley, PhD '05 , a populati on medi cin e grad w ho now works w ith th e C an adian Co-operati ve Wildlife H ealth Ce ntre (C CWHC).With regional centres at all of C anada 's veterinary sc hools, CCWH C plays a m ajor role in tracki ng w ildlife di seases in this co untry.

Parmley divides her time between that group and the Public H ealth Agency of Canada in Gu elph. H ealth is not one thing but m any factors, she says, tracing connections amo ng humans, lives tock and wildlife populati ons.

Look to treat o ne part of that web and yo u may have un fo reseen impacts on other parts.

That law of un intended co nsequ ences formed th e theme ofWaltner- Toews's 2007 book, The Chickens Fight Back, about food.:. borne diseases like bird flu . " If you solve part of a problem , it sometimes makes other parts wo rse," he says. " Yo u ca n solve fo od ava il ability with economies of scale.You can bring

Fall201117

""O

I

~

0

0

c ~

~

0

0 ~

B

c

m 0 I

)>

JJ JJ

0

z

down the price of chickens by having lots of chickens in the barn. That's helped make lots of chickens and lowered costs in the grocery store, but it has also created conditions that make it easier for pandemics to spread."

Looking to tackle ecohealth problems in developing countries, he helped to establish Veterinarians Without Borders (VWB) in 2005.That organization is run out oNictoria, B.C., by Erin Fraser, DVM '98 and M.Sc. '00 . For her master's in epidemiology, she looked through an ecohealth lens at livelihoods of women rai sing poultry on Honduran farms.

VWB brings together Canadian veterinarians keen to help in international proJects, notably in Asia,Africa and Latin America . "A lot of veter inarians are doing international work;' says Waltner-Toews. So are student veterinarians working on animal and public health and environmental issues in developing countries through OVC 's Global Vets program.

OVC students and grads are ecohealth experts

Lea Berrang Ford, B.Sc.(Env.) '00 and PhD '06, is a health geographer who completed a PhD in veterinary epidemiology at OVC to balance earlier studies in environmental science and geography.

~ Now, EVEN AS

pioneering ecohealth fac ulty _j ~ members retire, Guelph students are taking G the lead in another way. A student eco health ~ club formed last fall hopes to recruit mem~ bers from U of G and beyond, and attract par<( 2 ticipants to panel discussions and other activili ities in this growing, cross-disciplinary field.

Club members look at various topics, includ5: ing health effects of urban design, environ-

ยง

mental change and infectious diseases, and zoo notic and vector-borne diseases.

The group is sponsored by CoPEH-Canada and by U ofG's Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses (CPHAZ). The latter, launched at Guelph in 2009, is led by ProfJan Sargeant, DVM '86,M.Sc. '92 and PhD '96. She holds a research chair in public health supported by the Canadian

Institutes of Health Research. CPHAZ researchers study the movement of infectious diseases and teach students in Guelph$ master of public health program, the only MPH program in Ontario offered through a veterinary school.

One of those students is Vi Nguyen.

Fresh from completing her MPH this year, she headed for IDRC in Ottawa as an ecohealth intern. Armed with a research award from the centre, she spent the summer in rural Vietnam looking to help communities improve sanitation to battle emerging infectious diseases.

That award is especially exciting for IDRC's Charron, who says Nguyen is the first recipient who is an actual ecohealth expert : "She's coming in with so much experience already under her belt."

Nguyen's appointment demonstrates the growth of interest in ecohealth research and teaching. For Charron, it reflects the ecohealth focus ofWaltner-Toews - her own former supervisor- and his OVC colleagues, notably Hunter and Prof. Ian Barker, Pathobiology.

As all three facu lty 1nembers have retired this year, C harron says: "Guelph faces a transition. Guelph showed how it's possible to work across departments and campus in an important way, as the problems we face globally continue to be complex and require more than just a single technological or disciplinary approach .There's an opportunity for the University of Guelph to show real leadership at the national level and build on the legacy." โ ข

Ecohealth and much more for OVC to celebrate Pioneering research and advocacy in the area

posiums leading to the final conference on

the general public - those who ultimately ben-

of ecohealth is just one example of the

international veterinary medicine May 7 to 9,

efit from OVC teaching, research and service.

Ontario Veterinary College's long-standing

2012 . Canada's chief veterinary officer and

In addition, four commissioned books will

leadership in safeguarding the health of ani-

Guelph graduate, Brian Evans, DVM '78, is

be launched next summer: Animal Compan-

mals, people and the environment.

honorary chair.

As the co llege celebrates its 150th

Other 2012 anniversary events include

ions,

Animal Doctors,

Animal People;

Zoonoses, Animals, Humans; Our Stories, Our History; and OVC at 150.

anniversary, its faculty, staff, students and

an exhibit on veterinary history running March

alumni around the world, as well as the gen-

to June at the Guelph Civic Museum, an art

Everyone can be part of the celebration,

eral public, are invited to look back at OVC

exhibit May to July at the Macdonald Stew-

says OVC dean Elizabeth Stone, who invites

history and forward to future innovations in

art Art Centre, and the American Veterinary

you to share your stories about the college,

veterinary teaching, research and outreach.

Medical History Society Symposium June 15

veterinarians and the animals in your lives

during U of G's 2012 Alumni Weekend.

through a special anniversary website:

Celebrations for OVC's 150th anniversary began in 2009 with a series of annual sym-

These anniversary events are also open to

www.ovc150.ca.

Don'lleave opporlunily knocking...

A CMA designation opens doo..s.

CMA offers a comprehensive bridging program to help you qualify for the designation.

Certified Management Accountants'" Š 2011 Certified Management Accountants of Ontario. All rights reserved. Žf'M Registered Trade-Marks/Trade-Marks are owned by The Society of Management Accountants of Canada. Used under license.

W

HEN BI LL MACDONA LD was growing up in Guelph, his fa mily's old stone house had already become a go-to place for the brass from the colleges up th e hill. T hey cam e to see his dad - or, m o re to the po int, to have his dad see th em. Some mi ght have appeared more than once, donning their academic regalia each time to sit while Evan Macdonald wi elded paints and brushes to capture their character on his canvas.

But on that late December day in 1970, it was only Bill. N o presidential garments in sight: the closest thing to an ermine collar was the w hite fur trim on his parka hood. Then 20, he had just returned from fores try school in the Soo, a 12-hour train ride from the N orth back to Guelph. H ardly the best time for his dad to suggest posing for a portrait: " I'd just re turned hom e from a long trip, that 's w hat was depressing."

Forty years later, something o f that funk shows in the subj ect's distant blue eyes, his stubborn russet-covered chin and the se t of his lips. Eva n took only abo ut half an hour, just long enough for Bill to down a beer w hile staring out the window.

Glancing at the painting propped on a chair in the front ro om of that stone ho use, Bill confesses he's glad he yielded. " I think he saw the light in the w indow and he wanted to paint me."

It might have been the last portrait Evan Macdonald ever painted; that prolific Guelph artist died in 1972 after a nine-month illness. N ow it's Bill, foll owing in his fa ther's painterly footsteps, who reli es on light entering th e wide w indows of his childho od home.

Tucked behind lilacs at the end of a gravel lane, the Georgian farmho use stands amid a 1950s- era subdivision of brick bungalows and split-levels little more than a block from the U of G ca mpus. Inside, the symmetrical rooms and central hallway are lined with paintings: Eva n's work and ca nvasses completed by Bill and his w ife, Barbara Jean Shaw.

Against one wall stands a m assive wall cabinet that used to hold so cks, shirts and ties in D.E. M acdonald Brothers; the family store was located in the Macdonald Block dow ntow n before Evan closed it in the 1950s.

Now the cabinet's drawers hold art suppli es for Bill and Barb, a retired schoolteacher and artist.

Bill wo rks stri ctly in ac rylic. N o oils and nothing with solvents, not since th ey m ade him sick as an art student in Zavitz Hall. After that year in the Soo, he had transferred to G uelph fo r a hortic ulture diploma and then pursued a fin e art degree, completed in 1978.

H e's wo rked at U o f G ever sin ce, fir st in seve ral

20 THE PO RTI CO

departments in the O ntario Agricultural College (OAC), then in physical resourc es starting in 1985. H e helps to dig ou t the campus after winter snowstorms and thankfully retur ns eac h spring to duties as a garde ner and gro und skee per. In 20 10, Bill and fellow U of G groundskeepers received international recognition from the Professional Grounds Managem ent Society for outstanding campus landscaping and maintenance.

Bill's love of the outdoors is reflected by his paint brush as well as his garde ning tools. H e's been worki ng o n a pai nting of his sister's cottage in Owen Sound and a landscape from the Bruce Peninsula, shapes rou ghed out on th e canvas, lots of blues. " I love it up there, I' m absolutely drawn to that," he says, recalli ng childhood vac ations spent hiki ng and fis hing from a cottage in Southampton on Lake Hu ron while his fa th er was working.

Both Bill and Barb have sold works through Guelph's Barber Gallery downtow n. "Bill paints mainly landscape from his own experience, places th at he probably connec ts w ith very closely," says gallery co -owner Mike H ayes. A former U of G classmate of Bill 's, H ayes says Bill shares his fath er's ability to draw inspiration from na ture.

Evan did nu mero us works o n expedi tio ns thro ughout rural O nta rio, but he is oft en remembered for his Guelph streetscapes, including oils of buildi ngs in m iddestru cti o n: the Guelph opera house, th e forme r public library, the gas wo rks, the customs ho use.

Evan's works- landscapes, streetscapes, portraits, peopl e at wo rk- are fo und in private and public coll ections across Canada, including the M acdonald Stewart Art Ce ntre (M SAC) on ca mpus w hi ch has about 200 Eva n M ac donalds in its permanent collecti on. M any we re do nated by Bill an d his older sister, Flo ra M acdo nald Spencer, another artist and teacher. She published Eva n Ma cdonald: A Painter's L ife during a 2008 MSAC exhibition of her fa ther's work.

MSAC gallery co-ordinator Vern e H arrison says one of his favourite Evan Macdonald paintings is a 1942 portrait of George Sydney Smith, a gunner w ho train ed at the campus w ireless school durin g the Seco nd World Wa r befo re bein g killed in E uro pe. Harrison sees the present and the future linge ring in the portrait. "It was almost like a fore boding - I've go t to ge t this po rtrait done, beca use he's not coming ho me. It's almost frightenmg."

Elsewhere aro und campus are other works, all identified by th e artist's signature in bloc k capitals. T hey're in the University Centre, Wa r M emorial H all, Alu m ni

I

ld

-u I

0 -I 0 (JJ

-<

;;: )>

JJ

-I

z (f)

0

I

~ ,---

I

(JJ

m

Bill Macdonald lives in the Guelph house he grew up in and paints in the studio used first by his artist father, Evan Macdonald.

House, the Pathobiology Building. Near the OAC offices in Johnston Hall, a Macdonald montage portrays most of the campus buildings of the 1930s.

Johnston Hall itself and the adjoining johnston Green feature in a much larger painting located not far away.

Visit the physical resources building on Trent Lane to see a large mural recreating Johnston Hall and its environs, painted by Bill in 1994.

Another of Bill's campus landscapes hangs in his home studio, showing the browns and greys of the Dairy Bush. Eyeing the piece, he says, "There's a feeling of detachment from the madding crowd. That's what I loved as a kid, going into the bush. I feel a frozen sense of time there. "I can almost feel history behind me.

To me, that's magic." â&#x20AC;˘

BY ANDREW VOWLES

Note: The Macdonald Stewart M Centre is named for a different Macdonald family, that of Canadian businessman Sir William Macdonald.

Fall 2011 21

D

URING BAR AC K 0BAMA'S campaign for president of the United States, h e travelled to Las Vegas and posed for a widely-distributed photo at a parking lot covered with solar panels to highlight his interest in sustainable energy. That parking lot belongs to the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, w here U of G grad Raymond Saumure works as a wildlife biologist.

"The solar panels generate about 75 per cent of the power used at the preserve," says Saumure. With the h ot and sunny weather Vegas is famou s for, there's plenty of sunlight to fuel the $250 million worth of mu se ums on this 180-acre site in the middle of the city.

Saumure adds that several buildings are mad e of straw bales or rammed earth (compressed soil, gravel and sand), and the landscape around them uses desert-adapted plants as water is an expensive conm1odity in the Mojave Desert.

"We're very conscious of water and energy conservation."

Some of his concern for the environment is fed by his passion for the wildlife that populate the preserve.When Sa umure joined the proj ect, it was just a patch of desert under construction; he saw it through to completion and opening in Ju ne 2007. Run by th e Las Vegas Valley Water District, the Springs Preserve is the birthplace of Lls Vegas, a botanical garden, a zoo, a museum, and a place to hike and enjoy the natural environment. "As the wildlife biologist, I'm kind of a Jack of all trades," says Saumure. "Sometimes I get a call because there's a black widow spider or a scorpion in somebody's office. Sometimes I'm out bringing in new animals from other locations, or supervisin g the restoration of a natural habitat. It's always different."

Spending his days vvith animals is exactly the kind of life Sawnure drean1ed of as a child. Surprisingly, given his current work with amphibians and reptiles of all kinds, he confesses to having been afraid of snakes as a yOLmg boy. "Then a neighbour put a snake in my hand, and I realized they weren't scary and got interested in tl1em;' he recalls.The ÂŁ1mily lived in Gatineau, Que., and when Saw11ure caught a hatchling snapping turtle but didn 't know how to care for it, his father arranged for him to volLmteer witl1 me Canadian MuseW11 ofNature in Ottawa so he could learn more about amphibians and reptiles.

After high school, he attended U of G but recalls " it was a difficu lt time for m e. Guelph is a tough school in biology, and my grades weren't good."

They were good enough. He got involved in research and was proud to have four notes published in journals before he graduated with his undergraduate degree in 1993. And he qualified for grad sc hool. H e completed a master's at M cGill University, then worked at the Biod6me (a high-tech zoo) in Montreal, but was laid off after sev-

22

THE

PORTI CO

era! years, just as he was starting his PhD. A door closed, but another door opened - in an unexpected place.

"A colleague had moved to the Vancouver Aquarium , and th e aq uarium had a contract to open Shark R eef at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, so he enco uraged me to apply." Saumure got th e job.

Moving to Las Vegas was like " moving to Mars.

Everything was different - the plants, th e animals, th e bird calls and, of course, the weather. They don 't consider it hot here until it's over 11 0 F (43 C) ."

D espite the heat, it was exciting to be in on the development of the $50- million Shark Reef. Designing the habitat and sourcing animals and fish to fill the exhibits was a big change from studying the li ves of turtl es in Ontario and Quebec, but Saumure enjoyed th e adve nture. " I was fl ying sea turtles in from Miami to Las Vegas and misting them every half hour on the flights to keep them hydrated. I also got to know a lot about sharks."

His wife, Catherin e (Van Velzer), B.Sc. '91, is a marine biologist and was al so hired by Shark R eef. (They met at U of G during a "killer chem" lab.)

Wh en Shark R ee f was up and running, Saumure returned to McGill to complete his PhD and, shortl y after graduation,joined th e Springs Prese rve project.

Six years later, he still loves it.

In June, th e journal Conservation Genetics published the results of a study initiated by Sa umure that discovered th e Vegas Valley leopard fro g (R..a na fis!Jen), listed as extinct since 1942 , is not extinct at all but is geneti cally identical to a species living 250 miles away in Ari zona, along tributari es of th e Colorado River.

That amphibian, the Chiricahua leopard frog (Rana chiricah uensis), is currently listed as threa tened.

Saumure became interes ted in the Vegas Valley fro g beca use the Las Vegas Springs Preserve was once inhabited by the species . H e worked with a team of scientists in seve ral U.S. states to extract DNA from specim ens of the "extinct" frog th at had been stored since 191 3 at th e California Academy of Sciences. Arizona scientists we re independently studying DNA from the threa ten ed C hirica hua frog. Findin g a genetic match mea ns this team of conservation-minded biologists has been given a second chanc e to save the amphibian.

Saumure also works with the Southern Nevada Water Authority to monito r wildlife as Las Vegas co ntinu es to grow and grapple vvith drought and climate change. In his spare time, w hen not spending tim e with Catherine and their six-year-old son, he works on Herpeto loL~ica l Conservatioll a11d Biolc~r;y, a peer-reviewed JOurnal he co-fo unded.

ray

d saumure

-u

I

~

0

0

c ~ m ~

s;:

(f)

<

m

G)

&; (f)

-u JJ

z

G) (f)

-u JJ

m (f) m JJ

<

m

Raymond Saumure developed his interest in turtles, tortoises, frogs and snakes in the woods and streams of Quebec and Ontario.

"Established journals were not publishing much about amphibian and reptile natural history, and those that were wanted only research based on a hypoth esis," explains Saumure, who continues to conduct research and write papers. " In addition to accepting hypoth etico-dedu ctive research, we thought there was a need for publishing surveys, government agency repo rts or descriptive studies, because that information is often critical for conservation work. We need to know w hat these poorly studi ed animals are doin g, where they live, where they go."The

electro nic journal is free to anyone and does not charge researchers to have their work published.

It's been hugely successful and was recently featured in the Chronicle if Higher Education. "I think we're ahead of the wave of online, open-access scientific publications;' he says. The site had more than 42,000 unique visitors in 2010.

Some articles have been downloaded m.ore than 7,000 times; the average is between 2,000 and 3,000, and those are high nw11bers for articles about snakes, turtles and frogs.

BY TERESA PITMAN

Fall 2011 23

I

uofguelph Steven Backman

Aquaculture vet charts a new course ou'vE PROBABLY never seen a scallop farm. They're rare, but even if you were close to one you might not be aware of it. On the surface, a scallop farm looks like nothing more than a patch of water in the ocean, says veterinary grad Steven Backman , who is raising 50,000 to 60,000 scallops in his patch of water.

"But underneath the surface, we have submerged cages where the scallops attach and then grow too big to escape," he says . He's hoping to expand to 250 ,000 scallops.

The ocean and the creatures that live in it have been central to Backman's life since childhood. He grew up in Halifax watching the professional fishermen in his family haul in their catches. After graduating from the Nova Scotia Agriculture College, he can1e to the Ontario Veterinary College. "I could see similarities between what we learned about farming terrestrial aninlals and the potential for farming the seas;' he says.

There weren't many vets interested in fish, but Backman was introduced to Prof Hugh Ferguson, who ran the fish pathobiology lab at the time. "After graduation in 1987, I went back into pathobiology to work with Hugh;' he says.

Backman was subsequently hired by Moore-Clark (now called Skretting), an aquaculture feed company, as the z ~ first full-time aquaculture vet on ~ Canada's east coast. He is the compam mny's technical service veterinarian and ~lives in St. Stephen, N .B. , with his (f) â&#x20AC;˘ iii wife and 17 -year-old son. ~ He says the issues in this field change ::J 8 weekly For exan~ple, Backman was part of ~ a multidisciplinary team that developed the 0 6: management strategy for infectious salmon

Y

24 THE PORTICO

anemia, which he says is now under control. He and other experts are also working through the challenges presented by sea lice, a parasite that can affect salmon.

"Every species of fish or shellfish has a slightly different approach to life, and you have to figure out what they need in terms of environment and nutrients," he says. "Aquaculture is all about learning from nature how to produce food in a sustainable way to feed Earth's growing population."

He's now studying ways to adapt a new aquaculture system to his scallop farm. Integrated multi- tropic aquaculture (IMTA) involves raising several types of fish or seafood together to utilize what Backman calls nature's recycling methods. "The mussels eat the waste from the salmon, and the aquatic plants and algae consume the waste from the mussels."

He believes overcoming the challenges of parasites, infectious diseases and the feeding of aquatic plants and animals may be critically important to

the human race. H e's convinced aquaculture will be the food production system of the future. "There are more and more people on the planet to be fed. The amount of fish that can be taken from the ocean is finite, and we've hit the limit. Fish protein is healthy and nutritious. Fish are generally easy to grow, and the operation has a small carbon footprint. Aquaculture has nowhere to go but up."

Right now, Backman's scallop farm is the only one on the east coast; he grows the native giant sea scallop. But he says Canada is especially well-positioned to expand the number and size of fish farms because of its huge coastlines. "We haven't come close to tapping the potential here. Aquaculture also keeps coastal people in their home coll1lllunities ."

Backman's job requires frequent travel, for community work, including serving as president of the local hospital foundation.

BY TERESA PITMAN

Campaign Passes $110-Million Mark

T

his spring, The BetterPianet Project su rpassed its mid-pqint goal, with

$110 million raised from alumni, friends and

Guelph-Humber Grads Reconnect in Toronto

corporations . An impressive 14,000 donors made a contrib ution in 2010/2011; more than 4,500 of those were first-time donors.

The BetterPianet Project has also generaled confidence in a number of philanthropists and companies who have made large gifts to the campaign . I thank you all- alumni and friends - for this incredible show of support and confidence.

The BetterPianet Project is also attracting attention across Canada. The campaign was awarded top honours from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education for "Best Fundraising Case" in Canada.

As we turn this corner of the campaign, we have set our sights high with a $30-rnillion goal for the new fiscal year.

Alumni support and engagement form the foundation of our success. The BetterPianet Project tells the tremendous grassroots story of how our alumni, students and faculty

From left: Matt Henderson, Jasmine Wi-Afedzi, Nadia Stewart and Gannon

work towards the betterment of the environ-

Loftus reconnect at Guelph-Humber's first alumni gathering.

0

N THE WAY tO its 10th anniversary in 2012, the University of Guelph-Humber has reached another important marker. T he first gathering of Guelph-Humber alumni took place in June when 120 people met at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto. " It had been five years since seeing some people, but we picked up right where we left off- a true sense of community;' recalled 2006 alumnus Gannon Loftus, who graduated with a degree in media studies and a diploma in print and broadcast journalism. He co-hosted the evening with fellow alunmus Arif Iqbal, who graduated in business administration. Matt H enderson, also a 2006 media studies grad, provided the musi c.

The class of 2006 was the first to graduate from the University of GuelphHumber and received special recognition during the alunmi reception.

"Gaining a deg ree and a diploma was invaluable beca use they provided

m e with knowledge and a skillset that prepared me for the 'real world,"' said Loftus, who works as regional media relations officer for Ornge, a not-forprofit m edical transport provider that operates across Ontario.

When Guelph-Humber opened in 2002, it had 200 students enrolled in three programs. That numb er has grown to more than 3,200 students in seve n programs.

The University's alunmi conm1unity now numbers more than 3,000 members, and its largest graduating class crossed the stage to receive degrees and diplomas - gradu ates receive both after four years of study- during convocation in late June.

To newly minted alunmi, Loftus had one piece of advice: " Keep an open mind. Opportunities are endless. Try everything. I've done a lot of things I never thought possible since graduating."

BY SEAN FLINN

ment and society. And all gifts to the campaign, no matter the size, help to solve the chaJienges we face in the areas of food, heaJth, communities and the environment, and shape and guide our students and future leaders.

I thank you for supporting The BetterPianet Project and ask for your continuing engagement in this exciting project. For more information, visit www.thebetterplanetproject.ca.

Joanne Shoveller Vice-President, Advancement

Fall 2011 25

I

al Who did you see at Alumni Weekend?

M

ore than 700 U of G alumni enjoyed

Alumni Weekend, June 17 and 18.

Alumni Affairs and Development staff hosted 20 reunion classes and congratulated them on a combined total of almost $6 million in lifetime giving to the University.

Alu mni Weekend event photos are onl ine at www.alumni.uoguelph.ca. If you are planning a fall or 2012 reunion, contact alumni staff at alumni@uoguelph.ca.

UGAA directors for 2011/2012, from left: Jason Moreton (ex officio), Andrew Kaszowski, Linda Hruska, Brad Rooney, Brandon Gorman, Vikki Tremblay (ex officio), Dian Chaaban, John Robinson, Debby Pavlove, Rob Naraj and Ted Young. Absent: Jon Aikman and Sandy Warley.

UGAA Creates a Legacy S GUELPH GRADUATES, we know that education is a life-enhancing experience, but we too must eventually fall from the bough. When that happens, our relatives, classmates, friends and colleagues may search for ways to mark our passing.

Most of those good folks won't want to

A

make a maJor investment in a named memorial, but would welcome the opportunity to contribute to a cause that would have meaning to the deceased.

The University of Guelph Alumni Association (UGAA) is proud to announce the establishment of such a vehicle: the Alumni Legacy Scholarship.

The $1,000 scholarship is funded through donations to a new University of Guelph Alumni Memorial Fund and is available to students at aU U of G campuses who are the children, grandchildren , greatgrandchildren, siblings or parents of a Guelph graduate.

Recipients of the annual award are chosen on the basis of academic achievement and volunteer contributions after completing at least the first year of full-time study.

Eligible students must have a cumula-

26 THE

PORTICO

tive average of at least 75 per cent in their last two full-time semesters and have demonstrated volunte er leadership with in the University community.

The initial presentation of the Alumni Legacy Scholarship will take place this fall ; the application deadline is Nov. 30. For more information on the scholarship, visit www. uogu elph. ca/ registrar/ stu dentfinance/.

The UGAA makes an annual donation to the fund, but all relatives , classmates, friends, professional colleagues and associates of a deceased Guelph graduate should also consider making a donation. Supporting today's students and tonwrrow 's leaders is a meaningful way to commemorate the passing of a Guelph alumna / alumnus.

And it's a legacy he or she would certainly have approved.

I encourage you to share this information with fellow alumni and with family following in their footsteps who may wish to apply for the Alumni Legacy Scholarship.

C. BRADLEY ROONEY, ADA '93 AND B.SC. (AGR.) '97 UGAA PRESIDENT

Find more U of G alumni news and events at www.alumni.uoguelph.ca

U OF G EVENTS

Players and coaches talk football Sept. 24 • Homecoming. The Gryphons host McMaster at 1 p.m. in Alumni Stadium.

Sept. 24 • School of Languages and Literatures Reunion.

Oct. 1 • Gryphons Go Wild. Join U of G alumni, friends and families for a day at the Metro Toronto Zoo . Meet animal visitors up close and personal at the savanna picnic site.

Oct. 22 • Gryphon Men's Soccer Supporters of Gryphon football gathered at the inaugural Coach's Gala at Cutten Fields

Alumni Reunion. Reunite with team

on June 11. The event featured keynote speaker Thomas Dimitroff, BA '90, general man-

members for the third annual

ager of the Atlanta Falcons and NFL Executive of the Year in 2008 and 2010, and raised

reunion, watch the Gryphon men's

more than $35,000 for Gryphon football. Pictured from left: Former OAVC Red men head

game against Windsor at 3 p.m.,

coach Tom Mooney (1956 to 1960), current Gryphon head coach Stuart Lang, and for-

and enjoy a dinner event honouring

mer Gryphon head coach John Musselman (1984 to 1986).

the 1990 OUA championship team.

Oct. 22 • Engineering Awards

CHILDREN LIGHT UP FOR CHALLENGE WINNER

The first challenge asked alumni what they

Banquet. Help the School of Engi-

were doing to make a better planet, and the

neering toast five individuals at

winner was David Elliott, B.Sc. '96 and M.Sc.

this year's event.

'99; he's been volunteering as the executive

Nov. 1 • Alumni event at the Art

director for the international charity Lights For

Gallery of Calgary, 6 to 9 p .m.

Life since December 2010.

Check the website for details.

To see this month's challenge, go to

Nov. 3 • Vancouver alumni

www.alumni.uoguelph.ca/challenge.

event at the Four Seasons Hotel,

6 to 9 p.m.

USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO ADVANCE

Nov. 17 to 20 • Fair November.

YOUR CAREER

Nov.

Co-op Education and Career Services, along

Gryphonville. All former varsity players, their families and friends are welcome to attend the fourth

sion Nov. 23 with Amber Mac, new media

annual hockey event and pay trib-

§

ute to the 1978-79 and 1979-80 QUA champions.

nology called App Central, produces a week- ~

March 2012 • Ontario Veterinary

~

College 150th anniversary exhib-

ly show for Fast Company magazine and

m

writes an online co lumn for The Globe and EJ lights that his favourite charity provides to

in

with Alumni Affairs and Development, invite

national TV show about trends in mobile tech-

children in developing countries.

Day

all alumni to an informative social media sesauthor, strategist and TV host. She hosts a 0~

David Elliot holds one of the rechargeable

19 • Hockey

Mail and a mobile innovation blog for Yahoo.

0

~

The session will focus on social media, its ~ role in your career and how it can be used for ~

it opens at Guelph Civic Museum.

For more information about OVC's history and anniversary events, visit http://ovc150.ca/en/.

0

job searching . The event will be held on cam- o

l:':

The Alumni Challenge is a new monthly con-

pus and is free for students, alumni and staff. o

For more information on these and

test that connects U of G grads with their alma

Visit www.alumni.uoguelph.ca/event s for F

other U of G alumni events, visit

mater and gives them a chance to win prizes.

details.

www.alumni. uoguelph. calevents.

m

~ _,

Fall 2011 27

university of guelph With Grad's Help, the Show Must Go On

Miranda Sallaway, centre, with performers from the Vegas show KA. With a cast of more than 80 people and 476 shows per year,

M

ffi

_j

8 6 w

::::J

0

0:

0

if.i ~

60 CfJ

!RANDA SALLAWAY, B.Sc. '06, could have followed in her father's footsteps and become a veterinarian. She often accompanied him on fann visits, but caring for hun1ans appealed to her more than attending horses. "I spent my whole childhood helping him help animals," she says of her father, John Sallaway, DVM '77. " I just went in the direction of helping people." As an ath letic therapist for Cirque du Soleil, she helps people who come in all ages, shapes and sizes, just like a veterinarian's patients.

Sallaway spent five years in the Uni-

5 I

[]._

1950 • Ken Monteith, R.Dip. '57, received the Farm. Credit Canada (FCC) alumnus lifetime achievement award during graduation ceremonies at the Ridgetown Campus in June.

The award recognized Monteith's contributions to agriculture and his rural community, and

28

THE PORTICO

versity of Guelph human kinetics/Sheridan College sport injury management program, which included a three-month internship with the National Ballet of Canada, an experience that opened her eyes to the stage. "I realized that I loved working with performers," she says.

"They have interesting personalities from all around the world. !liked working with people who are motivated.You have people who really want to get better and stay in shape."

With a cast of more than 80 people performing in 4 76 shows per year, keeping everyone healthy is a marathon,

included a $5,000 FCC donation to the new student service and recruitm ent centre. Monteith is an inaugural member of the Ridgetown Agri-Food Foundation. He chaired the 1985 International Plowing Match in Elgin County and continues to serve his rural community.

not a sprint. The last thing Sallaway wants is for any of them to break a leg.

She treats performers with acute or chronic injuries and keeps a close eye on recurring problems that could be prevented with the right fitness routine.

If she noticed a number of shoulder injuries, for example, she would work with the show's coaches to develop a strengthening and conditioning class.

Each class is tailored for performers' needs based on physique, ranging from stocky and muscular to lean and agile.

Performers' ages are equally diverse, from. 21 to mid-50s, although most are

1960 • Eric Christensen, ADA '62, writes that he is happily retired and is volunteering as administrative co-ordinator for the Haliburton ATV Association. He's also working with other ATV groups in Ontario to create, among other things, a "one voice" provincial organization

to resolve issues with the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry ofTransportation.

Margaret Dickenson, • B.H.Sc. '68, and two other Ottawa-based authors participated 1n an Intern ational Women's Day charity fundraiser organized by Ottawa city councillor Diane Deans,BA '80.

Sallaway says keeping everyone healthy is a marathon, not a sprint.

in their late 20s and early 30s.

Has Sallaway ever wanted to perform in a C irqu e du Solei! show?

"That would take a lot of training for me," she says with a laugh, adding that she doesn't mind working behind the scenes. Now expecting h er first child in Nove mb er, she has no intention of swinging from the trapeze anytime soon, but sports have always been a big part of her life. "I grew up playing more traditional sports," including basketball, voll eyball and row ing.

"Being an athletic person led me in this direction." She started playing volley-

ball during her first yea r at Guelph an d then beca me the team 's trai ner.

Living in Las Vegas for the past three years has given Sallaway a new appreciation for the city's daytime activities . " I love it here. I live by a place called R ed R oc k Canyon. In abo ut a 10minute drive, we can be walking our dog in the most amazing landscape you could ever see, so that kind of spoils us."

Working late hours also fits into the Vegas lifestyle. Sallaway usually fini shes work at midnight w hen the nightlife is just ge tting started. " It would be just as busy at the casino as it was when I

Dickenson's cookbook, Margaret's Table - Easy Cooking & Inspiring Entertaining, was sold at the event, w ith $20 from eac h book donated to the Ottawa Cancer Foundation.

From left: Diane Deans and authors Val Willis, Grete Hale and Margaret Dickenson.

cam e into work," she says. "The city doesn 't shu t dow n w h en yo u head home that late."

She m et her husband , also an athletic therapist, at Sheridan College. H e now works fo r C riss Angel Beli eve, a C irque du Solei! producti on .

Years aft er having see n her fir st C irque du Soleil show in high sc hool, Sallaway enjoys being on the other side of the curtain."It's fun when I go backstage and I ca n hea r th e audi e nce applauding and think that I had a little bit to do w ith that."

BY SUSAN BUBAK

â&#x20AC;˘ Donna McCaw, BA '69 , is a former teach er, a retirem ent expert and an author who says most people spend more time planning a two -week vacation than their retirement, w hi ch might last 25 years. H er new book, It's Your Time, provides a guideline for those w ho want a fulfi lling and successful retire-

Fall 2011 29

Grads are top journalists

T

he winner of the inaugural Canadian Hillman Foundation Prize in journalism is a graduate of U of G's human biology program

whose interest in science and medicine has fuelled his career as an

1970

investigative journalist. A reporter and feature writer at the Hamil-

• Roger Courtenay, BLA '76, is principal/vice-president of Design + Planning for AECOM and is based in Alexandria, Va. His book, My Kind if Countryside, was recently published by the Center for American Plac es of the University of Chicago Press.

According to one reviewer, the book "blends poetry, calligraphy-like drawings and descriptive vignettes to instruct us in the structure, vocabulary and meaning of place."

• Jacqueline Crawley, BA '76, recendy received a 2011 Urban Hero Award from the Etobicoke Guardian. She teaches adult classes in drawing and painting at the Islington Seniors' Centre in Etobicoke, Ont., and was recognized for her teaching and volunteer work. As an artist, she covers diverse themes, mediums and techniques. "I don't stay with one subject for long; there are many to explore. My realistic landscapes and still life paintings are from studies of the objects and scenes around me. Conceptual and abstract paintings are based on concepts such as boundaries, truths and dualities. For a while I was an editorial illustrator and loved the work. A lot of my art

ton Spectator, Steve Buist, B.Sc. '82, received the Hillman award for his "Code Red" series that used the social determinants of health to examine poverty in various Hamilton neighbourhoods and connect poor health and poverty.

Through print and an interactive web component, the series mappec Hamiltonians' health to reveal a 21-year difference in life expectancy between the Ontario city's best and worst neighbourhoods.

Buist previously won two National Newspaper Awards. He's been twice named Ontario's journalist of the year and was named Canada's investigative journalist of the year in 2009 by the Canadian Association of Journalists.

Currently completing a master's degree in journalism, he's exploring how Canadian newspapers report financial relationships between university researchers and pharmaceutical companies.

Since 1950, the Sidney Hillman Foundation has honoured journal(/)

33

ists, writers and public figures in the United States. Hillman was the

[

founding president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.

w w

a:

The foundation's inaugural Canadian award for journalists also

u.. awarded honourable mention to a Winnipeg Free Press series, "No

S3tL

Running Water," that was co-written by U of G graduate Helen

~

Fallding, B.Sc. '86. A biology graduate, she has worked at the Win-

z

o nipeg paper since 1998 but is currently on leave to manage a cenz <( tre for human rights research at the University of Manitoba. a: 0 She and co-writers Tyler Walsh and Joe Bruksa examined a First

!;;:

~

(L

(J)

ment. The volume is available from BPS Books .

• Ann Park-Syme, BA '75, is a school photographer who says she's "had a great life. Being at Guelph accentuated my life experience; the rest I did on my own. I will never forget the days at residence in Gray Hall (named thus at that time) and the never-ending fun at the 'round house,' never to be the same now that it's a coffee house.

What a waste of party space! We had the best tunes and dancing ever. Remember the '70s: Guelph will never be the same."

Nations community in Manitoba lacking access to clean running water.

The series was edited by Free Press deputy editor Julie Carl, BA '84.

z

0 ~ ~

<(

I

[;)

~

:::J

0 0

(J)

§ I

(L

30

THE PORTICO

pieces are meant to be meditative and are intended to be viewed in that manner." (http:! /jacqueline crawley.blogspot.com/) • Paul Gilson, BA '76, wrote this spring to congratulate U of G's wrestling Gryphons for completing one of their most successful seasons in recent years. It was a notable spring for Gilson himself as he graduated from Trinity College in Toronto. "It was certainly interesting to be a full-time student after a 20-year hiatus and tackle the likes of Hebrew and Greek again."

• John Gordon, BA '76, is director of communications for ClubLink, one of the world's largest owners/ operators of golf courses. Based in King City, Ont., he considers this job his swan song after a career in journalism and golf that included a National Newspaper Award at The Canadian Press, eight golf books, editorships at five golf magazines , broadcasting with Rogers Sportsnet and The Score, and executive positions with the Royal Canadian Golf Association and the Golf Association of Ontario. He joined ClubLink in 2009 after a brief return to Guelph in 2008 as editor-inchief of eMedia Interactive. He and his wife, Leslie, live in Midland.

PATRICK LUCIANI

• Patrick Luciani, BA '73, has co-authored a book with Neil Seeman entided XXL: Obesity and the Limits of Shame.

Published in April by the University of Toronto Press, the

book argues that many public health campaigns have worsened the obesity problem by downplaying the difficulty of losing weight. XXL challenges governments to replace top-down planning solutions with bottom-up innovations to confront the obesity crisis and proposes a "healthy living voucher" to reduce calorie consumption and related health problems. A review by author Matt Ridley in T11e Vllcill Street journal said the book's suggestions "will annoy both the left and the right. Market forces are anathema to th e top-down thinking of many on the left, and handing money to the 'undeserving' is anathema to many on the right. But the very fact that their idea defies conventional wisdom suggests that it is a good one."

communication and his efforts to encourage students to share their knowledge of biology. He gives frequent public talks, visits schools, leads nature walks and judges science fairs. He was executive producer on the Discovery Channel video "Saving the Bald Eagle," has written for Nova Scotia Birds and is a familiar voice on CBC Radio's regional show "The Bird Hour."

Hagartys show off their Guelph colours

He has also presented workshops and helped to develop environmental science curriculums for colleges in Zambia and India.

H

olding a card with their year of graduation are six members of the family of John "Jack" Hagarty, BSA '61 and M.Sc. '63,

who is standing on the far right.

On the far left is Jack's grandson, John "Jonathan" Hagarty, B.Comm. '1 0. Jack's daughter-in-law, Deb, and her husband, John P. Hagarty, are next in line; they both graduated from the University of Guelph-Humber in 201 0 with degrees in justice studies. Jack's granddaughter, Jennifer, BASe. '06, is next; she and Jonathan are CATHY RALSTON

John P. Hagarty's children. Standing beside Jennifer is her aunt and Jack's daughter, Joanne Jobin, B.Comm. '88.

DAVID MCCORQUODALE

• David McCorquodale, B.Sc. '79, recently began a fiveyear term as dean of th e School of Science and Technology at Cape Breton University in Sydney, N.S. A professional entomologist, he has been a professor in the biology department there since 1990 and has been a champion of student involvement in research and outreach.

In 2007 , he received the Cape Breton University Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award and the Atlantic Provinces Council on the Sciences Science Communication Award. These awards recognize his contributions to science

• Cathy Ralston, B.H.Sc. '71, retired in May after 28 years as a professor in U of G's School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. After completing a PhD at the University ofWisconsin, she joined the former School of Hotel and Food Administration (HAFA) m 1983. In addition to teaching, she co-ordinated exchange programs with England and Mexico and served on the HAFA Awards Committee and the University Senate Awards Committee. Her research interests include production planning and control as well as texture modified foods for dysphasia patients. She is a member of the Dietitians of Canada and has a wide range of experience in hospital foodservice managem ent.

• Donald Rennie, BA ' 75, was sworn in as judge of the Federal Court in November

Yes , the name John is a Hagarty family tradition; their Irish back-

'D

I

S

ground led to the custom of naming the first-born son in each gen- O ~ eration John.

G)

Jack's other children did not attend U of G, but to carry the };

z Guelph story a little further, we should note that his brother did. -1 Jerome Hagarty is a 1973 master's graduate in land resource sci-

;;:: )>

:D

ence, and Jerome's son, Shawn, is a 1995 engineering grad.

2010. After graduating from Guelph, he earned a law degree from Dalhousie University in 1978 and was admitted to the Ontario bar in 1981 , the Yukon bar in 1982 and the Alberta Bar in 1985. He has h eld several positions with the Department ofJustice Canada, beginning as counsel for civil litigation in 1981, and was serving as assistant deputy attorney general (litigation) when appointed as a judge. His main areas of practice were matters regarding the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, public and constitutionallaw, tort liability and com-

m ercia! law. Rennie chaired the National Litigation Committee and co-chaired the Supreme Court of Canada Committee.

He has been a member of the Advocates' Society and its board of directors, co-author of Federal Court Practice since 1988, and co-author of The Annotated Crown Liability Act 19 9 5.

He is married to Frances (Powell) Rennie, B.Sc.(Agr.) '76 and M.Sc. '80, a planner with Parks Canada. Their son,John, graduated from Guelph in June with a BA in political science.

Several other members of the family are also Guelph gradu-

Fall 2011 31

-1

z

ates, including Donald Rennie's sister, Cynthia Lindsay, BA '80; brother-in-law,James Lindsay, ADA '77; and father, Clare Renni e, BSA '47, who taught here and chaired the animal science department for many years.

• James Sandever, B.Sc.(Agr.) '76 and M.Sc. '78, relocated from Victoria, B.C. , to the community of Cobden Ottawa Valley, "an agricultural hub for Renfrew County." He is retired and enjoying the change of pace with his wife, Valerie, and many family members nearby.

1980 • Geoff Corlett, B.Sc.(Agr.) '86, just got " hired" not fired

by Donald Trump. Trump called Corlett perso nally to hire his Guelph-based golf restoration company to restore the greens at the Trump International course in West Palm Beach, Fla.

GEOFF CORLETI

The work was done this summer.TDI Golf, of which Corlett is president, has helped restore hundreds of top courses throu ghout North America, including Guelph's Cutten Fields, and has installed TD I's trademark XGD green drainage system on many more. He started th e company in 1988. For more information about the Trump proj ect and Corlett's company, visit www.tdigolfcom.

• Christine Fraser- McDonald,

BA '87, was recently promoted to deputy clerk of the Ontari o Township of Georgian Bluffs.

• Joanne Klausnitzer, B.A.Sc. '86, is a conununity support services sup ervisor working in Cambridge, Ont. She enjoyed a 22-year ca reer with Meals on Wheels of K.itchener-Waterloo before joining the adult day services program three years ago.

Her age ncy helps se niors and their ca regivers connect w ith community- based support services in Cambridge and North Dumfries Township. She says she enjoys helping seniors remain active in th eir community, and challenges other Guelph alumni to keep active and connected through volunteering.

• Ian McLean, BA '89, held an exhibition called Recreational Use at Loop Gallery in Toronto from Jul y 23 to Aug. 14. The exhibit included this painting,

PARTS PER VOLUME

Parts Per volume, and other linages of residential environments that depict living rooms, backyards, swimming pools, hot tubs and muscle cars. As an artist, he says, he is inspired by "discrepancies between setting and mood and the use of ornamentation as distraction." Originally from Sarnia, Ont., he n ow lives in Bright's Grove with his wife and daughter and is represented in Toronto by Gallery Moos and loop Gallery.

Recruit Guelph HIRE Co-op Students Current Students Alumni 0

0 °o

C0~QR

Career 0 Services 0 0 0

32

THE PORTICO

• Adam Socha, M.Sc. '86, returned to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE) after a two-year assignment at Health Canada and is currently working to restore MOE's collaborative research support and grant programs. He also serves as secretary of the Society oiToxicology of Canada.

• Rabindra Man Tamrakar, B.Sc.(Agr.), '89, became chief survey officer for the Government of Nepal in Minbhawan, Kathmandu, after transferring from Nepal's national land use project to the survey department's head office.

from diploma and certificate programs receiving more than $24,600 in awards for academic proficiency and leadership.

When not volunteering with the Ridgetown Campus AgriFood Foundation board,Arnold holds a full-time job as senior manager of agribusiness sales for CASCO Inc.

1990 • Ben Arnold, R.Dip. '99, addressed the 2011 graduating class at U of G's Ridgetown Campus m June. It was Ridgetown's largest graduating class ever, with 306 graduates

CASSIE CAMPBELL

• Cassie Campbell, BA '97, received an honorary degree from U of G at the June 16 convocation ceremony. She is

the former captain of Canada's women's hockey team and three Winter played m Olympics and seven World Women's Championships. She led the team to two Olympic gold medals and was the longest-serving captain in Canadian hockey. In 2006, she became the first woman to provide colour commentary on a Hockey Night in Canada broadcast. She was also the first female hockey player inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.

She played for the Gryphons from 1992 to 1997, including the 1994-95 Ontario university championship tean1, and was inducted into the Gryphon Hall of Fame in 2007.

• Grace Chik, BA '91 , published Seasons Blessings for You: a Collection of Christmas Stories in 2010 with Word Alive Press; the book is available from several

online booksellers. She and fellow Guelph grad, Keng Hon Yee, B.Sc. '93, have been married for six years and live in the Toronto area.

• Patrick Cummings, B.Sc. '93, recently published A Dictionary of Hong Kong English: Words from the Fragrant Harbor with Hong Kong University Press (www.hkupress.org). He has taught science and English in Hong Kong for more than 10 years.

• Carl Foggin, BA '94, was a key organizer of an outdoor yoga and music festival held on Lake Simcoe July 30 and 31.

Ananda Fest drew several hundred visitors, with profits supporting local charities. "Similar yoga festivals in the United States have brought out as many as 13,000 visitors, and they all had humble beginnings like ours," he says. Besides yoga ses-

Fall 2011 33

U of G friends celebrate 35 years

S

ince graduating from the Ontario Agricultural College associate diploma class in 1976, these nine men and their spouses

have been getting together regularly to renew their friendships and reminisce about their "dipper" days at U of G. Most farm in Ontario, and their reunions were often family gatherings where their children also became friends .

The group celebrated 35 years since graduation on Feb. 26 when they met for dinner at the Brass Taps (a.k.a. the Keg). Lett to right: •

Bill and Nancy Honey live at Warkworth, where he farms part-

time and works as an Agricorp adjuster, w ith a specialty in grain, oilseeds and orchards. They have three children and one grandchild .

•

Phil and Marie J ensen live in Killarney, Man., where they've

hosted many of their Ontario classmates . They have two child ren and a ranch with 100 cows and calves.

•

Dave Porter, B.Sc.(Agr.) '77, isn't technically a "dipper" but has

been friends with the '76 crew since meeting in residence. He and his wife, Chris, and daughter, Shannon, live on a farm near Peterborough, and he's in his 33rd year working at Quaker Oats.

•

Ken Brusso lives on a farm near Ayton and is popular w ith the

group for his homemade cider. He and his wife, Linda, operate a large dairy farm with their son, Adam, ADA '03. They also have two daughters, Cathy and Marybeth.

•

Dennis and Janice Laver live near Warkworth, where they raised

three children. They produce eggs, cash crop and have a market gardening business where sweet corn and butter tarts are customer favourites .

•

George and Lynn Fischer are raising three children on a farm

near Teeswater. He farms part-time and works as an artificial insemination technician with EastGen. He is also a member of Team Farmall , the square-dancing tractors.

•

Ron and Helen Nobbs are from Lindsay and have two children.

He is a heavy equipment mechanic and part-time farmer.

• er: w

I

u (/)

ness selling and servicing electric fences .

u:: •

z

Dale and Janet, BA '78, Van Camp are from Blackstock and

have three children. He farms, drives a school bus and runs a busiDave and Maureen Vlodarchyk live at Belle River. He retired

z from a 30-year career with General Motors but runs a home busiO'J

~

ness called Amsoil. They have two children and enjoy spending time

b:::J

at their trailer.

5

they graduated from U of G, these friends already plan to cele-

8 I

o._

While they have a hard time believing it's been 35 years since brate 40 years at the Jensens' farm in Manitoba.

34

THE

PoRT ICO

sions, the event featured educationa l sessions and entertainment, including Foggin's band, Big Blue X. "We are plan ning to take Ananda Fest across Canada, and are hoping to book Krishna Das and Alanis Morissette as performers at the 2012 event." (www.anandafest.com) • Heather Gingerich, B.Sc.(H .K.) '96, says the wate r focus of the sunm1er 2011 issue of The Portico struck a chord w ith her; she is completing a P hD through Australia's University of Queensland School of Publi c Healt h in partnership wit h McMaster University's peace and health program. She's studying naturally occurring non-m.icrobial contaminants in water; a key part of the research is using modern geoscience to validate indigenous traditional knowledge of areas sometimes referred to as "sickness country."

She says: "This has been done quite extensively in Australia, and I'm looking for similar stories from First Nations people here in Canada ." She has served as director of the Canadian branch of the International Medical Geology Association, an organization concerned about how Earth m aterials and natural processes affect healt h o utcomes (www.med.icalgeology.org/), and contributed to the North America section of a recent United Nations publication called Medical Geology : A Regional Synthesis. Her husband, John, B.Sc.(Agr.) '93 and M.Sc. '00, works for Maple Leaf Foods; they have three sons.

Michelle Jack man, • B.Sc.(H.K.) '93 and M.Sc. '95, is a physician in Calgary. She writes: "Hello, Guelph alumni My husband and I recently moved out to Alberta to practise medicine.

We are also enjoying the endless opportunities to mountain bike, ski and hike in the beautiful

Canadian Rockies."

• Brendan John son, M .Sc .

'90, is executive director of the Everdale Enviromnental Learning Centre in Hillsburgh, Ont. The charity trains new farmers and teaches kids and adults about food issues, healthy eating and the environment. " It is a fantastic organization, and l am very proud to be a part of it," he says. To learn more: www.everdale.org.

• Helen Maffini, B.Comm.

'93, is an educational consultant li ving in Australia. She recently published a children's book called Sammy's Next Move. l t's the story of a snail that moves all over the world and dea ls with the same issues faced by chi ldren whose fa1nilies are on the move. She herself was such a "third-culture kid," and says the book contains tips for parents to he lp make the transition a smooth one. The story is avai lable in print and as an e-book (www.helenmaffini.com).

• Tara Malcolm, B.Comm .

'99, and William MacArthur, B.Sc.(Agr.) '07, were married in September 2010.

• Adrienne Montgomerie, BA '95, recently received the 2011 Lee d'Anjou Volunteer of the Year Award from the Ed.itors' Association of Canada (EAC) for her work in establishing a thriving EAC group In Kingston , Ont. She has written articles for EAC, edited its "Copy Editing: Meeti ng Profess iona l Editorial Standards" workbooks, and heads the group's webs ite revita lization task force. She was certified last year as a copy editor whi le working full-t ime and moving her family and business from Parry Sound, Ont., to K.ingston.

• Greg Searle, BA '96, is executive director of One Planet Communities for North America, which he describes as

"a global network of the greenest master-planned neighborhoods on Earth," incorporating zero-carbon buildings with zero-waste practices, sustainable food production and low-carbon transportation. A major project is Sonoma Mountain Village, a $1-billion redevelopment of an 81-hectare, former industrial site north of San Francisco. Visit www.oneplanetcommunities.org to read more about the project. At U of G, Searle studied political science, particularly rural extension studies and international development.ln 1999, he co-fo und ed Tomoye Corp., a knowledgemanagement software company. He invented Tomoye's enterprise software, served as chief technology officer until 2005, and continues as an owner and director. He has lived in several countries, consults internationally and has fostered the idea of sustainable lifestyles as lead author of the "Green Living Manifesto," and contributor to the "eco-lifestyle " reality TV show Wa$ted on Discovery Channel's Planet Green.

• Lise (McCann) Stransky, BA '96, w rites that she loves reading The Portico and catching up on what is going on in Guelph. She lives in Calgary, where she works for the Calgary Board of Education; previous employers include the University of Calgary, the Canadian Automobile Association and U of G. • Patrick Woodcock, BA '96, earned his degree in English literature and has just finished writing his eighth book of poetry. He has spent much of his life as an expatriate and lived in Iraq for two years while writing Echo Gods and Silent Mountains; it will be published by ECW Press in 2012. In Canada, he has served as poetry editor for The Literary Review of

Canada and has taught at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ont. His last book, Always Die Bifore Your !Vfother, reached th e top spot in the Globe and Mail poetry bestseller list in january 2010.

It was also shortlisted for Canada 's R eLit award for best book of Canadian poetry.

2000 • Heather Carey, BA '09, is now completing a master's d eg ree in fine art at the University ofVictoria. H er work was exhibited this summ er at Loop Gallery in Toronto. Called Plastic Geometry, the exhibition featured new paintings that present a way of seeing the world as both calculated and malleable.

H er piece called Whaif St. was completed in 2010. Guelph is Carey's hometown.

MANODIP RAY CHANDHURI, LEFT, WITH HIS SON, ANISH, AND WIFE, SUTAPA

• Manodip Ray Chaudhuri, MA '00, is professor and dean of the business school at the Future Institute ofEngineering and Management in his hometown ofKolkata, India. Before completing his Guelph degree in international development, he earned an M.Sc. in eco nomics from th e University of Calcutta and an MBA fromVisva-Bharati University. He has since worked in India for The Economic Times, the ICFAI Business School in Kolkata and theTASMAC educational institute in Kolkata, holding various administrative,

teaching and research posi tions.

He has published more than 30 scholarly papers and book chapters and presented at numerou s national and international conferences. In March, he received a PhD in busin ess management from the University of Calcutta; his thesis was on strategic hunun reso urc e manage1nent.

He lives in Kolkata with his wife, Sutapa Ray Chaudhuri, who teaches in D el hi Public School N ewtown; their son, Anish Ray Chaudhuri; and Manodip 's mother, Prof.

Minakshi Roy Chaudhuri.

• Kyle Churchill, BA ' 04 , obtained the accounting designation CGA throu gh the Certified General Accountants Association in June 2011.

• Richard Goodman , BA '07, is district sales manager for Club Med's central region and Western Ca nada. He bega n his career in the travel industry five years ago; he oversaw business development for a travel agency based in Toronto, then joined Cruise North Expeditions for thre e years as sales m anage r before joining Club M ed.

• Lena Lam, B. Comm. '05 and M.Sc. '08, appeared on Dragons' Den March 30 and left with a deal, but not without a fiery debate first. H er company, Ethical Ocean, is an online marketplace for organic, fairly traded, and eco-friendly products a bu siness model that Dragon Kevin O'Leary called "a stain on capitalism." But the other Dragons loved the business, and Lam struck a deal with Arlene Dickinson, who offered $150,000 for 20 per cent of th e co mpan y.

Ethical O cean now boasts a catalogue of more than 2,500 products, ranging from eco-fri endl y fashion and natural makeup to a solar-powered, hands- free phone, a water-powered clock and fairly traded soccer balls.

• Jennifer Lamarre, B.Sc. '01, and her husband, Dan, welcomed their third child, Rachel Jenna, on Sept. 16, 2010, in Lindsay, Ont. Their daughter, Paige, is six; their son, Nicholas, three.

CHARLES MORGAN

• Charles Morgan, B.Comm.

'08, combines business with music. H e's completing an MBA program at the Schulich School of Business in Toronto while writing, producing and performing as Aspektz, a.k.a. Mr. Thoro, of the True Thorobredz record label. Electro-hop lovers will know his singles In the T-Dot, Fresh, and Tiw Rich Kidd.Aspektz has also written an anthem for the Toronto Rap tors called Co Raptors Co and an opening theme song on The Score. On May 11 , he appeared on the BNN show Tlze Pitch to promote a new series of interactive music videos that us e 360-degree tec hnology for the viewer to change perspec tive throughout the song, (www.Aspektz.com) • Sarah Petersen, BA '07, has graduated from law sc hool at the University ofWindsor and has been called to the bar. She is now an executive assistant to Toronto-based lawyer Edward Greenspan.

• Jordan Underhill, ADA '01, is launching a professional horticulture outdoor trad e show in September. For more information , see www.fruitvegtechxchange.com.

• Heather (Ives) Vita, B.A.Sc. '04, co ntributed to The Portico

Fall 2011 35

while working for U of G as alunmi events and communications co-ordinator in 2006. She moved back to her hometown of Thunder Bay, Ont., in 2007 and has since started working at the Thunder Bay R egional H ealth Sciences Centre, adopted a dog, married and had a baby! Her son was born earlier this year.

• Wayne Yehia, BA '04, has operated a family business since earning his economics degree.

His fath er started Breadko National Baking in 1986 to provide pitas fo r the Greater

Toronto Area.Yehia is vice-president of the now cross-co ntinental commercial bakery.

• David Zanatta, M .Sc. '01, has been an assistant professor of biology at Central Michiga n University since 2008 and was awarded the university's Provost Award in March.The award recognizes scholarship, creativity and promise among junior faculty m embers and includes a $1,200 stip end for professio nal development. Za natta studi es evolutionary biology and freshwater mussel conservation.

2010 • Gerald Backx, R. Dip. ' 11 , of Grand Bend, Ont., served as valedi cto ri an of th e 20 11 Ridgetown Campus gradu ating class. H e works at the college's Huron Resea rch Stati o n in Exeter as an agronomy tec hnician supporting research in field crop agronomy.

• Melissa Forward, BAA '11 , graduated from the University of Guelph-Humber with numerous family connections to the University, incl uding her mo th er, Shannon Delenardo, BA '85, and

MELISSA FORWARD

father, Richard Forward, B.Sc. '85 and M .Sc. '88.

PASSAGES Dale (Hannaford) Adourian, DVM '67,June 3, 201 0 Christian Allerton, BA '72 , Jan. 3, 2011 Muriel Sharpe Andrew, BSA '41 , March 22, 2011 Donna (Hutchinson) Baldwin, DHE '47, May 9, 2011 Roy Baldwin, DVM '49, O ct. 22, 2010 Chadwick Bennett, BSA '51 , D ec. 8, 2010 Charles Bonar, DVM '61, M arch 18, 2010 Alan Bonnell, DVM '66, M ay 15, 2011 Peter Boyce, DVM '72, Aug. 20, 2010 Maryon (Bell) Brechin, DHE '38, May 10, 2011 Glen Campbell,ADA '36, April 19, 2010 Gordon Carter, DVM '43, July 12, 2011 William Chisholm, ADA '58, Jan . 28,20 11 Ross Cholmondeley, B.Sc. '8 1, March 9, 2011 George Cole, BSA '57 , March 21, 2011 Desmond Connor, BSA '57, May 2011 Brianne Cordick, BA ' 11 , May 25 , 2011

36

TH E P O RTI C O

Eugene Costello, DVM '51, Sept. 9, 201 0 Susan (Fisher) Cowan, DHE '47, May 31,2011 Donald Cowling,ADA '40, Oct. 20, 201 0 Gerald Crober, BSA '46, March 21, 2011 James Currie, DVM '63, March 20, 2011 Robert Curtis, BSA '55,June 18, 2011 Eleanor (Hogarth) Denison, DHE '49,June 27, 2011 Ronald Denniss, BSA '53, May 17,2011 Jocelyn Fawett, B.Sc. '82, Dec. 18,2010 Francis Flint, ADA '67, Nov. 9, 2010 William Frank,BSA '49, April4, 2011 Lorne Gibson, BSA '52,July 18,2011 Robert Hall, B.Sc. '95, Feb. 22, 201 1 John Hare, DVM '56,July 10, 201 1 Malcolm Hepburn,ADA '55 , June 23 , 2011 Archibald Kassirer, DVM '48, O ct. 31, 2010 Tracy (McEwen) Kuipers, B.A.Sc. '8 1,April 11 , 2011 Leslie Laking, BSA '39,April 16,2011 Samuel Lavery, O DH '69, N ov. 20,2010 Lesley (Pennington) Leroux, BA '7 1, March 5, 201 1 Myrna (Risebrough) Leuty, B.H.Sc. '58, June 22, 2011

Jean (MacKenzie) Makepeace, DHE '37, N ov. 30, 201 1 James Mills, DVM '61, May 8, 20 11 Doreen (Collins) Morrison, B.H.Sc. '63,Aug. 24, 2010 Murray Peart, BSA '53, March 3, 2011 John Quine, DVM '64,April1 7, 2010 Joanne (Gardner) Richardson, DHE '52, July 7, 201 1 Walter Rose, BSA '52, July 12, 201 1 David Rowcliffe, BA '88, Feb. 4, 2011 Henry Stanley, BSA '55, May 13,2011 Laurie (Akse) Stevenson, DHE '55, April 14,2011 Wayne Stinson, BSA '62, April14, 2011 Joseph Swanson, DVM '50, April 3, 2011 Robert Thomas, BSA '49, May 8, 2010 Cynthia Tobin, BA '73, April21 , 201 1 Fredrick Truckenbrodt, BSA '42, Oct. 29. 201 0 Bruce Wagg, BSA '45, April 2, 2011 Karen (Lyon) Wareing, B.Sc. '81 , Ju ne 4, 2010 Douglas Wood, ADA '40, May 15, 201 0 To honou r alumni who have passed away, the Un iversity of Guelph A lumni Association makes an annual do nation to the A lumni Legacy Scholarship.

Insurance program recommended by

UNIVERSITYA/umn 1â&#x20AC;˘ iv'"GUELPH

ASSOCIATION

See how good your quote can be.

At TD Insurance Meloche Monnex, we know how important it is to save wherever you can. As a University of Guelph Graduate, you can enjoy preferred group rates and other exclusive privileges, thanks to our partnership with your Alumni Association. You'll also benefit from great coverage and outstanding service. At TD Insurance, we believe in making insurance easy to understand so you can choose your coverage with confidence.

YOU COULD

WIN10F2 MINI COOPER CARS

Get an online quote at

www.melochemonnex.com/uoguelph or call 1-866-352-6187 Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The TD Insurance Meloche Monnex home ond auto insurance program is underwritten by SECURITY NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY. The program is distributed by Meloche Monnex Insurance and Finonciol Services Inc. in Quebec ond by Meloche Monnex Finonciol Services Inc. in the rest of Conodo.

Due to provincial legislation, our auto insurance program is not offered in British Columbia, Manitoba or Saskatchewan. *No purchase required. Contest ends on January 13, 2012. Eoch winner may choose the prize, o2011 MINI Cooper Classic (including opplicoble to xes, preparation ond transportation fees) for atotal volue of $28,500, or acosh amount of $30,000 Canadian. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received. Skill-testing question required. Contest organized jointly with Primmum Insurance Company and open to members, employees and other eligible persons belonging to all employer groups, professional groups ond alumni groups which hove on agreement with and ore entiried to group rates from the organizers. Complete contest rules and eligibility criteria available atwww.melochemonnex.com.

Actual prize may differ from picture shown. MINI Cooper is a trade-mark, used under license, of BMW AG, which is not a participant in or a sponsor of this promotion. ÂŽfThe TD logo ond other trade-marks ore the property of The Toronto-Dominion Bonk oro wholly-owned subsidiary, in Conodo and/or other countries.