Milestones

As a member of our vibrant alumni community, your milestones deserve to be celebrated! Click here for a link to our submission form or email your news to vic.alumni@utoronto.ca.

Cathi Bond Vic 9T1 published the novel Bessie (Montreal Publishing Company, 2024), a sweeping family saga that begins in the Great Depression and continues through the Second World War. Much of Bessie takes place at U of T during that period.

Kerry Clare Vic 0T2 published her third novel, Asking for a Friend (Doubleday Canada, 2023). About life, love and the evolving nature of female friendship, the first chapter is set on the Vic campus in the late 1990s.

Andrea Davidson 1T6 published Eggenwise & Other Poems (The Emma Press, 2023), a book of verse on growing up, falling in love and travelling around Belgium. The collection was an outgrowth of her doctoral project researching the creative writing process of British author Aidan Chambers.

Tanis Helliwell 6T9 recently published The Dragon’s Tale, following the success of The Leprechaun’s Story. In her latest book, wise dragon teachers tell us of their world—and help us expand our consciousness to meet them ourselves.

Roseann O’Reilly Runte (president of Vic U 1994–2001) published Canadians Who Innovate: The Trailblazers and Ideas that are Changing the World (Simon & Schuster, 2024). The book includes two Nobel laureates, an astronaut and leaders in artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

Lisa Hepner Vic 9T3 showed her critically acclaimed 2022 documentary, The Human Trial, to policymakers and legislators on Parliament Hill in November. She was joined by Canada’s top stem cell researchers to urge lawmakers to accelerate breakthrough therapies, including finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes. The film was the cover story of the Winter 2022 Vic Report and is available on Apple TV.

Mary (Doidge) Leslie Vic 6T6 is editor of Virginia Satir’s Evolving Legacy: Transformative Therapy with a Body/ Mind Connection (Agio Publishing, May 2024), a collaboration between seven diverse practitioners engaged in therapy and personal growth programs. The case studies and stories they share are inspired by the teachings of Satir, the “mother of family therapy.”

D. Paul Schafer Vic 6T1 published The Great Cultural Awakening: Key to an Equitable, Sustainable, and Harmonious Age (Rock’s Mills Press, 2024) In it, the cultural scholar examines how this awakening can come to grips with today’s life-threatening problems.