Monday, June 13, 2016

Carleen Carroll named Associate Vice-President, Communications

“I am very pleased to announce that Carleen Carroll will be joining the University of Waterloo as Associate Vice-President, Communications effective June 13,” says Vice-President, University Relations Sandra Banks in a recent memo circulated to University Relations staff.

The Associate Vice-President, Communications position complements a refreshed organization within University Relations.

“Carleen will take on this important new role overseeing the development and delivery of key university communications vehicles and messaging to internal and external stakeholders,” Banks wrote in a memo distributed to University Relations in mid-May. “As AVP, her mandate will be to accelerate connections and co-ordination across campus, ensure ongoing excellence and innovation in our communications and will work with all team members in University Relations to deliver on values to collaborate, integrate and demonstrate impact of our work.”

Carroll’s professional career has spanned both public and private sectors as she served in senior communication roles at Rogers Group of Companies, TD Financial Services/Canada Trust and Halton Region. Most recently, she was the Director of Corporate Communications and Community Relations at Metrolinx, the Crown agency that manages public transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas. She is a graduate of McGill University and Western University.

This new role was created as part of a restructuring within the Marketing and Strategic Communications unit earlier this year. The unit has effectively been reorganized into two teams—Marketing and Strategic Initiatives and University Communications—each under an Associate Vice-President position.

Coffee the stimulus in the Science Catalyst Cafe

The world of networking and meaningful conversation gets a little jolt of caffeine today as the Faculty of Science partners with TenThousandCoffees.com and invites all Science students, alumni, faculty and staff to join some of Canada’s top industry professionals in the online UW Catalyst Café.

“Through consultation with students and alumni, it was clear that Science needed to find a way to facilitate meetings between these groups to share their expertise, knowledge and career insights,” says Bob Lemieux, Dean of Science, “This platform empowers students and young alumni to reach out to industry professionals and have those mutually beneficial conversations. It’s a great collaboration and we’re very excited to launch UW Catalyst Café in time for Convocation.”

TenThousandCoffees.com is the brainchild of UW Science Young Alumni Award recipient, Dave Wilkin, BSc.’11, and has been featured on many business programs including this BNN Disruptor video.

“The platform itself is very user friendly”, says Science Alumni Advancement Officer Sharon McFarlane. “Individuals accept our invitation with either their Linkedin profile or e-mail and from there can search the database for people they’d like to have conversations with with a wide selection of fields. They schedule a coffee chat and then can either meet in person or online.”

If you’re a science student, alumni, faculty or staff, this invitation is for you!

Building community, one garden at a time

This is the latest in a series of #UWCommunity stories that feature Waterloo in the community.

On Friday, June 3, a team of volunteers from the University of Waterloo spent a sunny morning beautifying the Extend-A-Family Waterloo Region site for the Day of Caring with the United Way Kitchener Waterloo & Area. Dressed in UWaterloo t-shirts with their favourite sun hats and gardening tools, our group marked another successful Day of Caring, embracing a seven-year tradition of giving back to the community.

Extend-A-Family is a community-based organization founded by parents of children with developmental disabilities that fights for inclusion, dignity, and respect for all persons and serves families and community members in ways that are respectful and supportive. Extend-A-Family offers programming options that include Respite, Autism Spectrum Connection and Working Adults Learning Empowering Skills.

Volunteers from the Faculty of Arts and the Library proved to be dedicated gardeners, as they weeded, raked, planted and watered flowers, and painted to make the Extend-A-Family site look even more beautiful and welcoming.

It is nice to be able to work with an organization supported by the United Way. During our fall campaigns, we try to communicate the impact the United Way has in our communities through its work with organizations. It is another – amazing – thing entirely to see first-hand how the organizations provide inclusion and quality of life for persons with various abilities. The folks at Extend-a-Family were very well organized. That enabled us to accomplish our tasks, which was satisfying, and made us all feel great! I can’t wait for next year!

Juli-Ann Sannuto, Assistant to the Dean of Arts, Administrator for the Arts Endowment Fund

Winner of the 2013 Day of Caring Award, the UWaterloo United Way campaign understands the importance of supporting local agencies and learning more about their work while improving the environment for community members.

If you are interested in supporting and contributing to the UWaterloo United Way campaign this year, information can be found on our website. Get ready for our 2016 campaign which kicks off on October 4.

On behalf of UWaterloo United Way campaign we would like to thank our volunteers for their support at the 2016 Day of Caring.

WCI student racks up Brain Bee wins

On Saturday April 16 the Department of Kinesiology hosted its 8^th annual Brain Bee Competition for high school students in Waterloo Region. This event tests a students’ knowledge of neuroscience and the human brain. Approximately 50 students participated and answered a series of multiple-choice questions using iClickers. They also received tours and demonstrations from our very own kinesiology labs, including getting the opportunity to view and handle human cadaver brain specimens.

First prize went to Nooran AbuMazen, a grade 12 student from Waterloo Collegiate Institute. Nooran won 400 dollars and went on to represent our region at the CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee championship held Saturday May 28 at McMaster University. Students from across Canada engaged in challenging events testing their knowledge of neuroscience and their skills in patient diagnosis and neuroanatomy. Nooran received first prize in this competition, winning 1500 dollars, a trophy and will be given the opportunity to work in a neuroscience laboratory. Nooran will now travel to Copenhagen, Denmark to represent Canada at the International Brain Bee World Championship (IBBWC) from June 30 to July 4, 2016, held in conjunction with the Convention of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies.

Organizers of Waterloo's Brain Bee event include Robyn Ibey, PhD candidate in neuroscience in the Department of Kinesiology, and Ewa Niechwiej-Szwedo, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology.