It is with a grateful heart that we celebrate Dean Jean Andrey’s retirement. Her presence shaped our faculty – past, present, and future. She built a foundation that will serve students, faculty, staff, and alumni daily as we boldly move forward. Her story is one of opportunity, passionate teaching, and being prepared for the future. Her presence will be missed, but her legacy is unmistakable.
Where It Began
Long before she headed the cutting-edge, thought-leader-filled Faculty at the University, Jean was a girl growing up in the small farming community of Formosa, Ontario. It was there that the future Dean learned the value of receiving and embracing opportunity.
Be it one Wednesday when her inquisitive nature led her to test the organ at her local church that somehow ended up with her playing the organ for that evening’s prayer service, or the way her mom helped her organize a local softball team, Jean learned quickly that opportunity is at the root of growth, development, change, and innovation. The opportunity to try, the opportunity to fail, the opportunity to learn, and the opportunity to try again.
Opportunity Building Momentum
Opportunity fuels momentum – with each opportunity taken, momentum builds providing new and diverse spaces, research centres, areas, and experiences. It is this momentum that Dean Jean celebrates in her time at the University of Waterloo. “That momentum is seen in campus and community level progress on sustainability initiatives; in the research impact of our faculty members and their teams; and in the Faculty’s shared vision for a “caring” and inclusive future,” says Dean Jean.
Mobilizing change through climate justice, sustainability, and a culture of caring has underscored the faculty’s growth and development. Under Dean Jean’s leadership, that momentum is a palpable presence in the graduate program, the innovative initiatives of undergraduate students, and the growing impact of sustainability research on real time problems. All this important work is being done in sustainable ways to grow a sustainable future. Thanks to her tireless efforts and nimble leadership, the faculty is poised to address some of the world’s most pressing problems. She has built an engine of change that will:
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Be a leader in environmental and sustainability education.
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Achieve impact through national and global leadership in environmental and sustainability research.
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Demonstrate an ethos of caring in all it does.
A Sustainable Future
This future is not the kind that happens without diligent planning, forward progress, and a willingness to adapt. Dean Jean and her team have built a scaffold to support a bold and bright future where students and alumni work together towards global sustainability, without sacrificing caring for one another in the process. The faculty’s vision, “Together for a Sustainable Future” is supported by the key initiatives that Jean has breathed life into during her tenure.
What Students Need
For most alumni, Jean was the professor they knew and loved. Passionate and curious, Jean brought a liveliness to each class that inspired generations of students.
Growing up, one of Jean’s uncles resided on the same farm where she was raised. This uncle was deaf, and had been raised around a German dialect, making communication a challenge between the young niece and her uncle. Jean learned important lessons from him as she grew – primarily that teaching is less about what you know and more about what the student needs. Whether she was learning about farming from her uncle, or they were figuring out a card game together, it mattered less what the other knew and more what the learner needed. This equity mindset set her apart and built her strength as both a teacher and leader.
Good leaders, Jean realized, should be able to bring people along with them on the journey. She wondered: what if being an expert is not the goal, but taking a step is? That question would change the way Jean approached teaching hundreds of students and how she would lead the Faculty.
This profound thought made her curious and resulted in more questions: What do the students need? What does the faculty need? What steps can we take to get there - together? Those questions and curiosity drew out opportunities and developed momentum. The result was students, staff, and the faculty being able to take one step that led to another. And another. And another. Then one day you have a Faculty, which began as a problem-framer, that is now a leading problem–solver and world class research centre. Momentum, driven by opportunity.
An Ethos of Caring
And yet, when seen in a vacuum, momentum is unrelenting and tends to leave people behind. Jean’s passion for people inspired the ethos of caring alongside these other goals. That ethos fostered a faculty culture that is open, harmonious, and able to speak to global issues with authority and creativity. This caring culture has opened the door to more robust, supportive graduate programs, deeply engaged alumni and community partners with diverse applications. It has supported the development of research centres with focusses ranging from flood resilience to sustainable aeronautics. This approach is people-centred; it insists on creating, modelling, and supporting a culture of well-being for students, staff and faculty, and supporting innovative out of the box thinking. It also seeks to support diverse learning styles and backgrounds, ensure academic support, and engages with broader societal issues. It requires the Faculty to thoughtfully and respectfully learn from and partner with others. This ethos of caring fosters creativity and collaboration while encouraging innovation and application.
You Matter
When asked what message she would like to share with the students, alumni, staff, faculty, and partners, Jean thought for a beat and then replied, with sureness: “They matter.” Their work, their creativity, entrepreneurship, passion, questions, curiosity, insistence, hope – it all matters. It has mattered in the way the Faculty has been shaped, but it also has made a difference in Jean’s own life. Her travel, food practices, lifestyle, transportation, and activism have all been impacted by the many beautiful humans who breathe life and energy into the Faculty of the Environment. “So, keep going – know that it matters. Even in the wide world that seems like dry, unchanging cement – keep going. It matters.”
Together, for a Sustainable Future.
When we face a change, it is an opportunity to ask questions: what do the students need? What does the Faculty need? The momentum exists and the opportunities are abounding. There is no shortage of meaningful, innovative, and thought-leading work to be done. Under Jean’s leadership, the Faculty has emerged as a leader in the sustainability sector, set apart by an ethos of caring and people-centred approach. Buoyed by the strategic vision of the broader University of Waterloo to develop leaders for a complex future, advance research for global impact, and strengthen sustainable and diverse communities, the Faculty of Environment is a stunning ecosystem ready to lead the charge of building a sustainable future, together.
It's our time. Let’s go.
