Created 13 March 2020 10:03

VANCOUVER – A Business professor who uses Indigenous knowledge to challenge conventional paradigms of business and economic development, a Language and Literacy Education professor whose initiative is bringing literacy to youths across Africa and the rest of the world, and a Resource & Environmental Management professor emeritus who has dedicated his career to research, public engagement, and advocacy on BC’s old-growth forests: these professors are the recipients of the 2020 Distinguished Academics Awards, to be presented by the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC. The April 16 gala has been canceled and will be re-scheduled at a future date yet to be announced.

Simon Fraser University’s Dr. Dara Kelly will receive the Early in Career Award for her work in shedding light on Indigenous economies and their philosophies. Dr. Kelly’s work has helped fill in gaps in the literature on the economic concepts and practices of the Coast Salish and other Indigenous nations. Her efforts to educate the public have placed her in front of government and policymakers, speaking on issues that arise from these minority states. She has presented in numerous conferences and public spaces in an effort to challenge conventional economical practices and inform positive change by drawing on knowledge of Indigenous economics.

The University of British Columbia’s Dr. Bonny Norton will receive the Ehor Boyanowsky Academic of the Year Award for her Global Storybook initiative, a project that is spreading literacy across five countries. Dr. Norton is a leading researcher of literacy and multilingualism. The Global Storybook (https://globalstorybooks.net ) translates open-source stories from African Storybook into languages spoken in various countries, making them accessible to Canadians and a wider international audience. Global Storybook has also expanded to include Indigenous Storybook, which makes Indigenous stories available in Indigenous languages, as well as in English, French, Spanish, and the most widely spoken immigrant and refugee languages of Canada.

Simon Fraser University’s Dr. Ken Lertzman will receive the Paz Buttedahl Career Achievement Award for his decades-long commitment to BC’s old-growth forests and forest ecosystems. Dr. Lertzman is a leading researcher of forest structure, ecosystems dynamics, and forest disturbance regime. He has facilitated advancement of sustainable forest practices through service on community and government advisory panels and boards throughout his career. A founding co-director of the Hakai Institute for Coastal Peoples, Ecoystems, and Management, Dr. Lertzman has also worked with government organizations, First Nations, ecosystems scientists, and forest professionals in an effort to spread awareness on the effects of climate change.

These awards are presented annually by the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC (CUFA BC) to recognize outstanding faculty members at BC’s public universities who use their research and scholarly work to benefit the general public.

The CUFA BC Distinguished Academics Awards are in their twenty-sixth year and receive generous support from Simon Fraser University, the University of Victoria, the University of Northern British Columbia, and Royal Roads University.

CUFA BC represents 5,500 university professors, instructors, academic librarians and other academic staff at the province’s five research/doctoral universities – SFU (Burnaby, Vancouver and Surrey campuses), UBC (Vancouver and Kelowna campuses), UNBC (Prince George, Terrace, Fort St. John and Quesnel campuses), UVic, and Royal Roads University.

For any questions, contact CUFA BC Executive Director Annabree Fairweather at 604-646-4677.