In the heart of the University of the Fraser Valley's computing department is 2024 Faculty Service Award winner and recently appointed Director of the School of Computing, Dr. Opeyemi Adesina – a driving force of student innovation, locally and beyond. As an assistant professor in the School of Computing and a software engineer, Adesina's approach…

Over the past two years, Greg St. Hilaire has collaborated with the Seabird Island Band to implement and deliver specialized adult education courses that cater to the unique cultural and educational requirements of the Indigenous community while developing a pathway to post-secondary education.   For his efforts, Greg has been awarded with UFV’s 2024 Indigenization and…

Dr. Gillian Hatfield has been at UFV since 2016 and has seen many amazing researchers win UFV’s Research Excellence award. She never imagined she’d be in the same group as those “heavy hitters.” But here she is, part of that group. “I’ve been on the award committee that judges these awards and I know the…

Dr. Vanessa Radzimski believes the best way for students to succeed is to make mistakes and learn from them. It’s a core tenet of her teaching philosophy, along with the idea that students are the best teachers for students. Whether they enter one of Radzimski’s courses with a lot or a little mathematics experience, they…

  As she reflects on 27 years of teaching at the University of the Fraser Valley, Dr. Christine Slavik sees more than just a number: she sees a body of work that aligns with her core values.   Whether it is leading her team through a pandemic with mindfulness, creating safe digital spaces to discuss concerns,…

Dr. Edward Akuffo first encountered Canadian foreign policy in the late 1990s when he was completing his undergraduate education in Ghana. After seeing the work that the now defunct Canadian International Development Agency was doing under the leadership of John R. Schram (the retired diplomat and former Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana), his curiosity was…

A passion for studying the elements led Steven Marsh to his life’s work as a geography professor. Now, generations of students have benefited from the knowledge and skills he shared and are on the frontlines of resource management and academic research in climate-related disciplines. For his dedication to his profession and influence on students, Marsh…

      Employees who have been around for a decade or more had the chance to be celebrated in person on May 16 at a dinner event at the Clarion Inn. President Joanne MacLean was delighted to greet the long-service employees and retiring faculty members who are receiving professor emeritus status in person after…

Dr. Judy Larsen of UFV’s Upgrading and University Preparation department has always taken the atypical route when it came to teaching mathematics and mathematics education courses.  Guided by principles of the ‘Building Thinking Classrooms’ framework, her classes are known to be a little loud, messy, and full of students out of their seats and at…

A lifetime of forward-thinking leadership and commitment to improving the lives of those around him has led Mark Goudsblom to receive UFV’s 2022 Inspirational Leadership Award. Now Associate Vice President, Campus Planning and Facilities Management, Goudsblom was originally a nurse by profession, coming to Canada from his native Holland on a honeymoon with wife Mirjam.…

For Dr. James Bedard, the 2022 winner of the Research Excellence award at UFV, a faculty posting in the biology department turned out to be the perfect fit. His mentor during his undergraduate and graduate years studying microbiology in Manitoba had told him that he’d make a good teaching-focused professor with a minor focus on…

From building UFV’s Graphic and Digital Design program from the ground up, to instilling a deep understanding of community and the power of design to generations of students, Karin Jager’s contribution to creative work in the Fraser Valley and beyond is immeasurable. For this and much more, Jager has been named UFV’s 2022 Faculty Service…

A visionary leader with an unshakable commitment to equality and cultural justice, Dr. Satwinder Bains is the 2021 recipient of UFV’s Faculty Service Excellence Award. “As a woman of colour, not only is she smashing glass ceilings of patriarchy within academia, but also in conservative cultural spaces,” says Anita Lal, co-founder and director of the…

There were two key experiences early in the teaching career of 2021 UFV Teaching Excellence award recipient Awneet Sivia that defined her approach to her profession. One was accepting a job in Merritt, BC, in 1988, for her first teaching post. The student body was a diverse representation of Indigenous, White, and South Asian backgrounds.…

Dr. Scott Sheffield was at a payphone in France in the mid-1990s when he made a spur-of-the-moment decision that would not only change the course of his career over the next quarter century, but would bring much needed global awareness to the historical contributions of Indigenous communities to the Second World War in Canada and…