Every spring, UFV celebrates the achievements of its faculty and staff by conferring excellence awards in a number of categories. This year is no exception. Although the ceremony honouring them has had to be postponed due to COVID-19, UFV is proud to recognize the following excellence awards recipients: Faculty Service Excellence: Gerry Palmer, Business Leadership:…

The only thing quicker than Gerry Palmer’s wit is his willingness to help improve the lives of others. An Abbotsford lawyer and long-serving UFV professor with decades of volunteer work throughout the Fraser Valley, Palmer is the recipient of this year’s UFV Faculty Service Excellence Award. “Gerry epitomizes service beyond the classroom or the courtroom,”…

Joel Feenstra’s teaching style has been described by his students as “electrifying”. Fortunately for all, they don’t mean literally. A dedicated, creative and passionate electronics, automation, and electrical instructor, Joel is the recipient of this year’s Teaching Excellence award at the University of the Fraser Valley. Even at 17, Joel had a long-term vision —…

You could say that Irwin Cohen takes a practical approach to academic research. Like many of his past and current colleagues in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at UFV, he believes in working with public safety agencies to conduct research that helps them to be more effective and efficient. For his prolific body…

For Seonaigh MacPherson, being a professor isn’t as much a job as a calling. She was inspired to pursue an advanced degree by her desire to work with refugee nuns in Asia, and the realization that she would require a graduate degree to keep doing so at the professional level. “I became a professor not…

When Dr. Kathy Keiver left the University of British Columbia to join the Kinesiology department at the University of the Fraser Valley, she left the confines of the laboratory to discover a new world of community-focused research. She went from investigating the effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on rats to researching activity-based intervention programs on…

As a lab instructor in the Kinesiology program at UFV, Amber Johnston’s primary job is to teach students the applied ‘hands on’ portion of their anatomy and physiology courses. But she brings much more to her faculty position. You could say that she puts her heart into it. And for her commitment to her students,…

World traveller. Life changer. For more than three decades, Cherie Enns has worked as a passionate urban planner dedicated to local and international policy, human rights and community design. She’s helped dozens of students effect change -- in their own backyards and throughout buzzing Africa cities, with countless others coming to appreciate their impact on…

  Built on the backs of water polo players across countless Saskatchewan beaches, Ian Affleck’s dedicated approach to teaching mathematics adds up to this year’s UFV Teaching Excellence Award. “There’s no honour I’d rather get, because this is coming from the people that I work with and learn from every day,” he says. A gifted…

Miriam Nichols believes that teaching and research go hand in hand. For the 23 years that she has been an English literature professor at UFV, she has pursued research in addition to her teaching duties. Now she’s being recognized for her dedication with the 2017 UFV Research Excellence award. “I have always viewed my profession…

The next speaker in the UFV President's Leadership Lecture Series is Dr. Derek Harnett, winner of the 2016 UFV Research Excellence Award. Harnett will speak about the most pressing issues facing subatomic physics today, how Canadian physicists plan to address them, and what we might we discover through this research. The Search for Outside-the-Quark-Model Hadrons…

  If you’re going to take a seat in Dr. Martha Dow’s sociology classroom, you’d better be prepared to be an engaged and active participant in the course.Dow, winner of this year’s Teaching Excellence award at the University of the Fraser Valley, wants students’ minds to be stretched, shifted, and challenged, and for them to…

The term ‘born to teach’ applies to few educators as accurately as it does to Jan Lashbrook Green, this year’s recipient of the University of the Fraser Valley’s Teaching Excellence Award. The honour arrives just in time for Lashbrook Green, who retires this spring after dedicating the last four decades to the field of education.…

2014 UFV Research Excellence award winner Healthy bodies make for healthy minds and healthy communities. There are many opportunities in Fraser Valley communities to do scientific research focused on keeping the population healthy, raising healthier kids, and helping the elderly stay healthy longer through well-planned physical activity. That’s what Dr. Michael Gaetz of Chilliwack has…

To do Dr. Linda Pardy’s Teaching Excellence award justice, you need a rainy Saturday morning. That’s how long it takes to go through the binder of recommendation letters collected on behalf of the Abbotsford-based UFV communications instructor for the nomination process. Pardy’s nomination was supported by countless students from a range of disciplines who have…