Arch Award Winners 2017
For details about the MAA Awards Ceremony, please click here or contact Amber Stuckey, 905-525-9140 ext. 21908 or stuckey@mcmaster.ca
Joanne Crawford '04, '08
Faculty of Health Sciences, Nursing
Joanne Crawford has been an advocate for nursing in both oncology and community practice since graduating with distinction with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2004. Joanne began her nursing career working in critical care settings and later specialized in oncology nursing. As a public health nurse, she promoted cancer prevention and screening, and received funding for a qualitative project examining perspectives of immigrant women. Her passion for working with communities that had barriers to access information and cancer screening services grew as a result of these experiences. With the support and mentorship of a few dedicated professors, Joanne returned to McMaster and obtained her Masters of Science in Nursing in 2008, after which her work focused on a peer health educator program that facilitated access to information and education to cancer prevention and screening for four immigrant groups of women (Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, and South Asian). Joanne and other public health nurses received a Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation grant to assess if this peer educator program was meeting the changing needs of immigrants in Hamilton. She later went on to earn her PhD from U of T, where her research focused on colorectal cancer screening behaviours among South Asian immigrants in Canada.
Joanne received numerous awards and scholarships during her education, including the CANO/Pfizer Award of Excellence in Nursing Leadership and a Population Health Improvement Research Network Doctoral Award. She is an active member in many professional associations and is the current President of the Community Health Nurses Initiatives’ Group (CHNIG). Joanne is involved in nursing research with colleagues as an Assistant Professor at Brock University in the Faculty of Applied Health Science. She also holds an adjunct appointment as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University (Niagara Site), where she is a non-MD facilitator in the Professional Competencies Program.
Seth Dworkin '03
Faculty of Engineering, Mechanical
Dr. Seth Dworkin developed his passion for mechanical systems while studying Engineering at McMaster University. Driven by that passion, he completed his Bachelor’s degree summa cum laude, and went on to pursue a Masters and PhD at Yale University. There, he developed a keen sense of environmental responsibility, and began embarking on a career to impact positive change. While working as a lecturer and NSERC Postdoctoral fellow in Mechanical Engineering at U of T, he discovered a love for teaching, and began shaping his career path through academia. Seth joined the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Ryerson University, where he is currently an Associate Professor. He manages a large research program which has trained over 40 research assistants at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels, produced 38 journal papers, delivered 80 conference presentations, and received over $3 million in research support. His work is impacting the fields of clean air and renewable energy through new techniques in high-performance computer simulation. He has developed software for the inexpensive design of geothermal heating and cooling systems, which has already penetrated the geothermal industry and is in use today. Through awards from CFI, and working with Compute Canada, Dr. Dworkin uses computational infrastructure of over three-thousand CPUs for alternative energy and emissions research, making his one of the largest high-performance computing labs in the country.
Sabrina Natasha Premji Habib '10
Faculty of Science, Life Science
Sabrina Natasha Premji Habib is the Co-Founder and Chief Exploration Officer at Kidogo, a social enterprise that provides high-quality, affordable early childhood care & education for less than $1 / day. Prior to Kidogo, Sabrina spent three years working with the Aga Khan Development Network in East Africa, managing an Integrated Primary Health Care Project and the Social Innovations portfolio of a $13.5 million maternal and child health grant. It was during this time that Sabrina first encountered the childcare crisis taking place in Nairobi’s slums. Dissatisfied with the status quo and traditional approaches to development, Sabrina launched Kidogo in 2014 as a sustainable and scalable social enterprise. It has since provided nearly 1 million hours of play-based, holistic childcare to children aged 6 months to 6 years, Sabrina has been recognized as an Echoing Green fellow, as Canada's Female Entrepreneur by ELLE Magazine and as Forbes' Top 30 under 30. Sabrina holds a Master’s in Public Administration in Development Practice from Columbia University and an Honors Bachelor of Science from McMaster University. She is also an enthusiastic writer, having authored a book, Backwards & Forwards: My Journey Through Africa, and frequently contributes to publications, including the World Policy Journal.
Tanya Walker '02
Faculty of Business
Tanya graduated from McMaster University in 2002 with an Honours Commerce degree, minoring in Economics. She then attended Osgoode Hall Law School, graduating in 2005 and was called to the Bar in 2006. Tanya practiced at two Bay Street firms before opening her own downtown law firm. Walker Law employs five full time employees in the area of commercial litigation.
Tanya currently serves as a board member of the Osgoode Hall Law School Alumni Association and the Canadian Bar Association Supreme Court of Canada Liaison Committee. She is also on the Gold Key sub-committee of the Osgoode Alumni Association. On August 9, 2016, she was sworn in by the Law Society to be a first black elected female bencher from Toronto in the 220 year history of the Law Society. Benchers who are elected every four years by lawyers, regulate lawyers and paralegals. Tanya has received numerous awards for her contributions to the community and appears regularly on the CTV morning show “Your Morning” as a legal expert.
