Wilfrid Laurier University is recognizing nine instructors and learning professionals who have made a significant commitment to elevating students’ educational experiences and inspiring fellow educators.
The Donald F. Morgenson Faculty Awards for Teaching Excellence, Laurier’s most prestigious teaching awards program, was named in memory of Laurier Professor Emeritus Donald Morgenson, a longtime faculty member who passed away in 2017.
“This year's Donald F. Morgenson Faculty Awards for Teaching Excellence recipients represent the best in innovative teaching and learning at Laurier,” says Trish McLaren, Associate Vice-President: Academic. “Our award winners truly make a transformational difference in the lives of their students, as well as within their faculties and departments.”
The recipients of Laurier’s 2023 Donald F. Morgenson Faculty Awards for Teaching Excellence:
Sustained Excellence Award (Full-time)
Every time Associate Professor Tracy Snoddon walks into a classroom, she’s looking to make a connection with her students and elevate their learning experience. Throughout her 28-year career at Laurier, she has gained a reputation for taking on the most challenging teaching jobs and sharing her passion for engaged student learning with her colleagues throughout the university.
In the classroom, Snoddon motivates students using high-impact practices focused on engagement, experiential learning and feedback. Students are challenged to connect their learning to real-world policy problems and to learn transferrable skills that are applicable in their careers and lives. She has a deep commitment to her students and to creating a safe and inclusive learning environment for all.
Snoddon enthusiastically shares her knowledge and experience with others, including mentoring colleagues on active learning and student engagement strategies, and is committed to innovation in program design, development and delivery. She has played an integral role in the development, evolution and success of Laurier's Economics program. Her student-centric approach has led to increasing success rates in key Economics courses. She was also the key designer and inaugural director of Laurier's Master of International Public Policy (MIPP) program, one of the university’s flagship programs, with a unique inter-disciplinary and experiential learning focus.
“We can all look back on classroom moments that have had a powerful, positive and catalytic impact on our lives – my goal is to create those important moments for my students. Every class is an opportunity to connect with them as individuals and as a group, using active learning activities and real-time feedback,” says Snoddon.
“I want to create a learning community in which students feel comfortable asking questions, making mistakes, and interacting with each other in a genuine way. At Laurier, I am surrounded by students and colleagues who inspire me and I am honoured to receive an award for something I love doing.”
Tracy Snoddon
Sustained Excellence Award (Part-time)
As a music therapy instructor and clinical supervisor in Laurier's Music Therapy program, Sara Klinck creates a warm, positive and respectful environment where students feel safe to engage in the learning process as their authentic selves.
During Klinck's eight years at Laurier, her unique person-centred approach has formed the core of her work, with her classes designed to be inclusive, progressive, experiential and bring course material to life.
In addition to her teaching, Klinck’s work as an author and music psychotherapist has had a significant impact on music therapy practices in Canada and internationally. She is recognized as a leader for her work in palliative care, including co-authoring the 2016 book Voices of the Dying and Bereaved: Music Therapy Narratives.
Students led the development of Klinck's Donald F. Morgenson Award nomination package, with one former student noting that he will “never forget how Sara offered to advocate alongside me for an accessible classroom space” and another observing that Klinck “often goes above and beyond to accommodate the learning needs of her students and interns.”
Klinck also forges and maintains community partnerships that afford her students valuable and unique experiences to develop their clinical competencies in a wide range of settings. As a clinical supervisor, writer and teacher, Klinck has proven herself a highly effective educator, mentor and leader.
“I want to help students discover who they are as therapists and understand that their unique approach is valuable. I hope to model the process of finding and embracing one’s true authentic identity as a therapist, theoretical knowledge and practice wisdom embodied in compassionate care and empathy, while still remaining humble and open to learn from others and broaden your mindset and approach," says Klinck.
“I feel invested in students’ overall wellbeing and success in their lives and careers, because this ripples outward to the people and communities they interact with and serve."
Sara Klinck
Hoffman-Little Award
Since becoming a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Laurier in 2005, Professor Hind Al-Abadleh has established an internationally renowned research program in physical and environmental chemistry.
Her scholarly work at Laurier has appeared in 59 peer-reviewed publications, two book chapters and one book, many of which attracted media attention. Al-Abadleh is a member of editorial and executive teams of high profile journals and national and international committees and organizations in her field. She is also a leader in the development of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines.
Al-Abadleh teaches math-intensive introductory courses in physical chemistry, a challenging sub-discipline. She plays the roles of chemistry and math teacher, as well as motivational speaker, emphasizing active learning strategies to enhance students’ problem-solving skills. In her advanced courses, Al-Abadleh supports students in “connecting the dots” by having them apply concepts from previous courses to complete data interpretation and analysis.
Al-Abadleh has received numerous awards for her work, including the Fulbright Canada Research Chair at the University of California, Irvine (2019), the University Research Professor at Laurier (2021), and being named recipient of the inaugural Gilead Award for Excellence in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion by the Canadian Society for Chemistry (2022).
Perhaps the greatest testament to Al-Abadleh’s excellence in teaching is her ability to excite students about studying environmental physical chemistry, many of whom have gone on to further research experiences and careers in the field.
Hind Al-Abadleh
Early Career Excellence (Full-time)
During five-and-a-half years at Laurier, Assistant Professor Lisa Kuron has built a reputation as a deeply committed educator who invests in her students.
Kuron's in-depth expertise in the field of Leadership; innovative approaches to course design and delivery; integration of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles and practices; involvement with institution-wide committees focused on EDI; and deep commitment to student learning has made her indispensable within her program.
Kuron's courses in Laurier's Leadership program have inspired students to excel and explore opportunities for personal growth. “This course allowed me to grow in areas I didn't know were possible, leaving me feeling as though I can tackle any challenge I am faced with, with confidence,” one student noted. “Dr. Kuron changed the trajectory of my life forever,” said another.
Kuron's generous sharing of ideas for innovative course delivery and content has also benefitted her faculty colleagues in the Leadership program. “My colleagues and I have become more confident instructors at Laurier,” one faculty colleague said of the support offered by Kuron.
Kuron was a member of Laurier's Strategic Planning Committee – Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and is a research member of the Laurier-funded project "Instructor Capacity for Equity and Belonging in the Classroom." Through actively adapting and adopting technology and pedagogical strategies, she has successfully incorporated both technology and equity principles into her teaching.
“It is an honour to be recognized with a Donald F. Morgenson Award. In Leadership courses, we remind students that leadership is not about the leader – it is about creating positive change for others,” says Kuron.
“I have seen first hand the benefits of being intentional in how I lead the classroom and am overjoyed that my efforts resonate with students and empower them to invest in who they are and how they are learning.”
Lisa Kuron
Early Career Excellence (Part-time)
Amilah Baksh, a contract academic faculty member in Laurier's Faculty of Social Work, exemplifies the values of diversity and inclusion by creating a safe space for students to learn and engage with social work practice in and beyond the classroom.
Over the past four years at Laurier, Baksh has embodied the values and ethics taught in Laurier's Master of Social Work program, embedding inclusive pedagogies in her teaching and using innovative approaches to meet the needs of all students.
Baksh solicits and implements feedback from students and works to cultivate confidence in their skills and leadership abilities. As a mentor, she works to find ways to enhance student experience and learning, including through research opportunities and experiences at academic conferences.
Baksh also makes significant contributions beyond the classroom. She transitioned NIRE (Normalizing Intercultural Relationships in Education) at Laurier into a protected space for racialized students experiencing discrimination and isolation. NIRE was so well-received that students modelled the creation of two additional affinity spaces after it, one dedicated to students living with disabilities and another for students who identify as queer.
Baksh has also led the Learning and Community Building working group on the Faculty of Social Work Equity Committee for the past two years. She has deeply contributed to the lives of her students, who led her nomination.
"I am deeply indebted to my gracious, kind and compassionate students, who show up as their full, beautiful and authentic selves in the Faculty of Social Work. Building community with them has been the highlight of my work," say Baksh.
Amilah Baksh
Innovation in Teaching
Throughout his 20 years teaching Communication Studies at Laurier, Jonathan Finn has earned a well-deserved reputation for encouraging students to become critical, conscientious and engaged citizens who take an active role in their learning.
Finn begins each course he teaches by leading a discussion about what makes a good class and what makes a bad class – and the roles the instructor and students each play in making it so. He also empowers students to propose alternate formats for assignments, takes a scaled approach where he provides feedback on outlines, drafts and final versions, and uses audio files in addition to written comments as a more personal way to assess work.
Beloved by students, Finn also solicits and acts upon students’ interests and concerns throughout the year so course design and content reflects students’ agency in their own learning.
These approaches demand more time and effort from both instructor and students. But Finn believes they not only help students produce their best work; they also reinforce the collective and collaborative nature of teaching and learning.
In addition to his teaching, Finn played a leading role in developing Laurier’s concentration in visual communication and culture, which is unique and respected in the field of Communication Studies in Canada.
“My teaching has undergone a gradual philosophical shift in my 20 years with the Department of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies and is increasingly driven by the humanistic qualities of teaching and learning. My teaching recognizes the affective dimensions of teaching and learning and the ways in which our lived experiences impact and are impacted by education,” says Finn.
“Against a fraught contemporary political and economic landscape and a postsecondary context that emphasizes measurable outcomes and performance metrics, I want students to understand and experience the inherent personal and social good in education.”
Jonathan Finn
Internationalization in Teaching
Robert Ame is known for his deep commitment to the idea that “no single country has a monopoly over knowledge.”
An associate professor in the Human Rights and Human Diversity program who has taught at Laurier for 17 years, Ame is known for being an exceptional mentor who creates learning environments that promote inclusive approaches to knowledge generation and sharing. A passionate scholar-activist, Ame encourages students to seek effective and actionable solutions to thorny real-world social problems, particularly in developing countries.
Ame was instrumental in laying the groundwork for a multifaceted international partnership between Laurier and Ghana. The partnership has led to student exchanges for close to 100 Laurier students and 20 Ghanian students, providing meaningful experiential learning opportunities including undergraduate internships, graduate work, research, and faculty and staff visits. Ame has taught courses remotely via videoconference so that Laurier students can work in real time with their Ghanian classmates.
As one letter in his nomination package says, “Dr. Ame has built meaningful international partnerships; created, designed and facilitated opportunities for Laurier students to participate in international learning opportunities; and mentored international students to pursue studies in subjects that contribute to capacity building in their home universities and communities.”
Ame’s ongoing SSHRC-funded research on the impact these partnerships have will help advance understanding of how to effectively internationalize education.
“I hope to embark on further initiatives to maintain sustained funding to deepen international experiential learning for all students. Especially those of colour and marginal economic backgrounds who are usually less likely to partake in international service learning.”
Robert Ame
Faculty Mentoring Award
During her 10 years as an associate professor in Laurier's Youth and Children’s Studies Program and Psychology department, Danielle Law has become known as an exemplary instructor and outstanding research supervisor and mentor.
As the founder and director of the Child and Adolescent Research and Education (CARE) lab, Law has made lasting and profound contributions to student learning, academic success and the broader community. In a short time, the CARE lab has grown from a group of three undergraduate students to a provincially respected research team comprised of 25 secondary, undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, collaborators and community partners.
Under the lab’s model, senior students mentor junior members of the team, who then go on to mentor others as they progress – serving to develop excellent researchers and leaders.
Law’s students credit her support for helping them reach new heights in academic achievement, including publication, research awards and grants, conference presentations and graduate studies. Through structured discussion groups and community service components in her courses, Law helps students gain confidence, put theory into practice and appreciate how they can make a difference in their communities.
In written submissions, students expressed how Law’s compassionate and person-centred approach made a difference in their lives – helping them find their passions, inspiring them to pursue further studies, and encouraging them to persist despite challenges.
“Aristotle says, ‘Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.’ I am inspired by my students who remind me that education goes beyond textbooks and tests to include integrating evidence-based knowledge with value-based skills that help us contribute meaningfully to our communities and face life's challenges with courage, compassion, and kindness,” says Law.
“Thank you to my colleagues for their support and to my students for nominating me for this award. I am humbled by your thoughtfulness. It is an absolute joy being part of your journey and watching you grow to lead with integrity, wisdom, and jazz hands!”
Danielle Law
Staff Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
As the coordinator of Global Engagement programming at Laurier International, Anne-marie Joy Henry fosters equity and inclusion by designing and delivering meaningful, engaging intercultural training to staff, students and community stakeholders.
Participants in the training credit Henry for creating an environment of trust and respect that fosters engagement and discussion focusing on difficult topics such as colonialism, white supremacy, discrimination and bias. Henry not only increases knowledge and understanding, but challenges her students to think about how they can be agents of change.
Henry’s learner-centric approach uses experiential adult learning designs that meet participants where they are in their learning journey and current social context while recognizing the different ways people learn. Through storytelling, interactive learning exercises and small group work, Henry makes intercultural learning topics come alive for students.
Through the Intercultural Certificate program, intercultural learning content embedded in courses, training for students before they travel abroad for Laurier courses, and customized training for community partners, Henry has made a positive impact on Laurier’s communities both in and beyond the classroom. She has contributed in significant and tangible ways to Laurier’s commitments to equity, diversity, inclusion, Indigenization and internationalization.
Henry has also significantly advanced Laurier’s mission of challenging people to become engaged and aware citizens in an increasingly complex world. As one letter of support said, Henry is a “role model of what academic excellence and a life of purpose and citizenship should look like.”
“It has been a true reward to work with such a diverse community of educators and lifelong intercultural learners who have shared their experiences, their knowledge, their practices and their wisdom with me,” says Henry.
“It gives me hope to collaborate with faculty, staff and students at Laurier who value global engagement and see themselves as agents of change working together toward a more just, harmonious and sustainable future.”
Anne-marie Joy Henry
