Laurier to install new Chancellor Nadir Patel at fall convocation; composer John Estacio and doctor and writer Jillian Horton to receive honorary degrees

Sept. 10, 2024
For Immediate Release

WATERLOO — For the first time since 2016, Wilfrid Laurier University will install a new chancellor at convocation ceremonies this fall. Accomplished former diplomat, corporate director and Laurier alumnus Nadir Patel (‘93 BA), who began his four-year term July 1, will be officially installed Oct. 17 at 9:30 a.m. at Lazaridis Hall on Laurier’s Waterloo Campus. 

As chancellor, Patel will participate in convocation ceremonies, confer degrees and diplomas to graduates, and serve as a member of the Board of Governors and University Senate. 

Two accomplished Canadians, composer John Estacio and doctor and writer Jillian Horton, will receive honorary degrees. 

Waterloo campus convocation ceremonies will take place at Lazaridis Hall on Oct. 17 and 18. The Brantford campus ceremony will be held at the Sanderson Centre for the Performing Arts on Oct. 29. 

John Estacio 

Honorary Doctor of Music | Oct. 18, 9:30 a.m., Waterloo 

John Estacio is a five-time Juno-nominated composer. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2021 and is a recipient of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Award for Arts.  

One of Canada’s most frequently performed composers, Estacio is known for creating symphonic and operatic works with an assured command of lyricism and dynamism. Estacio has served as composer in residence for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra as well as the Edmonton Symphony. His orchestral music has been performed in Singapore, China, the U.S., U.K. and other parts of Europe. His first of five operas, Filumena, was filmed for television and was commemorated on a stamp issued by Canada Post.  

Jillian Horton

Honorary Doctor of Letters | Oct. 29, 2 p.m., Brantford 

Dr. Jillian Horton is an associate professor of Internal Medicine at Manitoba’s Health Sciences Centre and the University of Manitoba whose writing about medicine and medical culture appears regularly in the L.A. Times, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Maclean’s.  

In 2021, her first full-length book, We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing, was a national bestseller. It won Laurier’s prestigious Edna Staebler award for creative non-fiction and is currently being adapted as a television series.  

Named a “leading medical educator” by the U.S.-based Arnold P. Gold Foundation, Horton was awarded the Gold Humanism award by the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada in 2020 for her national contributions to compassion in clinical care and her leadership in the field of humanities in medical education. She is a graduate of McMaster University’s school of medicine and completed her residency and fellowship in general internal medicine at the University of Toronto. 

Tickets are required for all Laurier convocation ceremonies. Members of the media are asked to RSVP to attend. For more information about convocation, visit wlu.ca/convocation.