Young Alumni Award

Anti-racism, inclusion, social entrepreneurship — as founder of the platform Culture Check, Nathan Hall (BSocSc ’07) has offered help to thousands of people experiencing racism in the workplace and provided sensitive guidance to organizations that wish to make a genuine culture shift. 

Soukaina Boutiyeb (BSocSc ’11) is executive director of the Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne (AFFC) and has been president of the Association des communautés francophones d’Ottawa (ACFO Ottawa) since 2017. She is committed to the causes of women’s rights and the promotion of French in minority settings. 

Frances Tibollo (JD ’15) is a commercial litigation attorney and human rights activist who made headlines in 2018 when she negotiated the release of two Canadian women being held in a Cambodian prison. She has made it her life’s mission to advocate for others and for justice. 

Gwen Madiba Moubouyi (BSocSc ’08, MSocSc ’12) is a multi-talented entrepreneur, designer, model and activist. A native of Gabon, Gwen was named one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network and made Next Big Thing Magazine’s list of young Black people who inspire. 

Andrew Todd (BASc ’14, BSc ’14) is a rower and Paralympic medallist. He has competed in a number of international competitions, both as a para-athlete, and as an able-bodied athlete prior to suffering severe injuries to the bottom half of his body after being struck by a bus in 2013.

Katherine Levac (BA ’11) is a comedian from St-Bernardin, a town in eastern Ontario. Among her many accomplishments, Katherine has participated in a number of recorded comedy sketch shows and took to the stage for sold out performances of Un beau programme, a two-person comedy act at Montreal’s Cabaret Lion d’or.  

Dr. Mélanie Lacasse (BSc ’99, BA ’01, MD ’06) earned the praise of people in the Basse Lièvre area after taking the initiative to open drop-in medical clinics in a region chronically under-served by family doctors. Dr. Lacasse also volunteers with various organizations to improve access to healthcare for Papineau residents. 

Aliya-Jasmine Sovani (BA ’05) has worked at the intersection of sports and popular culture in her role as a journalist, host and producer on MTV Canada, MuchMusic, Fashion Television, the Discovery Channel and other networks. She is a rising star on the Canadian media scene.

Vincent Lam grew up in Ottawa, undertaking his undergraduate studies at the University of Ottawa. His family is from the expatriate Chinese community of Vietnam. He is an emergency physician who also does international evacuation work. He is the 2006 winner of The Scotiabank Giller Prize, for his short story collection, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures.

Dave Blackburn is a graduate of the University’s criminology program, as well as the Master’s of Social Work program. He has been a member of the Canadian Forces since 2005, specializing in the provision of psycho-social counseling to soldiers and their families. He has served in Europe and Afghanistan, and returned to Canada in 2010 as a member of the CF Directorate of Mental Health. He obtained his Ph.D in 2011, when he was also promoted to the rank of major, and continues to produce scholarly publications in his field. He has also written a book about his earlier work on suicide prevention in remote communities of northern Quebec.