Munk School staff and researchers receive U of T Excellence Through Innovation Awards
On January 21, 2022, the University of Toronto recognized 339 staff and librarians across all three campuses with Excellence Through Innovation Awards (ETIA) for the 2021 year. The awards honour individuals and teams for enriching the student experience; promoting and advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion; elevating the employee experience; improving administrative and operational processes; and fostering community connection. Several of the Munk School’s own were among the winners.
A team of Citizen Lab staff and researchers were awarded an honour for Security Planner, a platform with tested, peer-reviewed recommendations for staying safe online. We spoke with Citizen Lab’s John-Scott Railton about his work on Security Planner, right before the tool initially launched. “It’s important to keep information updated and current, because security problems change and advice needs to change with it,” he said.
Céline Bauwens was also awarded, for her work on the Toronto COVID Action Fund. Before joining the Citizen Lab as manager, Bauwens was the institutional strategic initiatives officer in the Division of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation. The Toronto COVID Action Fund works directly with Institutional Strategic Initiative to distribute the expertise of U of T’s researchers to fund research in halting the spread of the COVID and understanding the broader impacts of the pandemic. The action fund launched in the early days of the pandemic and since then has received contributions from hospitals and donors amounting to over $10 million to support 40 projects in nine academic divisions and six partner hospitals.
Daria Dumbadze, manager of conference facilities at the Munk School, was also awarded an ETIA for her work organizing the Main E-Vent series. True to the values of the award, Main E-Vent enriched the student and staff experience during the pandemic by developing a webinar series focusing on learning new and emerging technologies for the implementation of virtual events; accessibility of virtual events; and planning for a safe return to in-person and hybrid events. In the second series (2020-2021), the webinars focused on improvements in virtual event delivery and quality, benefiting students, staff, and the tri-campus during pandemic uncertainty.
“This year’s award recipients are a testament not only to the talent and creativity of our staff and librarians but also to their expertise,” says Kelly Hannah-Moffat, U of T’s vice-president, People Strategy, Equity & Culture. “They have a real understanding of the communities they serve and have used this insight to develop projects that meet our communities’ needs.”
