Faculty of Health Awards

• Dr. Parissa Safai - Early Career Service Award • Professor Carol Wilson - Established Career Service

Award• Dr. Jonathan Weiss - Early Career Research Award• Dr. Michael Riddell - Established

Career Research Award • Dr. Janessa Drake - Early Career

Teaching Award • Dr. David Hood - Established Career

Teaching Award

Dr. Parissa SafaiEarly Career Service Award

• Dr. Safai has participated in committee activities at every level of the university, from the School of Kinesiology, the Faculties of Health and Graduate Studies, and the University Senate. And her service has extended outside of the university, notably as a member of the Get Active Toronto Advisory Committee since 2009, and also to the Sport Canada Research Initiative Advisory Committee since 2009. I quote from her nomination letter - "Dr. Safai has had a serious impact on the way York University is governed and importantly in steering its future direction."

Professor Carol WilsonEstablished Career Service Award

• Professor Wilson is a long serving member of the School of Kinesiology and Health Science, and the 5-page nomination letter on her file includes far too many accomplishments and contributions to list here. So, offered are a few: long serving Undergraduate Program Director over three separate terms; served as lead for two undergrad program reviews; led the accreditation process of the undergraduate program by the Canadian Council of Physical Education and Kinesiology Administrators; early in her career, from 1972-1981, she served as Don of Founders College; and more recently she spearheaded the highly successful welcome event for more than 650 Kinesiology and Health Science 1st year students called "Destination Graduation". The nomination letter closes with "Carol Wilson is a remarkable faculty member who has served York University with distinction."

Dr. Jonathan WeissEarly Career Research Award

• His research productivity is simply outstanding for someone at his career stage. He has 36 peer-reviewed publications, delivered 34 conference papers, and made 76 poster presentations. He has published in the broad area of intellectual disabilities, including Special Olympics, family stress and coping, intervention for Asperger syndrome, mental health issues in autism spectrum disorders, bullying in children, and the list goes on. His publications appear in no fewer than 16 different journals, including all the top-tier journals in his field. And, of course, he is the $2 million CIHR Chair in ASD Treatment and Research.

Dr. Michael RiddellEstablished Career Research Award

• What is particularly impressive about Dr. Riddell's research program is his capacity to maintain human research along with his rodent model and cell culture studies. These multiple models put Dr. Riddell in a unique position to apply and translate his finds from basic research into real world settings that benefit people. In order to conduct this cutting edge research, Dr. Riddell has successfully obtained over $1.7 million in funding grants from CIHR, NSERC, NGOs, and industry in the last 3 years alone, and over $7.8 million in total funding. He is also committed to training future researchers with 14 undergrad thesis students, 13 NSERC funded summer students, 19 MSc students, and 4 PhD students.

Dr. Janessa DrakeEarly Career Teaching Award

• Dr. Drake brings a superior level of a passion and enthusiasm to all of her courses. She has consistently demonstrated excellence in her teaching abilities … evaluations have continuously been exceptional for both her undergrad and grad level courses, particularly impressive given the heavy weight on mathematics in the courses that she teaches. One student writes, "I know I am just one of many students that are indebted to her as a mentor, and as a professor and supervisor."

Dr. David HoodEstablished Career Teaching Award

• The Faculty of Graduate Studies Teaching Award, and the former Faculty of Pure and Applied Science Excellence in Teaching Award have previously recognized Dr. Hood’s teaching excellence. And now he is recognized by the Faculty of Health Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching. His formal teaching evaluations are consistently "excellent", often scoring a perfect 5 out of 5. And one student said, "I actually knew what Dr. Hood was talking about and teaching me. This is the only time I've felt like I knew what I was talking about …"