President Krysta Logozzo Daniele welcomed 30 (plus) members including a full compliment of distinguished Lakehead University PA Rotary Community-corporate members (see below) on a chilly but bright winter Zoom meeting day.
Cohosts were Warren Philp, Jim Madder.
Member Matt Diegel provided a unique O Canada rendering with a proud Canadian doing the sign language for the anthem.
Krysta acknowledged our presence on land of the Fort William First Nation.
Announcement Updates:
- Rotary Virtual Anniversary event reminder: February 26 at 7 pm: a free admission Rotary fundraiser supporting Polio and Covid (see President Krysta’s communique)
- Rotary Radio Day: Brian Walmark is understandably thrilled to announce as at today, we have approximately 800 ad submissions---our best return ever. Well done club, all team members, and Dougall media.
- Past president Rod Morrison spoke of the recent Past President dinner success and eventual acceptance of her name to stand as nominee for President Elect-elect Mary-Anne Mackett. The club is extremely pleased with this news. Protocol for additional name submissions was outlined by Rod.
- Next week we welcome President Kathleen Lynch of Confederation College and members of her team (now PA Rotary Community members)
Feature Presentation:
A full contingent of Lakehead University members of our club welcomed our guest speakers Dr. Moira McPherson: President and Vice Chancellor (pictured), and Dr. David Barnett: Provost and Vice-President Academic. Mark Tilbury: Annual Fund and Alumni Engagement Director, introduced our speakers as well as his colleagues on the team, Toby Goodfellow: Chief of Staff in the President’s Office (pictured), who was lead on the fine Power Point presentation, Alyson MacKay: Manager of Ingenuity, Economic Development and Innovation, Dr. David Richards: Dean/Associate Professor in the Faculty of Business Administration, and Kathryn Davidson: Alumni Engagement Director.
Past President Warren Philp introduced Dr. McPherson (they have common denominator daughters et al), citing her strong background at the school academically and in administration. He later thanked her (and team) appropriately for the strong and professional overview of Lakehead University (LU). It was noted that a number of our club members are alumni of distinguished repute including President Krysta Logozzo Daniele, Jacki Dojack, Vonnie Cheng, Shelley Crawford and also new LU Board of Governors member Michael Nitz.
The presentation commenced with the “North Star” LU STRATEGIC PLAN, with a strong weighting now recognized internationally for academic and research excellence.
The 5 PRIORITIES were dealt with in an expanding discussion leading to ACHIEVEMENTS.
Priorities include: 1.Academic excellence 2. Social Responsibility, 3. Local and Global partnerships, 4. Entrepreneurships and Innovation (an annual impact on GDP of $1.6 BN) and 5. Capacity Development.
LU is particularly well known as a leading research university and in world ranking systems is in the top 100 universities of 768 universities in 85 countries based on UN sustainable development goals.
Of the 8505 students, 1,459 self identify as indigenous; programming and success with indigenous and international students (still interacting during the pandemic) is a big highlight.
There is $3.4 M in philanthropic revenue.
A fine video was shown and can be accessed through the Lakehead University website.
The Interactive Annual Report “Hope and Resilience” is also available online.
The Power Point presentation is available as well on line (see links below)
There was a great deal to celebrate in todays meeting.
It was capped off by “Happy Dollars” and Birthday wishes, chaired by Bill Everitt.