College grad keynote speaker to highlight community-led research

WHITEHORSE—Dr. Ashlee Cunsolo, director of the Labrador Institute at Memorial University will address the class of 2018 graduating students at Yukon College convocation this Friday, May 18.

Dr. Cunsolo is a community-engaged social science and health researcher who has had the honour of working with Indigenous communities and leaders across Canada on a variety of community-led and community-identified research initiatives. Her work includes climate change impacts on physical and mental health, cultural reclamation and intergenerational knowledge transmission, suicide reduction and prevention, land-based education and healing programs, Indigenization and decolonization of higher education, and ecological grief and mourning.

Recognized nationally and internationally for her community-led research and science outreach, Dr. Cunsolo has been inducted as one of the inaugural members of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists and is one of the founding members of Nature Canada’s 75 Women for Nature.

Dr. Cunsolo will speak to over 190 students, graduating from 36 certificate, diploma and degree programs.

This year there will be a single convocation ceremony for all graduates at 10:00 a.m. at the Yukon Arts Centre. Doors will open for family and friends at 9:30 a.m. Doronn Fox and the Team Yukon Dene Games Youth will drum graduates and dignitaries into the venue at 9:45 a.m..

This year, 42 students will graduate with honours—including Olivia Holmes, who will address the ceremony.

Holmes is a dedicated volunteer in her home community of Dawson City. She spent the past year in Whitehorse studying in the Multimedia Communications certificate program and plans to transfer into a communications degree at a B.C. university after taking a year off to travel.

Annie Bernard will receive an honorary diploma in Northern Studies for her lifelong dedication to improving the lives of N.W.T. and Yukon youth through education, including guiding Indigenization of Yukon College and vetting and co-creating programs as a member of the Yukon College President’s Advisory Committee on First Nations Initiatives (PACFNI).

More information can be found at yukoncollege.yk.ca/grad/.

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