In the past two years, two staff members within the KMb Unit at York, David Phipps and Christina Ransom, have received awards from the Governor General of Canada. This post celebrates their achievements.
David Phipps et Christina Ransom de l’unité de mobilisation des connaissances de York, ont été honorés par des prix du Gouverneur général du Canada au cours des deux dernières années. Ce billet raconte leurs réalisations.
Our office is a modest service unit that works hard to provide knowledge mobilization services and support for researchers at York University and our neighbouring communities. Our staff offers diverse yet complementary services to support knowledge mobilization activity. We employ students to support communications needs in areas of data management and outreach communications. So it may sound bold to suggest that His Excellence, Governor General David Johnston may want to visit York and save time from what is becoming regular engagement and acknowledgement but I formally extend the invitation, anytime, to visit our office.
Seems there has been some extensive engagement with His Excellence and our office the past few years. First, was the work which York and the ResearchImpact network had engaged in about knowledge mobilization being a key methodology to support community-campus collaborations. Having His Excellence speak at Congress 2012 was a culminating event from this engagement. Later that year, our own David Phipps was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Award Medal recognizing his service in knowledge mobilization in Canada; again, providing another visit with His Excellence. This year, it was York knowledge mobilization Data and Communications Assistant Christina Ransom who was awarded the prestigious Governor General’s Award for the highest average for all graduating students at York.
Christina has worked within the Knowledge Mobilization Unit for the past two years, full-time in the summer months and part-time during the academic year. She has led new initiatives around how we present data and information for regular internal (and soon to be external) reporting. She has provided support for the development of the latest iteration of the ResearchImpact / ReseauImpactRecherche website. Having sorted through eight years of contacts, projects and activity, Christina has provided important support for our office and this is her last summer before pursuing Master’s degree next year in Library and Information Studies at the University of Toronto. On behalf of everyone in this office, thank you for your contributions and congratulations of your award. It’s a most impressive accomplishment.
But for His Excellence, who now has had his third interaction with York Knowledge Mobilization staff and this office, might I suggest a visit to our office in the future. It seems there is regular and ongoing engagement it simply may save time!