The pinnacle of excellence: meet our 2020 Fellows and Mentors

6 April 2020

The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation is proud to announce the appointment of our 2020 Fellows and Mentors, distinguished leaders who made extraordinary contributions in their respective fields and who will share their knowledge and expertise under our scientific theme Technology & Ethics over the next three years. With the ongoing, ever-changing circumstances stemming from the proliferation of COVID-19, this area of research will be more relevant than ever to our community, domestically and internationally.

Within the framing of the Foundation’s new Strategic Plan, these Fellows and Mentors are themselves representative of the highest level of achievement while serving as audacious public educators. Not only have they excelled as university professors, judges, scientists, policymakers, entrepreneurs or artists, but they have succeeded in making their research and voices accessible to the general public. In their capacity as Fellows and Mentors, they have the fundamental role of supporting our Scholars in their search to disseminate knowledge across established boundaries through creative tools and interdisciplinary dialogue.

These four Fellows and seven Mentors will bring unique and invaluable contributions to the development of our Scholars, assisting them to shine as Engaged Leaders with meaningful impact in their institutions and communities. By leading our Institutes of Engaged Leadership, Mentors and Fellows provide experiential learning opportunities that graduate students may not have in a traditional university setting. Through this approach, Scholars are encouraged to develop qualities such as resilience, audacity, empathy and duty of service, and to look beyond their areas of expertise to engage with people, issues and ideas from a diversity of perspectives.

This year, the Foundation is also proud to partner with Fulbright Canada to create the Fulbright Canada—Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellow / Joint Chair in Contemporary Public Policy, which will attract a leading American Professor to Canada as a visiting Fellow to the Mcgill Institute for the Study of Canada while actively contributing to the Foundation’s programming. This partnership represents an important contribution to the mission of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation by supporting the dissemination of knowledge at the heart of our two organizations for which Inclusive Excellence and Engaged Leadership are central.

Meet our Fellows

Fellows play a critical role in the leadership development of our doctoral Scholars, empowering them to become the engaged leaders and researchers of tomorrow. They act as outstanding public educators, dynamic professors and intellectual guides to Scholars over a three-year program cycle.

Each of those three-year leadership program cycles is built around a scientific theme, which is chosen as a way to raise questions of critical importance for the Canadian public. Our scientific theme for the 2020-2023 cycle will be Technology & Ethics, with a particular focus on ethical issues pertaining to biotechnologies and the incorporation of artificial intelligence in the area of health care.

Fellows are selected based primarily on their expertise on subjects related to the scientific theme. Relying on their research, knowledge, and experience, Fellows train Scholars by teaching on these subjects in the context of our Institutes of Engaged Leadership. Fellows work hand-in-hand with Mentors and other Fellows to equip Scholars with a greater understanding of the scope of issues and how leadership can help address them. Held twice during the first year of the program cycle, the Institutes gather Scholars, Fellows and Mentors for a week of intensive leadership training and experiential learning opportunities.

Meet our Mentors

Under the Foundation’s renewed programming model, our Mentors focus on the leadership development of our doctoral Scholars, empowering them to have meaningful impact in the world. Mentors act as leadership trainers, guides, and advisors to Scholars during the three-year program.

Our Mentors are accomplished leaders from various sectors and professional domains, whose professional achievements reflect the range of skills we believe are of great value to future engaged leaders. That includes, for instance: communication and public engagement, team and project management, entrepreneurial skills, social innovation, negotiation, networking, artistic skills to connect the mind, body and heart, and emotional skills in the face of adversity.