Victoria Paraschak named 2017 MLD Award Recipient

The Faculty Association is proud to announce, Dr. Victoria Paraschak as the recipient of the Mary Lou Dietz Equity Leadership Award for 2017.

A reception was held in her honour on Tuesday May 2, 2017 from 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. at the Kerr House (366 Sunset Ave.).

For 33 years, Dr. Paraschak has been at the inception of women's equity and Indigenous education on campus and afield. Paraschak has chaired the first equity committees in the Faculty of Human Kinetics, co-chaired the initial Status of Women Committee at the University of Windsor, provided ongoing, long-term service for the sexual harassment committee, the University Strategic Planning Task Force on Equity (1994/5), served as an Equity Assessor (EE/PA), worked on the Status of Women, Diversity and Equity Action Committee (SWDEAC) since its birth, and served on the Review Committees for Employment Equity and Academic Policy across campus for three decades.

Paraschak's impressive record of scholarly work is in the fields of outdoor education and Indigenous rights, particularly women and sport. Her international research has found that there is little or no knowledge of Indigenous women and girls in sport and recreation, and she has worked to acknowledge and rectify this. Working in the spirit of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) findings, decades before the TRC, she has served the North American Society for Sport History to create a NASSH resolution condemning Indian mascots, providing diversity scholarships for graduate students and chairing subcommittees on diversity. Dr. Paraschak has facilitated 'strengths perspective' workshops to improve the conditions for Indigenous athletes in Canada, and has worked with the Northwest Territories government on Sport and Recreation, facilitating policy, directions, and conferences, to ensure Canada's elite Indigenous athletes are represented in international Winter Games and competitions.

Recently, Dr. Paraschak has been a lead writer on a Wikipedia project (TRC Call to Action #87) ensuring better international public knowledge online about elite Indigenous athletes in Canada. For a LEAD educator with at-risk youth in the Windsor community, and an individual who is "committed to equitable practice in every aspect of her personal and professional life" (Dr. Nancy McNevin), we honour Dr. Victoria Paraschak.

For these reasons, Dr. Victoria Paraschak is deserving of the Mary Lou Dietz Equity Leadership Award.

Read more about the Mary Lou Dietz Equity Leadership Award on the SWDEA Committee web page.