Western is conferring honorary degrees on 13 eminent individuals during spring convocation this year, celebrating and honouring their contributions across a wide range of endeavours.

Dr. Garnette Sutherland
10a.m., June 7
Doctor of Science, honoris causa (DSc) 

Dr. Garnette Sutherland is a neurosurgeon, scientist and technology innovator who has been at the forefront of global innovation in advanced surgery. After completing his residency in neurosurgery at Western under the legendary Dr. Charles Drake, he joined the University of Manitoba and established one of the first experimental laboratories to study neurological disease using MR imaging and spectroscopy. 

Later, in collaboration with National Research Council Canada, Sutherland developed the world’s first intraoperative MRI system and was involved with the development of neuroArm, another world’s first image-guided MR-compatible robot for brain surgery. 

Sutherland is the recipient of the NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal (2015) and a Governor General Innovation Award (2019). In 2011, he was appointed to the Order of Canada for his lifetime achievement in healthcare innovation. In 2014, Sutherland, neuroArm and institutional partners were inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame. 

Manjushree Thapa
3p.m., June 12
Doctor of Letters, honoris causa (DLitt) 

Manjushree Thapa is a novelist and non-fiction writer known for writing about contemporary life in Nepal, the country of her birth. She trained as a visual artist and writer, first at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1986 to 1989, then at the University of Washington, where she was a Fulbright fellow from 1996 to 1998.

She has won the Canada Council’s Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in Literature among other commendations. 

Thapa’s most recent novel, All of Us in Our Own Lives, is set in the world of international aid in Nepal, where the protagonists struggle to better their lives in an industry purporting to promote women’s empowerment. 

Merna Forster
10a.m., June 13
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LLD) 

Merna Forster is a historian, author and educator who became an activist fighting for gender equality. From 2013 to 2016, she led the successful national campaign calling for Canadian women to be celebrated on the face of our bank notes, an initiative that resulted in civil rights icon Viola Desmond being honoured on the $10 bill. 

Forster’s interest in preserving and promoting the natural and cultural heritage of Canada led her to a decades-long career with Parks Canada. She later joined the Department of Canadian Heritage in Ottawa, then worked as executive director of the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History project, at the University of Victoria.  

In 2004, she launched an educational website and her book 100 Canadian Heroines. A sequel, 100 More Canadian Heroines, was published in 2011.  

Forster’s achievements have been recognized with a number of awards, including the Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Popular Media (Pierre Berton Award). 

Kumar Murty
3p.m., June 13
Doctor of Science, honoris causa (DSc) 

Kumar Murty is a noted mathematician whose accomplishments range across number theory, algebraic geometry, information security and mathematical modelling. 

He received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1982. From 1982 to 1987 he held research positions at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Concordia University in Montreal. In 1987, he was appointed associate professor at the University of Toronto, and in 1991 he was promoted to full professor. He served as chair of the department of mathematics at the university during 2008-2013 and again during 2014-2017. 

His research has been recognized through numerous awards including the Coxeter-James Prize of the Canadian Mathematical Society in 1991, the E. W. R. Steacie Fellowship and election to the Royal Society of Canada in 1995. 

In 2019, he was appointed director of Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences.  

Joy MacPhail, BA’77
10a.m., June 14
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LLD) 

Joy McPhail is a former economist, union negotiator and politician with a significant track record in British Columbia. 

The Hamilton, Ont. native received a BA from Western and a diploma in trade union/industrial relations studies from the London School of Economics, U.K. in 1978. 

After more than a decade as an economist and negotiator in the union movement in Ontario and British Columbia, she was elected MLA for Vancouver-Hastings in B.C. During her 14-year-long political career she held significant portfolios including deputy premier, minister of finance and leader of the opposition. 

In September 2019, the governments of Canada and B.C. appointed her chair of the Expert Panel on the Future of Housing Supply and Affordability. The Governor General of Canada appointed MacPhail to the Order of Canada (CM) on December 29, 2021. 

Jeff Parr, BA’82, and Shelley Parr
3p.m., June 14
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LLD) 

Philanthropists and community volunteers, Jeff and Shelley Parr have made a lasting impact on Western. 

In 2020, their $9.2-million gift helped Western launch the Parr Centre for Thriving, dedicated to providing innovative approaches to student mental health and well-being. 

Jeff graduated from Western in 1982 with a BA in social science and became a CA three years later. In 1995 he joined Clairvest Group Inc. and retired as co-CEO in 2018. 

Shelley attended George Brown College, and after graduating with a diploma in food, beverage and hospitality management in 1983, worked in restaurant management and hotel sales. 

Both Shelley and Jeff are active with numerous charitable organizations. Most recently Shelley has been involved with the Nanny Network, a charity focused on supporting moms with cancer, and Jeff supports Doctors without Borders and the Canadian Cancer Society. At Western, Jeff has served on the President’s Council and currently serves on the Investment Committee.  

Darryl White
10a.m., June 15
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LLD) 

Chief executive officer of BMO since 2017, Darryl White is a member of the Ottawa-based Business Council of Canada and the Washington, D.C-based The Business Council. 

A long-standing community builder with strong ties to the United Way Centraide movement, White has volunteered in Montréal, New York, Chicago and Toronto. In 2018 he became co-chair of the Inclusive Local Economic Opportunity Roundtable, a partnership between BMO and United Way Greater Toronto that works on reducing economic disparity. 

An advocate for BMO’s efforts to ensure a diverse and inclusive workplace, White serves as chair of Catalyst Canada Advisory Board and member of the Catalyst Board of Directors. 

He serves as campaign cabinet co-president for the Montréal Children’s Hospital Foundation. 

Doug Muzyka, BESc’77, MESc’78, PhD’85
10a.m., June 15
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LLD) 

Doug Muzyka is a former president and CEO of DuPont Canada and current council chair for the National Research Council of Canada. 

A bachelors, masters and PhD degree holder from Western, Doug Muzyka completed his doctoral research as the first participant in an exchange between Western and the Université de Technologie de Compiègne in France. Muzyka worked in the French coal industry for several years before returning to Canada to begin a long career with E.I. DuPont de Nemours (DuPont).  

He was president and CEO of DuPont Canada prior to its privatization in 2003 and later was global chief science and technology officer for DuPont.  

Muzyka has served on advisory boards for universities in Singapore, the U.S. and Canada and recently served as a member of the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.  

He currently works as a corporate director on the boards of prominent Canadian and US companies. 

Andrew Chisholm, MBA’85
3p.m., June 15
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LLD) 

Andrew Chisholm is the current chair of the Ivey Advisory Board.  

He spent most of his career at Goldman Sachs & Co, after graduating with an MBA from Ivey Business School in 1985. 

Chisholm is now a member of the board of directors of Royal Bank of Canada as well as that of its U.S. holding company. 

He acted as a member of the Canadian federal government’s expert panel on sustainable finance and subsequently on the task force for resilient recovery. He is a member of the advisory board for the Centre for Building Sustainable Value at Ivey Business School. 

Catherine Karakatsanis, BESc’83, MESc’91
3p.m., June 16
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LLD) 

Catherine Karakatsanis is chief operating officer of consulting engineers Morrison Hershfield Group Inc. 

The Western alum with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in engineering science has served as a director of the Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation, chair of the Foundation for Education, chair of the Faculty of Engineering Advisory Council at Western as well as director on Western’s Board of Governors. 

Most recently, Karakatsanis became president-elect of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC).

She is set to be the first woman president in FIDIC’s 110-year history when she takes office later this year. 

Shelley Niro, MFA’97
10a.m., June 21
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LLD) 

Shelley Niro is a painter, photographer and filmmaker. Born in Niagara Falls, New York, she is a member of the Turtle Clan, Bay of Quinte Mohawk Six Nations Grand River Reserve. Her passion for art was sparked early on, thanks to growing up in an artistic community. 

Niro received an MFA from Western in 1997. While still a student at Western, Niro shot one of her films, Honey Moccasin, with the help of a Visual Arts class.  

She was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Governor General Award in Visual Art in 2017. She became an honorary elder in the Indigenous Curatorial Collective. 

In 2020, Niro was presented with the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award from the Ontario Arts Foundation. 

Tricia Smith
3p.m., June 22
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LLD) 

Tricia Smith was a world champion and Olympian rower, before becoming a lawyer and a leader in sport organizations. 

The Vancouver native first competed in swimming before taking up rowing at the age of 17. Between 1976 and 1988 Smith claimed seven World Championship medals, a Commonwealth Games gold and became a four-time Olympian, winning a silver medal in coxless pair at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.  

As a lawyer, Smith also assumed groundbreaking leadership roles with sport organizations locally and internationally, becoming the first Canadian elected to World Rowing—where she is currently vice-president—and the first Canadian elected to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.  

In 2016 she was elected a member of the International Olympic Committee and is currently the president of the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC). 

She most recently was COC lead for the feasibility study regarding a possible Indigenous-led 2030 Olympic and Paralympic Games bid for Canada. 

Julie Nesrallah
3p.m., June 23
Doctor of Music, honoris causa (DMus) 

Mezzo-soprano Julie Nesrallah has performed for leading opera companies, symphonies, festivals and chamber music ensembles across Canada and around the world.  

Operatic roles include Isabella in Gioacchino Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri, the Composer in Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, Suzuki in Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and her highly acclaimed signature role in Carmen by Georges Bizet.  

Nesrallah is the national host of Tempo on CBC Music and is also the executive producer and star of Carmen on Tap, a company that performs Bizet’s opera as dinner theatre.  

She has been the recipient of Canada Council for the Arts Emerging Artist Award and Mid-Career Grant, and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her cultural contribution to Canada’s performing arts.