The Alumni Association will help the University accomplish its three primary activities -research, teaching and community service - through participating in governance, acting as a vocal advocate and supporting fund-raising.

The Alumni Association will act as an agent for alumni involvement within the University, within the activities of the Association and in external activities representing the interests of the Alumni Association.

The Alumni Association will recognize the achievements of alumni, students and friends of McMaster University, and reward outstanding contributions to the Alumni Association.

The Alumni Association will provide products, services and benefits that renew and invigorate alumni affinity with the University.

The Alumni Association will undertake appropriate and timely communication with alumni to inform them of issues affecting the University and the Alumni Association, and to facilitate communications among alumni. The Alumni Association will initiate and pursue an appropriate and timely dialogue with senior officials and faculty of the University.

The Alumni Association will encourage current students to become involved in, and assist with activities of the Association to forge an early link with future graduands and it will encourage a lifelong association with the University primarily through the activities of the Student Relations Committee.

You may not believe this, but I’ve been around McMaster longer than most of our graduates have been alive. I’m a 1978 graduate and I’ve been actively volunteering for more than 35 years since graduating. People ask me why I stay involved. And that I find easy to answer. I am always learning something new and engaging with bright and interesting people. At McMaster, there are always interesting research stories to learn about, a fresh new crew of athletes to follow and cheer on and exceptional, creative and inspiring alumni to meet, serve with and learn about. For me, life-long learning is a passion.

While my tenure with the McMaster Alumni Association board of directors is long, I had a different vantage point this past year serving as the president. I’ve had the opportunity to lead the board in great discussions about how best to help recent graduates transition successfully to the workforce and identify ways the alumni association can help to tap into the terrific resource of our alumni community to guide current students and recent graduates. This is an important aspect of the alumni community; fostering a culture of service and helping the next generation of MAC grads. Teaching, learning, engaging, serving and of course, enjoying social time too – these are all important aspects of an active alumni association. And, even after all these years, I am proud as ever to be involved with. I look forward to another year of working together and always welcome your suggestions and comments.

We don’t pick them, but in most cases, we love them. Our families, that is! Each is unique and has their own quirks, traditions, characteristics and make up. If we’re lucky, our family members are near enough to visit allowing us to stay connected. Of course, that’s not always the case. We have to make that extra effort to reach out by whatever means available to us. Maybe that more senior family member still appreciates that thoughtfully written letter, where others have adopted the convenience and immediacy of connecting by email or social media. The distance can present challenges to that connection. If you’re not in their daily life, they may neglect to update you on that new job, or new address. It can be difficult to keep these connections alive and to remember just what it is that`s important to that family member and how to keep that connection meaningful. Such is the challenge of an ever-growing community of alumni. With this Spring`s convocations, we crested 190,000 McMaster alumni. A population almost the size of Saskatoon, that`s a lot of folks to engage! The McMaster Alumni Association is just as interested in those grads close to our home as we are to those we might not be able to drop by.

In 2016-17, we continued our efforts to expand our digital engagement as one strategy to remove distance as a barrier to participation. We introduced personalized communications options, increased our use of video to both educate and delight, and offered online networking that facilitates connections amongst alumni and current students. Our recent grads will perceive a shift, we hope, in our focus to increasing opportunities for career development learning and practice. While we embrace technology and the opportunities it provides to maintain and enhance our connections, we have not let go of traditional programming. We still want to see you in person and we continue to host numerous events that we hope you are able to attend. We will always strive to make every member of this alumni family feel welcome and to find a meaningful connection with us. We hope you’ll remember us too!

Support McMaster University through a continued commitment to participation in governance, acting as an advocate and supporting fundraising with a focus on the growth of young alumni donors to McMaster.

Engage McMaster's evolving and shifting alumni constituencies by a clearer understanding of its demographic makeup and interests.

Foster high quality, distinctive, educational and service opportunities that deepen alumni engagement through on-campus, in community and online programming.

Make connections between alumni and students a cornerstone of the McMaster Alumni Association by creating more opportunities for interaction, programming and services.

Celebrate McMaster and alumni milestone, accomplishments and traditions through alumni events and alumni awards programs and communications.

Communicate a clear, consistent, and distinctive McMaster message that aligns with the university's goals and values and builds alumni ties to the McMaster Alumni Association and to McMaster.

Develop the resources, data and funding to meet the McMaster Alumni Association's strategic goals and support McMaster University.

The MAA has always supported our recent grads with their professional development – with networking opportunities, access to our alumni career counsellor, Jillian Perkins-Marsh and other individual opportunities. This year we put in an extra effort to help out our recent grads with their career exploration. We initiated “Ask me Anythings”, monthly online events hosted by our career counsellor enabling grads, wherever in the world they are, to spend seven minutes to ask their career related questions. We asked Jillian to write monthly articles related to everything from the job search to mental health at work, to include in the MAC10 version of Maroon Mail, our monthly e’newsletter. We also brought back the annual Kickstart Your Career conference, bringing alumni and industry experts to share their wisdom with our recent grads. It’s always exciting to help our newest members take the next steps on their journey!

Our alumni span the globe but there are always opportunities to stay connected to Mac. Gatherings were held in Hong Kong and Shanghai in early 2017, just two of the many locations where get-togethers enabled grads to connect with one another and stay informed about the exciting things happening back on campus. Thirty-five alumni gathered at The Consulate General of Canada in Hong Kong where they were welcomed by Consul General Jeff Nankivell. Dr. Peter Mascher, Vice-Provost (International Affairs) then talked to the group about global engagement at McMaster. The trip wrapped up with a visit to Shanghai for a gathering with approximately 30 alumni and friends in that region.

Jim Waddington, a class of 1968 graduate and retired physics professor along with his wife, Sue, shared their passion for exploring and identifying the locations captured in paint by the Group of Seven. It began when on a canoe trip, Jim and Sue were surprised to find they located the exact spot where A.Y. Jackson painted "Hills, Killarney, Ontario (Nellie Lake)". And they continued paddling, identifying and recording some 600 of Canada’s most recognizable vistas. In Fall 2016, they brought their talk to Ottawa alumni with 100 alumni in attendance followed by a joint McMaster & Queen’s event in Kingston which included images of some of the 600 painting sites they've discovered, as well as the corresponding artwork. Sharing how they particularly like to search for locations reachable only by canoe or on foot, they discussed how they found the sites and what they learned about this famous group of painters along the way. This popular event was a very fitting way to celebrate Canada in its sesquicentennial year and the tour continues into fall 2017 with stops in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Kitchener and Brantford.

We often refer to the McMaster community as a family and this event highlight is a good example of bringing different members of that family together. In March 2017 the McMaster Alumni Association partnered with a group of talented students from the MSU Magician's Club to bring an evening performance of magic to Mac alumni and their families. The evening started off with a pizza dinner followed by an hour magic show. The two magicians were fourth year psychology, neuroscience and behavior students who awed the crowd of 90 people with their skills and humour. After the hour formal performance the magicians broke the audience in half so each group could learn a coin trick over the remaining 20 minutes. While the children were learning their magic the adults watched a short talk (pre-filmed) by another student magician on the psychology of magic. An entertaining and educational night for everyone involved.

Dr. James Orbinski is a globally recognized humanitarian practitioner and advocate, as well as one of the world’s leading scholars and scientists in global health. He is a veteran of many of the world’s most disturbing and complex humanitarian emergencies. He is a founding member of Médecins Sans Frontiѐres (Doctors Without Borders) Canada and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the organization in 1999.

Today, Dr. Orbinski is the CIGI Chair in Global Health Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, and a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University. He is also a professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. His award-winning and internationally acclaimed documentary film on medical humanitarianism, titled “Triage” was screened at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and won the 2008 Amnesty International Gold Medal Award. His bestselling book, An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarianism in the 21st Century, won the 2009 Writer’s Trust Shaunessy-Cohen Prize for best political writing in Canada.

Dr. Ally Prebtani’s commitment to education is not confined to the bedside or classroom. In addition to being a volunteer physician with the Aboriginal Health Network of Ontario, he is the founding director of the Internal Medicine Residency International Health Program at McMaster. His efforts have resulted in over 20 residents travelling to Uganda for education and training and has enhanced research collaboration and shared resources with Makerere University and the University Hospital of Mulago.

Ally is dedicated to education at a local, regional, provincial, national and international level through his varied and numerous investments of his time and passion. Not to be constrained by location or geography, his forward thinking and innovative methods in education are highlighted by the concept of using the internet as an interactive format to enable to transmission of future of formal meetings discussing clinical cases between McMaster University and Makerere University in Uganda. Location or geography have not limited his engagement and involvement in Global Medical Education either, he regularly spends time abroad as a teacher, educator and physician.

Matt is the driving force behind the FIRST Robotics Competition teams and the MakeShift Robotics program within various Hamilton high schools. FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology” and is a worldwide organization dedicated to promotion of careers in science, technology, engineering and math-related fields.

Bryce Kanbara is a Hamilton visual artist, curator/proprietor of you me gallery on James North (youmegallery.ca), and Chair of the Arts Committee at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto. He is also involved with community art and public art projects.

Dr. Karen Hill, Mohawk Nation physician, is the faculty lead in Aboriginal peoples health for the Department of Family Medicine. She is also a family physician at Juddah’s Place, a clinic she co-founded in 2013 with colleague Elva Jamieson in Ohsweken, on the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation reserve.

HooJung Jones is the Project Coordinator of the Korean Veterans Association of Canada Unit 26, and co–authored “Canadians Our Heroes 1950–1953 Korean War” which was forwarded by former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. She is a strong advocate for veterans, a dedicated volunteer, a community leader, a festival and special events organizer.

Steve Long has made outstanding contributions to Canada’s music scene and to the professional growth and support of Canadian musicians and entrepreneurs. Long & McQuade has become one of Canada’s most successful, home-grown retailers with more than 60 stores across Canada. Under Steve’s leadership, Long & McQuade focuses on music, community and the customer experience. Many years ago, Steve and the company realized the importance of giving back; each of the 70 store locations actively support their communities in their unique way.

Dr. Marcy McCall MacBain has worked extensively to improve quality and provision of health care and education in several regions including rural Liberia, Canada and the United Kingdom. As a co-founder and director of the McCall MacBain Foundation, she, along with her husband, are committed to improving the welfare of humanity through focused grants in education, health and the environment. In addition to her role at the Foundation, she is a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford where she conducts research in complementary and primary care health sciences.

Patricia is a true leader and an impassioned advocate for women. She is continually sought out by magazines and conferences for her dynamic presentations and prolific writing, including the inspiring book, 1 Piece of Advice. Patricia's newest endeavour is in Copenhagen, serving as Director, Sustainable Procurement Practice Group with the United Nations Office of Project Services.

George Soleas is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the LCBO. He received his B.Sc. from McMaster University and M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He trained in oenology at U.C. Davis and spent 11 years with the Canadian wine industry as a Director of Research and Quality Assurance for a major winery and chaired the Technical and Scientific Committee of the Canadian Wine Institute for nine years. His oenological and biochemical research has led to eight book chapters, 51 peer reviewed publications and several national and international industry and scientific presentations devoted to beverage alcohol.

Joanne Crawford has been an advocate for nursing in both oncology and community practice since graduating with distinction with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2004. Joanne began her nursing career working in critical care settings and later specialized in oncology nursing. As a public health nurse, she promoted cancer prevention and screening, and received funding for a qualitative project examining perspectives of immigrant women. Her passion for working with communities that had barriers to access information and cancer screening services grew as a result of these experiences. With the support and mentorship of a few dedicated professors, Joanne returned to McMaster and obtained her Masters of Science in Nursing in 2008, after which her work focused on a peer health educator program that facilitated access to information and education to cancer prevention and screening for four immigrant groups of women (Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, and South Asian). Joanne and other public health nurses received a Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation grant to assess if this peer educator program was meeting the changing needs of immigrants in Hamilton. She later went on to earn her PhD from U of T, where her research focused on colorectal cancer screening behaviours among South Asian immigrants in Canada. Joanne received numerous awards and scholarships during her education, including the CANO/Pfizer Award of Excellence in Nursing Leadership and a Population Health Improvement Research Network Doctoral Award. She is an active member in many professional associations and is the current President of the Community Health Nurses Initiatives’ Group (CHNIG). Joanne is involved in nursing research with colleagues as an Assistant Professor at Brock University in the Faculty of Applied Health Science. She also holds an adjunct appointment as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University (Niagara Site), where she is a non-MD facilitator in the Professional Competencies Program.

Dr. Seth Dworkin developed his passion for mechanical systems while studying Engineering at McMaster University. Driven by that passion, he completed his Bachelor’s degree summa cum laude, and went on to pursue a Masters and PhD at Yale University. There, he developed a keen sense of environmental responsibility, and began embarking on a career to impact positive change. While working as a lecturer and NSERC Postdoctoral fellow in Mechanical Engineering at U of T, he discovered a love for teaching, and began shaping his career path through academia. Seth joined the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Ryerson University, where he is currently an Associate Professor. He manages a large research program which has trained over 40 research assistants at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels, produced 38 journal papers, delivered 80 conference presentations, and received over $3 million in research support. His work is impacting the fields of clean air and renewable energy through new techniques in high-performance computer simulation. He has developed software for the inexpensive design of geothermal heating and cooling systems, which has already penetrated the geothermal industry and is in use today. Through awards from CFI, and working with Compute Canada, Dr. Dworkin uses computational infrastructure of over three-thousand CPUs for alternative energy and emissions research, making his one of the largest high-performance computing labs in the country.

Sabrina Natasha Premji Habib is the Co-Founder and Chief Exploration Officer at Kidogo, a social enterprise that provides high-quality, affordable early childhood care & education for less than $1 / day. Prior to Kidogo, Sabrina spent three years working with the Aga Khan Development Network in East Africa, managing an Integrated Primary Health Care Project and the Social Innovations portfolio of a $13.5 million maternal and child health grant. It was during this time that Sabrina first encountered the childcare crisis taking place in Nairobi’s slums. Dissatisfied with the status quo and traditional approaches to development, Sabrina launched Kidogo in 2014 as a sustainable and scalable social enterprise. It has since provided nearly 1 million hours of play-based, holistic childcare to children aged 6 months to 6 years, Sabrina has been recognized as an Echoing Green fellow, as Canada's Female Entrepreneur by ELLE Magazine and as Forbes' Top 30 under 30. Sabrina holds a Master’s in Public Administration in Development Practice from Columbia University and an Honors Bachelor of Science from McMaster University. She is also an enthusiastic writer, having authored a book, Backwards & Forwards: My Journey Through Africa, and frequently contributes to publications, including the World Policy Journal.

Tanya graduated from McMaster University in 2002 with an Honours Commerce degree, minoring in Economics. She then attended Osgoode Hall Law School, graduating in 2005 and was called to the Bar in 2006. Tanya practiced at two Bay Street firms before opening her own downtown law firm. Walker Law employs five full time employees in the area of commercial litigation. Tanya currently serves as a board member of the Osgoode Hall Law School Alumni Association and the Canadian Bar Association Supreme Court of Canada Liaison Committee. She is also on the Gold Key sub-committee of the Osgoode Alumni Association. On August 9, 2016, she was sworn in by the Law Society to be a first black elected female bencher from Toronto in the 220 year history of the Law Society. Benchers who are elected every four years by lawyers, regulate lawyers and paralegals. Tanya has received numerous awards for her contributions to the community and appears regularly on the CTV morning show “Your Morning” as a legal expert.

Saly Halawa completed the Bachelor of Health Sciences Program with a minor in French. With her volunteer time, she served as an emergency first responder, taught first aid, was a Wellness Outreach volunteer with the Student Wellness Centre, and a peer support listener. Earlier this year, she coordinated a national competition for university campus response teams. Saly helped first-year students adjust to university life by serving as a community advisor in McKay Hall and as a leadership developer for the Horizons Leadership Conference. She also worked as the interfaith coordinator for the MSU’s Diversity Services and conducted pedagogical research through McMaster’s Paul R. MacPherson Institute. As the sponsorship coordinator for McMaster Relay for Life, she played a key role in raising more than $74,000 for cancer research.

A first-generation university student, Natacha Ngo just completed her honours degree in Kinesiology. While she has maintained a strong off-campus volunteer agenda including service with St. Joseph’s Healthcare, The Hospital for Sick Children and Canadian Blood Services, Natacha has developed a strong community legacy on campus as well. A two-term elected member of the Student Representative Assembly (SRA) and her program’s caucus leader, she served on the President’s Advisory Committee on Building an Inclusive Community (PACBIC) and on the Race, Racialization and Racism (R3) working group, where she contributed to the creation of and provided feedback on many policies and University-run events. Natacha was also a student reviewer for the Research Ethics Board.

Kornelia Palczewski is entering her first year in the Masters of Child Life and Pediatric Psychosocial Care program, having completed her undergraduate studies in Nursing and French. She was a member of the Student Representative Assembly (SRA), a Nursing Welcome Week representative and a member of the McMaster Undergraduate Nursing Students Society executive. With the McMaster Students Union, Kornelia served as a leadership developer for both the CLAY and Horizons conferences and was on the executive of the Teaching Awards Committee. Kornelia was the president of the Society of Off-Campus Students (SOCS), where she introduced the First Year Committee. She served as the chair of the Mental Health Committee at the Student Health Education Centre and she helped her fellow students in both Humanities and Nursing as a mentor, particularly through the Navy Network Humanities Mentorship Initiative.

Ryan Rogers, who recently graduated from Engineering and Management in Mechanical Engineering, supported his home faculty and fellow Engineering students by serving as a first-year representative, associate vice-president for clubs and sponsors, vice-president external and ultimately, president of the McMaster Engineering Society. He was also a Welcome Week representative and a member of the Welcome Week Committee. In 2014, he received the McMaster Engineering Society’s President’s Award. Ryan has been a five-year member of the Hatch Centre Steering Committee and played a key role in infusing that important project with the students’ perspective. Ryan has also been a research assistant in the Thermal Management Research Laboratory and a teaching assistant for Engineering I.

Jordana Satok has completed her third year of the Bachelor of Health Sciences program. A busy volunteer off campus at Dr. Davey Elementary School, Glenwood Day School and the Beasley Community Centre, Jordy has built a diverse on-campus volunteer resumé as well. She was a Residence Orientation representative who also participated in MacServe service learning experiences in Hamilton and Montréal. She was part of the Student Walk Home Attendant Team (SWHAT) and volunteered with the Student Health Education Centre. She served as a student success leader with the Wellness Outreach Committee and worked as a campus tour guide. Jordy has also been a volunteer in a kinesiology lab where she helped recruit participants for exercise studies and she volunteered with the team at PACE, the McMaster Physical Activity Centre of Excellence, where she helped individuals with Multiple Sclerosis or spinal cord injuries.