Timmons wins 2013 Saskatchewan Red Cross Humanitarian Award
And she usually looks more pleased than this
Award given out for working to improve the lives of others through education.
Article: Rikkeal Bohmann – News Writer
Vianne Timmons, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Regina has been awarded the prestigious 2013 Saskatchewan Red Cross Humanitarian Award for her continual and dedicated work to improve the lives of others through education.
Timmons has spent her life promoting family literacy and inclusive education for persons with intellectual disabilities. She has done close to 200 public lectures on these topics.
Boasting an impressive resume of literacy work, Timmons is the President of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Vice-President of the Canada-Region for the Inter-American Organization for Higher Education and a member of the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Having authored and edited 9 books, written more than a dozen book chapters and authored more than 40 peer reviewed articles about her research, Timmons has a lot of experience in the literacy department. In 2010, she also received the Canadian Association for Community Living’s National Inclusive Education Award.
She was one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women from 2008-2011. In 2009, she was named one of Saskatchewan’s 10 Most Influential Women.
Ironically, the University of Regina’s English Department will be facing cut backs due to budgetary reasons this year. During the University Council Meeting last spring, it was noted by Susan Johnson, associate professor of English, that last year, the English department received funding to hire 25 sessional teachers. This year they were only given enough to budget in for 5. This means that English majors could have fewer classes to choose from to study. Also, Nicholas Ruddick, the Head of the English Department, sent in a document stating that these cuts would mean that English 100, a class that all students have to take, to learn basic literacy skills, will have to be reduced by 50 per cent. English 100 classes could become unmanageably large. The U of R’s Facebook page boasts about students being able to experience small classes on the page’s description, which is a selling point for many coming to the university.
“My life’s work is about trying to have an impact on changing policies, processes [and] practices for people who are marginalized,” Timmons told the Leader Post about her work. Timmons will receive the award Sept. 12 at a gala at the Ramada Inn.
This is the fifth year the Saskatchewan Red Cross has given out the award.
