“I have seen extraordinary developments in graduate education.”

I became interested in academic administration when I was asked to be Associate Dean very early in my academic career. I have always loved to be in the classroom and also really enjoyed the research I was able to pursue, and I think it was probably my enthusiasm for the twin missions of teaching and research that led me to administration. Since being an administrator, I have felt very fortunate to have had the opportunity to try to improve on what was already such a wonderful institution.

I came to U of T as a doctoral student in 1992 and began my teaching career here a few years later. I have seen extraordinary developments in graduate education in that period. These include the increasing diversity of graduate students along a number of dimensions. They are more diverse in terms of age, background, and experience. They increasingly hail from all over the world, and more and more of them are looking to graduate education for professional rather than purely academic reasons. As professionals, they see graduate education as part of a continuum of lifelong learning, and that makes for very interesting classroom experiences. We recently developed our Global Professional Master of Laws (GPLLM) program in response to this, and the results have been terrific.

I feel lucky every day to do the job that I do. I am able to pursue my intellectual interests through teaching, research, policy work, and program development. I have the privilege of interacting with wonderful students and faculty, colleagues all over the University, alumni who are doing amazing work all over the world, and policy makers and opinion leaders who make a very real difference to the world we live in.

I am also in the fortunate position of being able to lead change in fields that matter, from developing cutting-edge programs such as the Women in Transition and Internationally Trained Lawyers Program, to a wide array of curricular innovations at the Faculty of Law, to improvements in student experience and faculty research. I know that I occupy a position of incredible privilege and I try to use it well — and enjoy doing so!