Two faculty members honoured for community leadership

A biologist who helps build devices for the disabled and a social work professor who has contributed to a broader understanding of poverty and inequality are this year's winners of University of Victoria Community Leadership Awards.

The two awards salute exemplary leadership in linking UVic and the community for greater public benefit. The awards were presented to Dr. Nigel Livingston and Dr. Marge Reitsma-Street at the Victoria Leadership Awards fundraising luncheon on Jan. 26.

Livingston

Livingston is as comfortable on a platform towering over a stand of second-growth Douglas fir as he is in a ground-level lab scrutinizing the reactions of seedlings to controlled climate conditions. But his research abilities aren't limited to the lab. As founder and director of the University of Victoria Assistive Technology Team (UVATT), Livingston has led an ever-expanding group of faculty, staff and students who are developing customized devices for the disabled.

Created in 1999, UVATT includes more than 40 faculty, staff, graduate and co-op students from a wide range of disciplines, as well as hundreds of undergraduate students. To date, the team has developed more than 25 new technologies, ranging from tricycles for visually impaired children to complex brainwave and eye-tracking communication systems.

UVATT is now so widely known that requests for devices come from across Canada and around the world. It has also established links with such agencies as the Neil Squire Foundation in Vancouver, the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Cambridge University and the Australian National University in Canberra.

"While many wonderful people have contributed hugely to the UVATT initiative, it is Nigel's passion and vision that have enabled it to become what it is today," says Dr. Doug Tolson, vice-president of UVic's Innovation and Development Corporation (IDC). "It's my belief that UVATT, in the not-too-distant future, will become a national showcase example of university-community relations."

Reitsma-Street

As a professor of social policy and social work in the faculty of human and social development, Reitsma-Street is an internationally respected scholar in the areas of poverty, social justice, unpaid work of women and housing.

Reitsma-Street's close ties with the community are evident in her involvement with a multitude of committees and organizations, including the city of Victoria's housing advisory committee, the United Way of Victoria, the Women's Housing Action Team and the Capital Urban Poverty Project. Her social policy expertise is frequently sought by mayors and MPs, boards of directors and front-line practitioners.

Reitsma-Street is also a prolific writer. Over two decades she has published and presented more than 200 papers to academic, professional, policy, political and public audiences in Victoria, Canada, the U.K, and Australia. Her publications on community action research are particularly valued by cooperatives, coalitions and indigenous and women-centred communities.

"Marge is committed to scholarship for practical use," says Mabel Jean Rawlins-Brannan, executive director of the Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria. "Throughout the capital region we have benefited from Marge's leadership. Today, there is a broader understanding of poverty and inequality, and these issues are more firmly on the public and political agenda."

The Victoria Leadership Awards are co-sponsored by the Rotary Club of Victoria-Harbourside, Leadership Victoria and UVic. They honour outstanding citizens who contribute to the community and inspire others. Other 2005 award-winners are: Langford fire chief Bob Beckett and social worker Barbara Smith (Rotary Community Leadership Awards) and businessman Mel Cooper (Leadership Victoria Lifetime Achievement Award).