Two innovators to receive honorary degrees

Two honorary degree recipients will address the 2011 University of Guelph-Humber convocation, a group of close to 700 graduates and their parents, siblings, friends.

Charles Pascal will be recognized during the first ceremony for graduates from Early Childhood, Family & Community Social Services, Justice Studies and Justice Studies – BAA programs. He’ll speak to that assembly and, during the second ceremony, to an audience of Business graduates.

For more than 40 years, Dr. Pascal has devoted himself to teaching, research and advising leading in the areas of psychology and education.

He has distinguished himself through original, innovative work. In Montreal, where he was a faculty member of McGill University's psychology department, Dr. Pascal founded The Centre for Learning and Development and the McGill Community Family Centre. A full-service child-care centre, it was the first of its kind among Canadian universities.

Later, he held a joint position with the University of Toronto, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) and the Council of Ontario Universities Program for Instructional Development. Dr. Pascal was president of Sir Sandford Fleming College of Applied Arts and Technology and, several times, occupied the office of deputy minister in the Ontario government.

Dr. Pascal continues to advise Ontario’s premier, to teach at OISE/University of Toronto and coach the university’s baseball team.

Similarly, Dr. Arya Sharma is a founder, an innovator.

In 2002, he came from Humboldt University in Berlin for a Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Obesity and Management at McMaster University. He led the launch of the Canadian Obesity Network. With more than 5000 members, it has transformed obesity research and management in Canada.

Five years later, in 2007, Dr. Sharma went west to the University of Alberta. He’s professor and chair of Obesity Research and Management. He’s also the Medical Director of the Edmonton Regional Bariatric Program.

Dr. Sharma will address Kinesiology, Media Studies and Psychology graduates during the third and final ceremony.

He researches and publishes extensively, including the posting of ideas and discussions on obesity prevention and management to his blog, drsharma.com. Dr. Sharma regularly appears as a medical expert on CBC, CTV and MSNBC, as well as in the pages of The New York Times, to name a few.