Reflecting Back and Looking Forward: Engineering Culture and the Future of the Profession
The culture of engineering is a complex interplay among the people in engineering, the institutions that train them, and the societies they serve. The engineering profession plays a critical role in society; hundreds of thousands of engineers across the country create things that will forever change the way we interact with the world around us. But at the same time, the engineering profession has long been, and continues to be, male-dominated and often faces accusations of elitism and callousness. Not everyone feels welcome in engineering. We need to shift the culture of the engineering profession.
Join us on March 1 as we kick off National Engineering Month 2023 with a panel discussion about the culture of engineering. The panellists will discuss the culture shift that is taking place within the profession, from the calls for changes to the Iron Ring Ceremony, efforts to diversify and attract more women to the profession, to issues related to environmental justice and reconciliation.
Engineers, EITs, engineering students, engineering employers—don’t miss this important conversation about the future of your profession.
When: Wednesday, March 1, 2023; 12-1:30 pm ET
Where: Zoom (register here)
Moderator: Adrian Harewood, MA, Associate Professor, Journalism & Communications, Carleton University, Former CBC TV & Radio host
Panellists:
- John Gamble, P.Eng., CEO and President, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies - Canada
- Randy Herrmann, FCAE, FEC, P.Eng., Director of the Engineering Access Program (ENGAP), University of Manitoba
- Griffin Murdoch, President, Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES)
- Jeanette Southwood, FCAE, FEC, LL.D. (honoris causa), P.Eng., Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Strategic Partnerships, Engineers Canada
- Kari Zacharias, PhD, EIT, Assistant Professor, Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education, University of Manitoba; Co-facilitator, Retool the Ring
Engineers Canada is a proud member of Canadian Coalition for Women in Engineering, Science, Trades, and Technology (CCWESTT). This year’s National Engineering Month kick-off event is part of CCWESTT’s 30th anniversary series, celebrating 30 years of collective impact.
About the moderator
Adrian Harewood, MA, has been a journalist for over a quarter century. He was the host of CBC Ottawa’s drive home radio show All in a Day for 3 years, and then the anchor of CBC Ottawa News at Six for 13 years. In 2017 he was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Interviewer, and in 2020 he won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Local Anchor. Adrian has been the guest host of national programs on radio and television including The Current, As It Happens, Sounds Like Canada and The House, Counterspin, Hot Type and Power & Politics.
He has interviewed people like Salman Rushdie, Angela Davis, Bill Clinton, Alanis Obomsawin, Branford Marsalis, Naomi Klein, and Ken Dryden to name just a few and his writing has appeared in publications such as The Globe and Mail.
Currently, Adrian teaches the Video Journalism course and the fourth-year course “Journalism Now and Next” at Carleton University where he created the Journalism School’s first-ever course focused on race, a graduate seminar called Journalism, Race and Diversity. He also created the first course in Canada devoted to the study of the History of Black Canadian Journalism. He is a board member of Journalists for Human Rights.
About the panellists
John Gamble, P.Eng., is recognized nationally and internationally as an expert and spokesperson on engineering, business, and public policy. His success is built upon combined experience in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. Before joining the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies-Canada (ACEC) as president and CEO, he held management and executive positions in a number of professional and industry associations. Prior to that, John served as a senior advisor to cabinet ministers in the Ontario provincial government. In 2006, he became the first recipient of the ACEC Chair's Award for his “exceptional contribution to the consulting engineering industry.” In 2019 he was recognized for his contribution to engineering excellence by the Queen's University Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science as part of its 125th anniversary.
Randy Herrmann, FCAE, FEC, P.Eng., is the Director of the Engineering Access Program (ENGAP) at the University of Manitoba. ENGAP is a support program designed to assist First Nation, Metis and Inuit students seeking an engineering degree. Before taking on his current role, he worked as a geotechnical engineer and a project manager for 10 years. Over the years Randy’s work with Canadian Indigenous communities and within the engineering field has shown him the lack of engineers of First Nation, Metis, and Inuit ancestry and the obstacles faced by these students to obtain a degree. His desire to help change these factors and make it easier for Indigenous students to pursue an engineering degree led him to become Director of ENGAP, a position he has held since 1998. Randy is a member of the Manitoba Metis community.
A soon-to-be graduate from Toronto Metropolitan University in Industrial Engineering, Griffin Murdoch has spent his time at TMU working with students to improve engineering education for students through all levels of leadership from Industrial Director with the TMU Engineering society to the Vice President Finance and Administration of the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES). He now serves as the President of the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES) and is leading the organization through its return to in person events and the expansion of multiple executive portfolios. With graduation on the horizon, Griffin eagerly anticipates his entry into the wider engineering community in May.
Jeanette Southwood, FCAE, FEC, LL.D. (honoris causa), P.Eng., an award-winning engineer and leader, is Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Strategic Partnerships at Engineers Canada. Before joining Engineers Canada, she led the Canadian Urban Development and Infrastructure Sector and the Global Sustainable Cities teams at an international consulting firm where she was the first Black woman to be appointed to the senior leadership position of Principal globally. A dedicated leader also in her volunteer work, she is a recipient of the Governor General’s Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers. Jeanette is a member of the TD Insurance Advisory Board on Climate Change. She was honoured as one of Canada’s Clean50 for her work and dedication to sustainable development, leading change, championing innovation, and changing our world for the better, and has been recognized among the WXN Top 100.
Kari Zacharias, PhD, EIT, is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education at the University of Manitoba. Her research examines engineering cultures and epistemologies, and she is particularly interested in the relationships between engineering ways of knowing and other ways of understanding the world. She has been a member and co-facilitator of the Retool the Ring group since the group formed in the summer of 2022. Kari holds a BASc in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto, an MA in Science and Technology Studies from the University of Vienna, and a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Tech. She is currently an EIT with Engineers and Geoscientists Manitoba.
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