At this year’s Academic Year Welcome on August 26, OCAD University celebrated the recipients of the 2024-25 Teaching Awards, which recognize faculty, instructors and teaching assistants for their outstanding contributions to student learning.
In presenting the awards at her first University-wide event, Vice-President, Academic and Provost Dr. Sandra Gabriele congratulated the recipients for their passion and commitment, and extended a sincere thank you to all of the nominees.
Members of the community can learn more about the recipients at two bring-your-own-lunch panel events being organized by the Centre for Learning and Teaching. Panelists will be in conversation with each other and with moderator, Laura Thrasher, Educational Developer, Teaching Support and Accessible Pedagogies.
They’ll share their unique pedagogical insights and strategies that have made such a significant impact on students. The panels are being held on Thursday, Sept. 18 and Monday, Sept. 22, from 12 to 1 p.m. For more information, please contact CLT@ocadu.ca.
2024-2025 TEACHING AWARD RECIPIENTS
Price Award for Leadership in Teaching: Natalie Waldburger
Image left to right: Natalie Waldburger and Dr. Gabriele.
Natalie Waldburger is an associate professor in the Faculty of Art and is currently serving as the associate dean, Faculty of Art. Waldburger’s pedagogical approaches bring together the arts, sciences and humanities to cultivate interdisciplinary studio art practices and pedagogies.
She is committed to transformative teaching, reflected in her development of the “one-room schoolhouse” model in Life Studies. This co-taught, multi-level classroom challenges traditional hierarchies, supports student agency, and mirrors ecological systems in its cyclical, non-linear structure. In their letters of support, students highlighted how this model fosters mentorship and reciprocal learning across different cohorts within the Life Studies program.
Waldburger was an inaugural Sustainable Futures Faculty Fellow and has served as co-chair of OCAD U’s Sustainability Committee and the Sustainability Community of Practice.
Non-Tenured Award for Leadership in Teaching: Nadine Hare and Jananda Lima (co-recipients)
Image left to right: Jananda Lima and Nadine Hare with Dr. Gabriele.
Faculty of Design Instructors Nadine Hare and Jananda Lima co-teach Innovation Research Methods in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation Master’s program. They approach the classroom as a relational space—one that is transformational, decolonial, vulnerable, caring, passionate, joyful and embodied. In centring relationships over information/theory, their hope is that learning becomes transformational for everyone involved.
Hare has been teaching at OCAD U since 2019 as a design anthropologist whose work focuses on embedding ethnographic methods and decolonial thinking within human-centred design processes, and in doing so, contributes to the design of more caring and equitable futures.
Lima has been teaching at OCAD U since 2021 as a sessional professor in the School of Graduate Studies and the Faculty of Design, and as a consultant researcher at the Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge. Her research in social design involves fieldwork in radically marginalized territories, and as a futures designer, she focuses on reclaiming design for decolonial world making.
Students have praised Hare and Lima for embodying the principles they teach and creating a holistic learning experience that encourages students to reexamine their perspectives and assumptions.
Faculty of Art Teaching Award: Tannis Nielsen and Amy Wong (co-recipients)
Tannis Nielsen
Image left to right: Tannis Nielsen with Dr. Gabriele.
Tannis Nielsen is an Anishnaabe-Red River Métis multidisciplinary artist, academic and assistant professor in the Faculty of Art. Her work explores Indigenous decolonization methodologies, oral histories, feminism and the relative investigations between Indigenous science and quantum physics.
As an educator, Nielsen’s research interests have focused on enacting a variety of decolonial methodologies through the study of Indigenous arts, history, theory, pedagogy and praxis. Her pedagogy speaks both “From, to, and about the Land” and addresses the concerns of political, cultural, spiritual, social and environmental justice.
Nielsen is committed to providing students with guidance on how to embed their own contextual realities, epistemologies and creativity into not only their scholastic texts and artwork, but also politically, into society as a means of also achieving and asserting their own sovereignty.
Students praised Nielsen’s pedagogy for encouraging the embrace of cultural heritage and hybridity in their creative works. She was also the co-chair of the Indigenous Education Council at OCAD U from 2020 to 2024.
Nielsen has served on the Provost’s Task Force on Indigenous Learning and the Curriculum and Innovation Committee, where she advised on how to decolonize and Indigenize pedagogy and curricula within the institution.
Amy Wong
Image left to right: Amy Wong with Dr. Gabriele.
Assistant Professor Amy Wong teaches courses across the Faculty of Art curriculum, including Drawing Across Disciplines, Drawing and Painting Thesis and Issues of Representation. Her teaching philosophy is rooted in empathy, curiosity and a commitment to student-centred, inclusive teaching. In her classroom, she co-creates with students a relational space where transformative learning and imaginative possibility can flourish.
Students noted the open and welcoming critique environment in Wong’s classes, along with the consistent encouragement to reflect deeply and critically on how positionality and family history influence research methods.
Wong is an Angry Asian feminist disguised as an oil painter. Her creative practice ranges from painting-based installation to collaborative projects that explore the politics of making noise and thinking through together. She founded the Angry Asian Feminist Gang, a collective of Diaspora cultural producers dedicated to dialogue centred on Asian feminist concerns.
Faculty of Design Teaching Award: Onah Jung and Nancy Snow (co-recipients).
Onah Jung
Image left to right: Onah Jung with Dr. Gabriele.
Onah Jung is an instructor in the Faculty of Design and the Principal Architect of Studio Jonah. As an architect, designer and educator, Jung strives to advance creative practices in pedagogies, research and professional practice to address many urgent environmental and social challenges in our cities and communities.
In her teaching practice, Jung is committed to sustainability and inclusive pedagogy. She believes that teaching means dismantling the assumption that there is only one way to demonstrate competence, and her approach to teaching centres on creating multiple pathways for student success.
Students expressed appreciation for Jung’s multi-modal and responsive pedagogy, particularly highlighting her support in fostering independent thinking and tackling complex problems.
Nancy Snow
Image left to right: Nancy Snow with Dr. Gabriele.
Associate Professor Nancy Snow chairs the Graphic Design program. Snow has practiced graphic design for over 25 years and has presented her work on design pedagogy, food studies and knowledge exchange at multiple conferences across North America, and in Australia and Europe. In her teaching, Snow is committed to empowering students to take ownership of their learning.
Snow strives to create learning environments in which students are encouraged to take risks and to examine multiple and alternative perspectives. She has made significant contributions to scholarship on design education, focusing especially on multicultural design studio pedagogy and the approach, Writing Across the Curriculum. Her students praised her tireless dedication, insightful mentorship and genuine care that extends beyond the classroom.
Since 2014, Snow has received numerous research grants and has presented at national and international conferences on design education.
Faculty of Arts and Science Teaching Award: Tairone Bastien
Image left to right: Tairone Bastien with Dr. Gabriele.
Assistant Professor Tairone Bastien is an independent curator, writer and educator based in Tkoronto and is working internationally. Bastien teaches undergraduate and graduate courses, which range from first-year Art History, Curatorial Practice and Visual Culture to Criticism and Curatorial Practice Thesis. He views the classroom not as a place of transmission, but of mutual transformation.
Bastien teaches with a critical awareness of the systemic barriers that shape education and is committed to cultivating respectful, equitable and inclusive spaces that prioritize student wellness, foster creativity, and support critical engagement. In their testimonials, students remarked on how Bastien cultivates a nurturing and inclusive classroom space that encourages deep thinking through multiple dimensions.
School of Graduate Studies Teaching Award: Michelle Gay and Dr. Andrew Gayed (co-recipients).
Michelle Gay
Image left to right: Michelle Gay with Dr. Gabriele.
Michelle Gay is an artist, designer and researcher who teaches graduate courses such as Thinking Through Making, Directed Studio and Thesis. Gay’s pedagogy is deeply intertwined with her work as a community organizer and a creative practitioner, and she is committed to reflexive practices as forms of creative, social and civic engagement. In her teaching, she draws on her extensive interdisciplinary background to support graduate students as they shape and articulate their inquiries and methods.
Students highlighted how Gay’s teaching celebrates theoretical and creative experimentation, and how they felt encouraged to challenge themselves with new mediums and methodologies.
She is currently working on a PhD in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University, focusing on artists as urban theorists.
Dr. Andrew Gayed
Image left to right: Dr. Andrew Gayed with Dr. Gabriele.
Dr. Andrew Gayed, an Egyptian-Canadian art historian, is an assistant professor of Art History and Visual Culture with expertise in diasporic art, queer visual culture, Middle Eastern art histories, and global contemporary art. He teaches in both the Faculty of Arts and Science and the School of Graduate Studies, offering courses such as Modern and Contemporary Arab Cultures, Art and Globalization, History of Photography, and Critical Race Art History. Dr. Gayed is deeply committed to mentorship and to centering student experience and students have described his classroom as a space of regeneration, where they were encouraged to consider postcolonial perspectives on received knowledge of Art History.
Teaching Assistant Award: Mehnaz Lamia
Image left to right: Mehnaz Lamia with Dr. Gabriele.
Mehnaz Lamia is a Teaching Assistant in the Creative Writing Program in the Faculty of Arts and Science. A recent OCAD U graduate, Lamia is a migrant poet and storyteller, and a strong advocate for students. In her teaching, she is committed to creating equitable, inclusive and student-centred spaces where diverse narratives can flourish. Students have noted Lamia’s strong classroom leadership and the thoughtful and insightful feedback she provides on their creative work.
School of Continuing Studies Teaching Award: Henry Zhang
Henry Zhang teaches Woodworking Fundamentals and Intermediate Woodworking Studio at the School of Continuing Studies (SCS). He is a Toronto-based designer/maker and a woodworker who graduated from OCAD University in Environmental Design with a minor in Furniture Design.
Zhang is currently a sessional instructor at OCAD University and an architectural designer at Hariri Pontarini Architects in Toronto. He believes that each piece of work he creates should have a story to tell or a message to give and he strives to stay true to his materials and honest in his methods of construction. He perfects each piece with meticulous attention to detail, aiming to create pieces that withstand the test of time.
