Alumni awards recognize Mac grads’ tremendous contributions

The McMaster Alumni Awards Ceremony celebrated and recognized McMaster alumni’s outstanding accomplishments and contributions this week.

Here are the honorees of this year’s celebrations:

Alumni Gallery

The Alumni gallery is a photographic and biographical display of some of these alumni who lead interesting lives and make outstanding contributions to society

Kenneth Lancaster | 1984, ’86  

Lancaster, who earned a BSc (Hons) in 1984 and an MBA in 1986, joins siblings Bobbi Lancaster ’72, ’78, ’80 and Ron Lancaster ’75 as Alumni Gallery members.

Now a financial planner with RBC Dominion Securities, Lancaster graduated Mac into a career in accounting. “I took two very unrelated degrees at McMaster,” he says. “What I got out of both degrees was the ability to problem-solve. I think that goes to the fundamental aspects of the teaching philosophy at McMaster. … The ability to apply that educational training I got at McMaster has been awesome for me.”

Lancaster, who is also a dedicated Hamilton-based volunteer,  hopes his new membership in the McMaster Alumni Gallery helps highlight the kind of influence people can have in their communities through volunteer work.

Lisa Mattam | 1997, ’01 

Lisa Mattam graduated from McMaster with degrees from the Faculty of Science and the DeGroote School of Business. She started out hoping to become a doctor, but realized early on that she was not on the right path for her. “The MAC experience, not only navigating the classroom, but meeting other people and exploring other opportunities opening my perspective and really challenging myself, helped me find my path.”

Mattam is a business innovator and entrepreneur who has been named by Profit Magazine as one of the Top Ten Emerging Women Entrepreneurs in Canada and recognized by the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce as Female Entrepreneur of the Year. The Mattam Group is an international consulting firm that equips organizations including Fortune 500 companies with the tools to advance diversity in the workplace.

Mattam also founded Sahajan, an evidence-based natural skincare line she founded. She was named Entrepreneur of the Year by The Atelier. This year, Mattam and her team launched AccelerateHER, an early-stage accelerator for female-founded businesses in Canada.

Ali Orady | 1998 

Orady is part of a McMaster family; his parents and sister are also Mac grads. A 20-year Silicon Valley veteran, engineer and entrepreneur, Orady says two things served him very well in his career: The first was a very strong technical foundation.

“The second one was all the things I also learned outside of class. … The leadership skills I learned, the planning skills, the way to run meetings with lots of stakeholders, all that stuff also served me very well in the workplace.”

Orady began his career in technology as a hardware engineer at Hewlett-Packard’s Computer Systems Laboratory before moving into technical leadership roles at a series of startup companies. He tested his own entrepreneurial skills for the first time when he founded Pano Logic where he served as the company’s chief technology officer.

More recently, Orady built the in-home smart gym company Tonal, which grew rapidly during the pandemic and has established relationships with superstar athlete-entrepreneurs like Serena Williams, Lebron James and Steph Curry.

James Tomarken | 1975

For Tomarken, who earned his MD at McMaster, his time as a student “was really one of those rare experiences where you felt the school was sort of in your corner and helping in your development.”

Tomarken’s induction into the gallery recognizes his  diverse career built over nearly five decades. He has also earned a Master of Social Welfare, Master of Business Administration, Master of Public Health as well as fellowships with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the New York Academy of Medicine, and the American College of Physicians.

Tomarken has served as the senior fellow for international healthcare management and the hospital and outpatient administrator for the William J. Clinton Foundation/Yale University partnership working to rebuild the healthcare system in Liberia. From 2010 to 2020, he was commissioner of health for Suffolk County, New York, where he was responsible for 1.6 million residents and nine divisions ranging from environmental protection to emergency medical services. In March 2020, he returned to his former department as director of public health to support Suffolk County during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tomarken has been a member of advisory boards with organizations including the Barbara H. Hagan School of Nursing and the Hofstra University Master of Public Health Program and was elected to the Delta Omega Public Health Honorary Society as well as performing volunteer medical work in American Samoa and Jamaica. He also established the Pearl and Barnet Tomarken Excellence Fund for medical research at McMaster.

Bruce Stock | 1960

Stock joined the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry soon after graduating and went on to become the first PPCLI officer to be a vice-regal aide-de-camp, serving from 1964 to 1966 with Governor General Georges Vanier. One of the highlights of that role was attending the February 15, 1965 inauguration of the new Canadian flag on Parliament Hill.

A prolific writer who penned Sleeping at Rideau Hall: Memoirs of an Aide-de-Camp, Stock moved into corporate communications and media relations after leaving military service in 1968. Twenty one years later, he joined the Reserves as a public affairs officer to help tell the story of reservist peacekeepers working on overseas United Nations missions, specifically in Bosnia. After that, he was a media relations officer for Emergency Measures Ontario, notably playing a key role in the Provincial Operations Centre during the ice storm of 1998.

He subsequently received the Provincial Government’s Amethyst Award in recognition of his contributions as a public servant. In 2010, he was inducted into the College of Fellows of the Canadian Public Relations Society and in 2014, received a Special Edition Regimental Commendation from the Princess Patricia’s honouring his work with the regiment’s centennial celebrations.

Farzana Doctor | 1990

Doctor’s experience as an Arts & Science student at McMaster continues to shape her work as an author, advocate, social worker and therapist more than three decades after she graduated.

Doctor’s academic experience at Mac helped her develop skills like critical thinking, while she says her extracurricular activities were bringing ideas to life and providing a proving ground for her abilities. “I was also introduced to the idea of think globally, act locally,” she recalls. “The best lesson that I learned was how to be an activist, how to be a citizen in this world who takes action around important issues.”

A registered social worker who has helped homeless youth and worked with addiction programs, Doctor has a private psychotherapy practice and is an active community volunteer and advocate. She coordinated a reading series in Toronto’s Brockton Village neighbourhood and coproduced Rewriting The Script: A Loveletter to Our Families, a documentary about the family relationships of LGBT people in Toronto’s South Asian communities.

She volunteers with WeSpeakOut, a group working to ban female genital cutting in her Dawoodi Bohra community, and also writes Dear Maasi, a sex and relationships column for FGM/C survivors.

Doctor’s writing uses storytelling to explore social justice issues. She has published four novels and her work has won a Lambda Literary Award, the One Book, One Brampton award, been named a National Post Best Book of the Year and been shortlisted for the Trillium and Evergreen Awards.

Doctor was named one of the 100 Writers in Canada You Need to Know by CBC Books.

Roy Lewis | 1981

As an art student, Lewis visited the McMaster Museum of Art and saw the work of Käthe Kollwitz, the legendary German printmaker. “It took my breath away. That was my favourite memory from McMaster University.”

Lewis has been a long-time member of the Stratford Festival Acting Company, where he earned the Stratford Festival Award. He has played iconic roles including Claudius in Hamlet, the Stage Manager in Our Town and Prospero in The Tempest, while also directing 10 plays professionally. He has more than three dozen screen credits, including appearances in the Chris Farley film Tommy Boy and landmark Canadian television shows including Murdoch Mysteries, Slings and Arrows and Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Lewis has taught acting and Elizabethan texts at universities and is a founding member of Shakespeare in the Rough and the Obsidian Theatre, an independent theatre company that champions culturally diverse voices and artists of colour while working with many of Canada’s most prominent theatre organizations including Mirvish Productions, The Shaw Festival and The Canadian Stage Company.

He is also the author of the prose-and-poetry book With You The Moments of My Life Are Fading which he adapted into a live performance called Moments With You.

Arch Award

The Arch Award recognizes recent McMaster graduates for their unique and interesting contributions to society, their local community, and to the university.

Julia Hanes ’17 | Faculty of Health Sciences

Hanes is a founding member of the Canadian Association of Physicians with Disabilities Trainee Group and her research related to issues such as stereotypes of cerebral palsy and the pandemic’s impact on youth with physical disabilities has appeared in journals including Child: Care, Health and Development and Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology.

Hanes is a decorated athlete who has earned medals in seated shot put, discus and javelin at events such as the Canada Games, Canadian National Athletics Championships and the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association World Games. She has also been a coach and organizer in para ice hockey and is a mentor with Girls Enabled and Ready to Play (GEAR).

Salma Hindy ’15 | Faculty of Engineering

Hindy discovered her love for standup comedy while completing her BEng in electrical and biomedical engineering at Mac. Here, she met Hassan Minaj and opened for Ken Jeong. Jeong, who was a physician before becoming a comedian, was an inspiration to the aspiring engineer and comedian.

Hindy has performed at comedy festivals including Just For Laughs New Faces, SF Sketchfest, the Chicago Women Funny Fest and the Arab-American New York Comedy Festival. She has opened for Chelsea Handler, earned second place in the Toronto Comedy Brawl and been featured on CBC’s Laugh Out Loud and Comedy Night with Rick Mercer as well as CTV’s Stand Up with Jon Dore and Roast Battle Canada.

Hindy will be voicing one of the main characters for an upcoming Amazon animated series created by Ramy Youssef.

Arati Sharma ’07 | Faculty of Social Sciences

After graduating with a Social Sciences degree, Sharma began her career as national director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations before joining Jet Cooper Ltd., a user experience and design agency. Then she became one of Shopify’s earliest hires, eventually serving as Director of Product Marketing.

Sharma is now an angel investor and entrepreneur, most recently named Canada’s 2021 Angel of the Year by the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO). On the investing side, Arati co-founded Backbone Angels, a collective of women angel investors that emphasizes providing support to start-ups led by people from under-represented communities.

Sharma also co-founded Ghlee, a skincare company that develops its products based on the traditional South Asian ingredient ghee.

Marla Sharp ’14, ’16 | Faculty of Humanities

Sharp, a two-time Mac grad, started her undergraduate education in neuroscience. “I had it all figured out, until a friend suggested that I try a philosophy class, particularly one about ethics as it would be relevant for an incoming med student,” Sharp recalls. Next thing she knew, she was hooked: Sharp switched to philosophy and combined her original interest in medicine with her newly found passion for practical ethics.

Sharp was the Research and Quality Manager for the NYU Langone Health Department of Surgery before transitioning to the Hospital for Special Surgery as Assistant Director of Research in the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care & Pain Management. She was promoted to Director earlier in 2022 and has led many regulatory compliance and quality improvement initiatives in the field of human subject’s research.

She was the inaugural Vice-President of Mission for Mental Health, an organization that offers community education programs about mental health awareness, policy, and stigma reduction. She was also part of the team that developed The Blu Matter Project, a Canadian not-for-profit organization that supports young adults coping with mental health concerns through yoga and mindfulness programs informed by neuroplasticity research.

Impact award

These awards recognize three outstanding and impactful kinds of contributions: Here in Hamilton, in other communities, and on a global scale.

Zobia Jawed ’05, ’17 | Hamilton

Jawed, an assistant professor with the Faculty of Engineering, is research lead for the faculty’s Office of Research and External Relations.

Recently, issues like climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic have put Jawed’s work in water/wastewater systems in the spotlight. She is, for example, a co-principal investigator for a landmark COVID-19 biomarker research project involving wastewater testing. Her work pushes for a novel view of wastewater systems where they become resources, not infrastructure liabilities.

Jawed, who received the Order of Hamilton and the YWCA Women of Distinction Award in recent years, is also a dedicated community volunteer. She is a member of the board of directors for the Healthy Youth Network in Hamilton, the only appointed female member of the board of the Pakistani Business Association Hamilton, a director of Conservation Halton and a member of Metroland’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee.

Gerald Mak ’17 | Community impact

Mak earned a Master’s degree in communication management from McMaster and built a successful career in financial services and with the Ontario Public Service, but community service is truly at the heart of his public life. “Any time you have the opportunity to give back, whether that is financially, whether that is time, you should always pay forward and I think that’s probably what I would want to be remembered for – being able to serve the community in the best light and ability that I could.”

A recent recipient of the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship, Gerald is a member of the executive committee of the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, a committee member with Hospice Toronto and a lead advisor for Junior Achievement Ontario. He has held significant volunteer roles with the Catherine Donnelly Foundation, the Sinai Health System’s Senior Pen Pal Project, the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Toronto, and significant fundraising roles with Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care and United Way Greater Toronto. He is a member of the advisory boards of Box4U, a wellness initiative for secondary students, and Generating Joy, a student-led initiative working with isolated seniors.

He has also been a Toronto Police Service volunteer for over 15 years, and earned the John Herra Volunteer of the Year Award for roles that include being co-chair of the Race-Based Data Collection Strategy Advisory Panel, executive director of the Community Policing Liaison Committee, chair of the Student Leadership Awards and chair of the Chief’s Youth Advisory Committee.

Gretchen Roedde ’77 |  Global Impact

Roedde has spent more than four decades as a physician in underserved communities and working in reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health, as well as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in more than 40 countries from Bhutan to Sudan. A self-described “small-town family doctor” who has established and run clinics in multiple communities in Northern Ontario, Roedde authored A Doctor’s Quest: The Struggle for Mother and Child Health Around the Globe and Deep Water Dream about northern rural and Indigenous health in Canada.

Albert Lager prize

The Albert Lager Prize for Student Initiative recognizes current students who provide outstanding support, leadership and community involvement/service to their faculty, their program or the university.

This year’s winners are

Angel Cai | Faculty of Engineering

Andrea Jacob | Faculty of Health Sciences

Kian Yousefi Kousha | Faculty of Science

Maheen Raja | Faculty of Science

Nicholas Socholotiuk | Faculty of Humanities