Cambrian College celebrated its retirees and honoured employees who have provided exemplary service as part of the presentation of the President’s Awards for Excellence.
College President Bill Best says every year Rendez-vous is held as an annual event to honour employees with the awards, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the presentations were held virtually.
He congratulated all the retirees who have provided years of service to the college, as well as acknowledged the exemplary service of two individuals: Marnie StaffeN in the faculty category and Courtney Rivard in the support staff category as well as presenting the team award to the Applied Research Department.
Faculty category: Marnie Staffen
Marnie Staffen is the coordinator and a professor in the General Business and
Business Administration programs at Cambrian College This past year, Marnie was
head coach for Team Cambrian, which brought home a bronze medal at the Ontario
Colleges Marketing Competition. She was also co-creator of Cambrian’s inaugural
Math Competition for high school students, and was active in Cambrian’s Innovation
Challenge, encouraging students to pursue entrepreneurship.
Support Staff category: Courtney Rivard
Courtney Rivard hails from Blind River. She is the Special Events Administrative Assistant in the Office of
Student Success and Recruitment. Courtney is a leader in the planning and
implementation of numerous marquis events at Cambrian College every year,
including Spring and Fall Open House, Ontario College Information Fair, Orientation
Week, and Residence Move-in Weekend. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced
the shutdown of on-campus events, Courtney took a lead role in ensuring recruitment
and student success events were successfully transitioned to online delivery.
Team category: Cambrian R&D (Applied Research)
The Cambrian R&D team has had one of its most successful years ever. For
the eighth year in a row, Cambrian R&D made the list of Canada’s top 50 research
colleges in the country, reaching the top 10 for the number of paid student
researchers and the amount of research dollars generated per researcher.
This past year, Cambrian R&D’s Centre for Smart Mining also received a national
designation as a Technology Access Centre from the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council of Canada. Cambrian R&D also launched its first-ever
Applied Research Day, and grew the number of research projects with community
partners.