Presenting King's Top News Stories of 2022

Over the course of 2022, the King’s community, including our students, faculty and staff, all worked together to make this a vibrant campus, full of activities and accomplishments.  King’s welcomed new leaders, celebrated our community’s achievements and even sent our students across the world for the first time since the pandemic began. Please join us as we celebrate 2022 by highlighting some of the top news stories shared on our website.

We celebrated our students and alumni.

• King's alumna publishes a best-selling novel
  • Heather Marshall, BA '10, best-selling author of Looking for Jane, credits King’s professors for encouraging her “to tackle important but difficult topics” in her writing. - March 17, 2022
• Congratulations to the Class of 2022
  • The 551 members of King’s Class of 2022 became part of the King’s Alumni family during the Spring 2022 Convocation. - June 24, 2022
• 2021-2022 Board of Directors' gold medal award winners
  • King's celebrated academic excellence by bestowing the 2021-2022 Board of Directors’ Gold Medal Awards on 13 deserving graduates of the Class of 2022.
• SAFE Program, staffed by Social Work students, increases services to support family and students
  • The SAFE program, supporting families and students and staffed by King’s Social Work students, expanded to include both the Thames Valley District School Board and the London District Catholic School Board. - September 20, 2022
• Ron Robert, a graduating student with Alzheimer's, expressed his thanks for support.
  • Ron Robert, who came to King’s in 2018 as part of his strategy to fight the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, graduated during the Fall Convocation. - October 18, 2022
• Recognizing students' academic achievements and donors’ generosity
  • The Student Awards Ceremony celebrated the accomplishments of our student scholars and the generosity of donors who support the awards at King's. Our generous donors allowed King's to award over $300,000 in scholarships and bursaries, impacting over 200 students, this year. - November 21, 2022

We honoured our student-athletes.

• Flashback: Alumna Sara Villani now Olympian
  • Sara Villani, BA ’19 (Psychology and Thanatology) represented Canada in the 2022 Beijing Olympics in the bobsleigh event. - February 2, 2022
• King's student-athletes honoured at Mustangs Awards
  • Deionte Knight, Mustangs Male Athlete of the Year, was one of several King’s student-athletes recognized as part of the 81st Mustangs Awards. - April 6, 2022
• 56 King’s student-athletes recognized as USports Academic All-Canadians for excellence on the field and in the classroom
  • King’s student-athletes honoured as Academic All-Canadians for 2020-2021 - February 10, 2022
  • Recognizing excellence on the field and in the classroom - December 1, 2022

Experiential learning courses travel the world – first time since the pandemic began.

• Juno Beach Centre awards Fellowship to King's History students
  • King's History students were awarded the prestigious Juno Beach Centre Fellowship and received $5000 for their research work. The students traveled to the Juno Beach Centre in France to see their work on display. In November, King’s had a satellite exhibit on display.- February 22, 2022
• SJSP students return to global peace centre in Europe to study world conflicts
  • SJPS students returned to the Rondine Centre for Peace in Arezzo, Italy, to discuss border conflicts and migration issues with their peers from around the world to further enrich their understanding of topics studied in the classroom. - July 12, 2022
• King's students explore global governance in Ghana
  • Political Science students in the experiential learning POL3408F: Ghana Field Course covered over 1,000 km in the West African country in eight days during their bottom-up exploration of the cocoa supply chain and related global governance issues. - November 12, 2022

We applauded the work of our faculty.

• The recipients of the Research Excellence Fund were named
  • The King’s Research Activities Committee, after a peer-review process, selected recipients for the inaugural King’s Research Excellence Fund Program, valued at $1M. - March 29, 2022
• Celebrating three years of research excellence
  • King’s faculty members were honoured for their research as part of the Faculty Research Celebration. - April 29, 2022
• Faculty recognized for their excellence in teaching
  1. Dr. Sam Frankel was honoured for full-time faculty and Dr. Oleksa Drachewych was recognized for part-time faculty as recipients of the 2022 King's Awards of Excellence in Teaching. - May 19, 2022
• Faculty Publications celebrated
  • King's was thrilled to celebrate the academic excellence of 70 faculty members for their work on more than 300 publications and 18 books from 2019 to June 30, 2022. - November 10, 2022

Vibrant campus with programming, guests and upgrades.

• Student Affairs programming empowers students to BE, BECOME and BELONG
  • King’s Student Affairs team developed programming and resources to be responsive to the needs of all students. - August 16, 2022
• King’s welcomed Chief Cadmus Delorme
  • This year’s Veritas Series opened on September 15, 2022, with Chief Delorme presenting on “Truth and Reconciliation: What We Inherited, and Actions We All Must Take.” - September 1, 2022
• King's Library celebrated the opening of The Elizabeth Russell Achievement Centre.
  • The grand opening of The Elizabeth Russell Achievement Centre took place on November 25, 2022. Enhancements were made possible due to a $1 million donation from the estate of Elizabeth Russell, one of the largest individual gifts in King’s history. - November 16, 2022

King’s attracts impressive new leaders.

• King's joined Brescia and Huron to hire Indigenous Initiatives Coordinator
  • King's, Brescia and Huron University Colleges welcomed Sean Hoogterp in a new role as Indigenous Initiatives Coordinator. As a status band member of Walpole Island First Nation, Bkejwanong Territory, Hoogterp is working across the three campuses. - March 2, 2022
• Dr. Robert Ventresca appointed interim Academic Dean
  •  Dr. Robert Ventresca was appointed the interim Academic Dean effective May 1, 2022 for a two-year term. Dr. Ventresca started his post-secondary career right here at King’s as an undergraduate student in 1989. Since then he has achieved teaching and research excellence with numerous publications.- March 14, 2022
• Dr. Yenson appointed Associate Academic Dean
  • Dr. Mark Yenson, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, was appointed Associate Academic Dean, effective June 15, 2022. Dr, Yenson is a widely respected colleague who combines intellectual rigour with an inclusive and empathetic approach to leadership. - June 7, 2022
• Welcome Father Peter Amszej
  • Father Peter Amszej joined the King’s Campus Ministry as our Priest/Chaplain in July and was installed during the Feast of Christ the King on November 20. - July 11, 2022
• King's welcomed new HR Director
  • Karen Gingrich, CHRL, is our new Director of Human Resources after being the Associate Director of Human Resources at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry since 2019.- August 30, 2022
• King's welcomed new Director of Information Technology Services
  • Dominique Perreault is our new Director of Information Technology Services (ITS) bringing over twenty years of experience, most recently as the Manager of Information Security at Western since 2019. - October 20, 2022
• King's added Director of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization to leadership team
  • King’s is pleased to welcome Jennifer Slay, ’99, back to King’s as our new Director of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization (EDID). - November 10, 2022

As we move towards 2023, we anticipate that there will be more accomplishments to celebrate and more events to be excited about. News stories (including those from external sources) and media releases can be found on our website. As always, if you have an interesting story to share with the King’s community reach out to the Communications and Media Relations department for consideration.