Charlene Lewis-Sutherland

As Senior Advisor, Equity and Anti-Racism Teaching and Learning at McGill’s Equity Office, Charlene has brought a very people-oriented dimension to a domain where typically a professor would apply teach- ing techniques from the last century, without really questioning their ways of instructing students. With an incredibly strong depth and familiarity

with relevant academic equity and inclusion literature, Charlene brings a kind of levity and joy to work that can sometimes feel uncomfortable. To encourage change Charlene always provides support from the relevant literature, demonstrating how in-depth preparation was done before her talks, and equipping participants with ample tools, documentation, and readings to further explore.

Working on numerous projects and initiatives, at McGill, Charlene has been an engaged and effective pedagogical innovator. On a current project, Charlene is co-lead of the Faculty of Science Inclusive Teaching Initiative. Beginning in 2022 the goal of this initiative is to support Faculty of Science instructors who are interested in building more inclusive and anti-racist courses and classrooms. This initiative is part of the faculty’s response to McGill’s Action Plan to Address Anti-Black Racism (ABR Plan) and Strategic Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Plan 2020-2025 (EDI Plan). In her role, Charlene has gone above and beyond to provide the group with resources and opportunities to reflect about how to create an equitable classroom space. She brings a clear vision of the inequities the group is working to mitigate and an extensive knowledge of pedagogical methods and practices that are important for inclusion, equity, and anti-racism in the classroom.

Charlene epitomizes an innovator by not only bringing numerous new, actionable ideas to equity, diversity, and inclusion projects, but also by following through and doing the substantial work to bring these ideas into existence so that colleagues and the broader McGill community, especially students, will benefit.