Classes

Before retiring, James was an elementary school principal and a vice-principal of adult and continuing education with the York Catholic District School Board. In 2009, he co-authored the CARS Education Beginner Driver Education Curriculum, a Ministry of Transportation-approved driver’s education course used in over 110 driving schools across Ontario. Married to Arlene Mably (BA ’75), James is a father of three successful, hard-working daughters and a proud grandfather to three grandchildren. Hawaii is a favourite travel destination.

André is currently a senior partner at Lapointe Rosenstein Marchand Melançon in Montreal – one of the leading independent law firms in Quebec, specializing in banking, construction law and commercial litigation. André practices in civil litigation, collection matters, bankruptcy/insolvency and restructuring, real estate law and construction law.

Lilie is the newly minted (and first) executive director of the Shoe Project, a unique national initiative incubated at the Bata Shoe Museum by Canadian author Katherine Govier in 2011. Since its founding seven years ago, the Shoe Project has organized writing and performance workshops where immigrant women tell the stories of their arrival in Canada – through a pair of shoes. They are coached by veteran Canadian writers and theatre professionals. Says Lilie, “Shoes accompany us on all our journeys. They say who we are, where we came from and where we are going. Writing shoe memoirs gives participants a voice and helps them to be heard in the Canadian mainstream.”

After nearly 15 years in Boston, Perry returned to Toronto in 2011 and shortly after created Toronto Condo News, where he continues to serve as publisher. Toronto Condo News is now a widely read magazine on condo living and management in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area, reaching an estimated 1,000 buildings.

Eric recently started his own PR firm after being the director of media relations and label relations for eOne Music Canada for the past 18 years. He is the host of “That Eric Alper’s Show,” heard several times a week on SiriusXM. He is the go-to guy for music news with all the networks, and has been named to Billboard Magazine, Paste Magazine and the National Post’s “best on social media” lists. He has over a million followers on social media, a place his wife is so thankful for. Past and current clients include Bob Geldof, Judy Collins, Sue Foley, Randy Bachman, the Cult, Merle Haggard, John Prine, Ringo Starr, Slash, the Wiggles, Bush, Steve Earle, Snoop Dogg, the Smashing Pumpkins, Ray Charles, Little Steven, Sinéad O’Connor and Sesame Street, among hundreds of others over his 20 years in the music industry.

Frank is a self-described serial entrepreneur and founder of the Wish Group, a multi-award-winning Canadian business incubator headquartered in Mississauga, Ont. The recipient of numerous awards, including Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 and York University’s prestigious Bryden Alumni Award, Frank has been on the Dean’s Advisory Board of York University since 2007 and is active in promoting business education at the university level through workshops and seminars.

After almost 20 years working in the floral industry, Denis earned a PhD in art history from Concordia in 2009 and soon after moved to St. John’s to work at The Rooms art gallery as manager of exhibitions and publications. He returned to Ontario to become artistic director and chief curator at the Art Gallery of Burlington in 2013. He has since curated over 45 exhibitions, including Naked Craft, which toured in Canada and Scotland from 2016-17. This summer, Denis began his new role as executive director at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ont.

Danyah currently works at York University, assisting students, staff and faculty as the client service and program support representative in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies. When not on the job at York, she is also a competitive masters CrossFit athlete and coach at All In One CrossFit in Toronto and is currently ranked in the 95th ­percentile worldwide. She coaches others and trains herself for the CrossFit Open – a worldwide competition – as well as for several local competitions.

Since graduating from York University, Wendy has continued to pursue a career in the arts using various ­mediums: large-scale oil and acrylic paintings, drawings, mixed media, watercolour, gouache, collage, ­sculpture, printmaking, illustration and multimedia. In 2017, she exhibited her acrylic paintings at the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto’s Canada 150 Art and Heritage Connection Exhibition and the Peoples Church Mully Children’s Family Canada Fundraiser. A hard-of-hearing artist with an Advanced Bionics cochlear implant in her right ear, Wendy had her nine framed artworks recently displayed at the Workman Arts 17th Annual Being Scene Exhibition at the Gladstone Hotel.

After graduating, Michelle pursued a graduate certificate in alternative dispute resolution, mediation and negotiation from York. She worked at a boutique law firm for a number of years before moving to Florida to attend law school with the long-term objective of owning her own firm. Michelle has since appeared in an episode of a popular financial reality television show on Slice and has worked as a freelance writer for many media outlets, including the Toronto Star and the Markham and Stouffville Review newspapers.

As part of the Days for Girls Canada campaign, a global non-profit with a goal of destigmatizing menstruation and equipping every woman and girl with ready access to feminine hygiene products within the next five years, Alysha and her team recently created and distributed 150 reusable feminine hygiene packages to rescue homes, slums and schools in India for girls aged 11 to 18. Their efforts were featured on CBC as well as in the Waterloo Chronicle and the Waterloo Region Record. Alysha is also a teacher and a board member on a program called Peace by PEACE, which is a conflict resolution and community-building program for students in and around the Greater Toronto Area.

Lynn recently published the fourth edition of Canadian Immigration and Refugee Law for Legal Professionals (Edmond Publishing, 2018), which presents the complexities of the principles and processes of immigration, refugee and citizenship law in an approachable, user-friendly format. Lynn completed the first edition of the textbook while enrolled at York University. The book is now widely used throughout Canadian colleges and universities, and by students preparing to write the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council Full Skills Exam. In 2016, the textbook served as the foundation for a professional edition – Canadian Immigration and Refugee Law: A Practitioner’s Handbook.

After graduating from York University with a degree in human rights and equity studies and thinking to pursue a career as a criminal defence Crown attorney, Jeyramesh took a different direction when he discovered a passion for real estate and construction. ­Jeyramesh is now a full-time real estate and mortgage agent and is actively pursuing a career as a small-size residential and commercial builder. He hopes to one day get back into the legal field, but in the meantime would like to start a charity that brings awareness to mental health issues and provides financial literacy training for poverty-stricken youth and seniors living on their own.

Three years after graduation, Taiwo landed a job in his field working for the federal government at Correctional Service Canada (CSC). Hired in 2016 as a federal correctional officer, six months later Taiwo moved into the role of federal parole officer. In his role, he assesses an offender’s behaviour, accountability, motivation and potential risk to society, and makes recommendations to the Parole Board of Canada and/or the CSC Review Board in regards to early conditional release.

Arina used her love of English and her communications experience to launch Wild Geese Creative Co. in 2018 – a conversion copywriting company that works with women’s businesses and cannabis brands. A published poet and spoken word artist, in 2015 Arina fulfilled a lifelong dream of merging poetry with music when she performed at a TEDx event.

A technologist by profession, Vikram has been working in the social media space for over 10 years, building products that aim to enhance online interactive experiences. In 2018, he launched the social networking application PB&J, which connects people through common food choices. Since its release, the app has been featured in many leading Toronto dailies and media outlets. The app continues to grow globally, helping users and restaurants to facilitate experiences that start by bringing people and the food they love together.