Classes
1968
SHELDON, LARRY (BA LIBERAL ARTS & PROFESSIONAL STUDIES)
Immediately upon graduating from York, where he was a Rio Tinto Scholar, Sheldon worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London for 10 years. After winning a Canada Council award, he relocated to New York City, where he directed theatre on and off Broadway at the Public Theater and Playwrights Horizons. In Los Angeles, he directed 25 feature and cable television films and more than 500 hours of television (including Bradley Cooper’s first comedy, I Want to Marry Ryan Banks) and the drama Color of Love starring Gena Rowlands. Since 2016, he has taught masterclasses in filmmaking in Shanghai and produced over 40 short films. An associate professor at the University of Southern California for 12 years, he is currently Head of Film at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute in New York.
1971
MUNNS, EVANGELINE (PhD PSYCHOLOGY)
Evangeline has worked as a certified clinical psychologist for the past 50 years. A recognized expert in play therapy, a model of treatment used to help children with emotional and behavioural problems, she has taught workshops nationally and internationally to therapists working with children and their parents. As a certified supervisor with the Canadian Association for Play Therapy, the American Association for Play Therapy and the Theraplay Institute in Chicago, she also supervised therapists seeking certification. The recipient of several honours, including a Play Therapy International award and a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Association of Play Therapy, she retired in 2021 and is today pursuing a second career as a painter of watercolours.
1976
WILSON, ROD (MA HEALTH, PhD HEALTH ’83)
Originally trained as a clinical psychologist, Rod has used his education in English literature, psychology, counselling and theology to work as a non-profit leader, consultant, professor and therapist. Rod is the author of several faith-focused books, including the recently published Thank You. I’m Sorry. Tell Me More: How to Change the World with 3 Sacred Sayings. From 2000 to 2015, he was president of Regent College, a graduate school of theology in Vancouver, B.C., where he continues to live with his wife Bev, a former non-graduated York student.
1982
DI GIACOMO, JAMES (MA SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY)
After leaving York, James continued his education at Concordia University, where he took an MBA in finance and policy. Soon after, he launched a 37-year career in banking and worked for several institutions, including Chase Manhattan Bank of Canada, UBS Canada and BMO, where he served as the managing director of the latter’s Canadian Commercial Banking Division for the past 20 years. Now retired, James looks forward to spending quality time with his wife, Hilary, and their two daughters.
1989
MOORE, PATRICK (BFA MUSIC)
Patrick has worked in television broadcasting for close to 30 years, mainly doing camerawork behind the scenes at CTV News operations in Toronto. He assists shows like CTV National News and CTV News Toronto. He also works on many TSN studio productions that originate in Toronto. Music, which he studied at York, remains his first love, and Patrick recently completed the background music for Here We Stay, a documentary about Chinese immigrants in Canada.
1992
LITTLE, CATHERINE (BA EDUCATION, BSc CHEMISTRY)
Catherine is an educator of Chinese heritage who recently authored Twelve in a Race with illustrator and artist Sae Kimura. The book is a read-aloud rhyming book that retells the origin story of the Chinese zodiac in an engaging and creative manner.
1995
RAO, PRIYA (BA EAST ASIAN STUDIES)
Priya worked in the Canadian film and television industry for 20 years as an actor, programmer and producer of such projects as the comedic short Raju’s Blind Date, which was later adapted as a series of radio plays for CBC Radio. In 2019, with master sommelier Jennifer Huether, she founded The Social Herbivore, a Toronto consultancy offering wine pairing suggestions for vegan foods. In 2021, again in collaboration with Huether, she published her first cookbook, The Social Herbivore: Perfect Pairings for Plant-Based Cuisine. The dynamic duo now hosts wine pairing events at pop-ups and food festivals across Southern Ontario.
1999
BOYE, SEIKA (BFA DANCE AND ENGLISH, MA DANCE AND ENGLISH ’06)
A dance scholar, artist and writer, Seika is the recipient of the inaugural Dance in the Public Sphere Award by the international Dance Studies Association, headquartered in Evanston, Ill. She won for “It’s About Time: Dancing Black in Canada 1900–1970 and Now,” her archival exhibition looking at the mostly undocumented dance history of Black peoples in Canada during the first seven decades of the 20th century. Formerly a professional dancer, Seika is now a movement dramaturg and consultant for various dance companies, independent artists and organizations. She also serves as an assistant professor and director of the research-based Institute for Dance Studies within the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. The next iteration of the exhibition – including new commissions from performing, visual and literary artists – will take place at the Audain Gallery at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver this October.
2002
DIMITRAKOPOULOS, NICK (BA POLITICAL SCIENCE)
After graduating from York as a mature student, Nick worked with various federal bureaus, including as a customs inspector with the Canada Border Services Agency and a senior primary inspector with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. After leaving the civil service in 2014, he started his own company as an immigration consultant. In 2017, Nick obtained a diploma in food quality assurance and later opened his own company focused on food safety, iCD Consulting Services.
MARSHALL, SHARI (BA ENGLISH)
Shari came to York seeking to fulfill her twin passions: law and literature. Since graduating, she’s succeeded in turning them into concurrent real-life practices. In 2008, she became an investigator for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Alberta while also pursuing a side career as a writer and editor. In 2022, while continuing to work for the RCMP, she released her first self-published novel, The Ember Stone, about an unconventional woman and a magical war.
2009
REEVES, PAUL (BA PSYCHOLOGY)
Paul is the founder and CEO of Refresh Fans, a company that specializes in high-volume, low-speed (HVLS) fan technology. Prior to this, he was a managing director at Big Ass Fans. Then as now, Paul worked to help companies reduce energy consumption and its associated costs while improving employee morale and efficiency. His mission is to build a company that solves real-world problems with simple and effective solutions.
2012
TURNER, CAMILLE (MES ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES)
Camille is the recipient of the 2022 Toronto Biennial of Art’s prestigious Artist Prize, which she won for Nave, an immersive installation piece that uses symbolic imagery to link colonial Canada with the African slave trade. A native of Jamaica who combines Afrofuturism and historical research in her multimedia art practice, Camille – presently a York PhD student – was one of 38 artists to participate in the second instalment of Canada’s biggest visual arts event focused exclusively on contemporary art from around the world.
2015
ADEGBESAN, GBEMI (BA POLITICAL SCIENCE)
Gbemi recently became the director of admissions and recruitment at King’s University in Edmonton, Alb. – the first Black person to occupy the position. Previously, she worked as manager of international admissions and recruitment at Toronto International College, a university preparation high school in North York, Ont.
2018
RAHMAN, KASHFIA (BA INTERDISCIPLINARY SOCIAL SCIENCE)
After graduation, Kashfia worked for the Ministry of the Attorney General in the victim witness assistance program. In 2019, she attended Harvard University before enrolling at Western Michigan University’s Thomas M. Cooley Law School, from which she graduated in May of this year. Since 2021, Kashfia has worked as a research assistant at Harvard’s GenderSci Lab. In 2022, she began her role as a legal assistant at PwC Canada with the goal of pursuing either corporate law or personal injury law. Her other interests include health-care disparities related to race, sex, gender and immigration status, as well as the intersection of medicine and human rights.
