Our faculty continues to be at the forefront of research on health and well-being. This year, our researchers received more than $7 million in external research funding. Compared to the University of Ottawa average, our professors had higher success rates in the three main Tri-Council competitions, namely, the CIHR Project (18%), SSHRC Insight (33%) and NSERC Discovery (100%) grants. Kudos to our researchers and our faculty’s research office!

Besides our scholarly activities, our faculty is deeply involved in serving our community through experiential learning. This year, students in our professional programs took part in 2,719 placements totalling 8,000 hours with 350 different community partners across Canada and around the world, including 87 new partnerships. Faculty members conducted numerous innovative and exciting interprofessional training activities within the Faculty and the University, and with our clinical partners, to provide our students with real-life competency activities.

The Faculty continues to be committed to the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion. For example, our governance office, together with our Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility (IDEA) — Anti-Racism and Decolonization (ARD) Committee, reviewed learning outcomes in Faculty programs through an EDI lens, contributed to the development of the Faculty’s strategic plan and launched a new series of EDI-related webinars titled “Allies for Change.”

I am privileged to be surrounded by a solid leadership team that backs me up every day. I am very grateful for this and wish to sincerely thank all of the team members for their work. Some terms have come to an end, and I would like to thank the following individuals for their major contributions to their respective schools:

• Anne Konkle, assistant director, undergraduate studies, Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences
• Michael Robidoux, director, School of Human Kinetics
• Amanda Vandyk, assistant director, undergraduate studies, School of Nursing

Lastly, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of our faculty members for their hard work, dedication and passion. Your contributions are the foundation for our success, and I am honoured to be your dean. I am brimming over with optimism and enthusiasm for the future of our faculty. Although we are facing financial challenges, I believe that our community has the resilience, creativity and expertise needed to overcome them. Together, we will continue to promote excellence in teaching, learning and health research, because this is where health matters!

I wish you a sun-filled summer alongside your nearest and dearest. Make the most of it!

Lucie T.