Alumni of Influence

Renowned historian Michael Marrus is an expert on the Holocaust, modern European and Jewish history and international humanitarian law. The Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto, he is the author of eight books on the Holocaust and related subjects. He is a fellow at Massey College and the Royal Society of Canad and has been a visiting fellow at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, and the Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A member of the Order of Canada, he has also taught as a visiting professor at the University of California Los Angeles and the University of Cape Town and served on U of T’s Governing Council for 19 years.

Roland Paris is an expert in international security and peacebuilding. He holds the University Research Chair in International Security and Governance at the University of Ottawa, where he is a professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He has held advisory roles with the Privy Council, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Federal-Provincial Relations Office and the Prime Minister of Canada. A former director of research at the Conference Board of Canada, he is a regular commentator on international affairs, and the recipient of the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving the World Order, among other honours.

Olga Pugliese-Zorzi is Professor Emerita in the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Toronto. She is a scholar of Italian and a world authority on the Italian Renaissance, particularly Baldassarre Castiglione, one of its major authors. A former president of the Canadian Society for Italian Studies, she was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies in 2008. She has authored and edited many publications on Renaissance topics and the Italian community in Canada, most notably on mosaic artwork by Italian craftsmen in Canada and on the Italian-Canadian artist Albert Chiarandini.

Before retiring in 2012 after a 35-year career on Bay Street, Sugiyama was one of the most highly regarded corporate lawyers in Canada. She was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Ryerson University and currently serves as a corporate director and as an advisor to government and others. She was the chair of the Hospital for Sick Children and has held board positions with, among others, the Ontario Financing Authority, Canada Health Infoway, the Toronto International Film Festival and the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre. She was named to the Order of Canada in 2014 in recognition of her achievements as a lawyer and for her extensive civic engagement, and in 2015, she received an honorary doctorate from Western University.

As president and chief executive officer of the Toronto Rehab Foundation, University Health Network, Cindy Yelle is one of Canada's leading professionals in health-based philanthropy. She previously served as senior vice-president, SickKids Foundation, and as the executive director of advancement, Faculty of Engineering, University of Toronto. In the community, she has served on the board of the Toronto Zoo since 2009.  An outstanding athlete, she was a member of the 1984 Canadian Olympic swim team, captain of Canada’s 1986 Commonwealth and world championship teams and an NCAA champion and record holder.  

Carol Banducci is executive vice-president and chief financial officer of IAMGOLD Corporation. She plays a key role in driving the corporate strategy and has expertise in corporate restructurings, mergers and acquisitions. She was chair of the board of directors of Niobec Inc., a former subsidiary of IAMGOLD, prior to orchestrating its sale in 2015. Prior to joining IAMGOLD in 2007, she held financial executive positions in the manufacturing and explosives industries.

Banducci has a BComm from the University of Toronto and completed the Directors Education Program at the Rotman School of Management. She is a board member of Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. and Euro Ressources SA. She is a member of the working committee of the Canadian Board Diversity Council, and in 2015 was recognized by the Women’s Executive Network as one of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women. She co-chaired the 2015 Grad Ball for Pathways to Education, a non-profit organization that helps disadvantaged youth across Canada.  In 2016, she formed a partnership with the University of Toronto’s Department of Psychiatry to launch a fundraising initiative for the prevention and early detection of mental illness among adolescents and young adults, which raised $400,000 in its first year.

James Bassingthwaighte is a professor of bioengineering and cardiology at the University of Washington. An active teacher and researcher, he is known for an integrative, quantitative approach to cardiovascular physiology. He earned his MD at U of T, completing his PhD at the Mayo Clinic where later joined the faculty, before moving onto the University of Washington . There, he chaired the Department of Bioengineering and founded the National Simulation Resource Facility for Circulatory Mass Transport and Exchange. In 1997, he founded the Physiome Project, an international effort to define the physiome through the development of databases and models which facilitate the understanding of the integrative function of cells, organs and organisms.

The author of two books and more than 300 papers, Bassingthwaighte is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of both the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering. He has been honoured by the American Physiological Society, Maastricht University in the Netherlands and McGill University, among other institutions.

Sarmite (Sam) Bulte is a lawyer and former politician. A former member of the UC Literary and Athletic Society, she owned and operated her own law firm before being elected as the Member of Parliament for the riding of Parkdale-High Park, which she represented for nine years. In the House of Commons, she held the positions of Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, and chair of the Task Force on Women’s Entrepreneurship. She was appointed to the Privy Council in 2004.

Bulte is currently a consultant, legal advisor and speaker on public policy, governance, parliamentary capacity-building and entrepreneurship with the United Nations Development Program. She has provided training and assistance to Cambodia, Kenya, Macedonia, Somalia, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and Yemen, to name just a few countries. A seasoned board and committee member, she has served the Canadian Association of Women Executives and Entrepreneurs, the National Ballet School and the St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation, among other organizations. For her tremendous contributions, she has been recognized with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Lifetime Tribute Award from Women Entrepreneurs of Canada and the Order of the Republic of Lithuania, among other honours.

Clarence Chant, known as the father of Canadian astronomy, studied mathematics and physics at UC, earning a doctorate in physics at Harvard University. His interest in astronomy began in 1892 when hired by the U of T Department of Physics. Instrumental in the development of the astronomy curriculum, he ultimately became the Department of Astronomy's inaugural chairman in 1918. He was the sole Canadian to train astronomers until 1926, and many of his students later became directors of astronomical observatories. 

Committed to popularizing astronomy to all, he published Our Wonderful Universe in 1928, gave public lectures, wrote for newspapers and delivered radio talks. He would gladly help any sincere correspondent, from naive beginner to accomplished professional. He served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and founded its namesake journal, which he edited from 1904 until his death in 1956. He also led an expedition to Australia in 1922 to observe a total solar eclipse, thus helping to verify Einstein's prediction concerning the deflection of light by massive bodies.

With Jessie Donalda Dunlap, the widow of mining entrepreneur David Dunlap, Chant established the Dunlap Observatory at the University of Toronto. It was inaugurated on May 31, 1935, the day Chant turned 70, received an honorary doctorate, from U of T, and retired.

Norman Doidge, MD, is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, author and poet. He studied classics and philosophy at UC and graduated with high distinction. After winning the E.J. Pratt Prize for Poetry at age 19, he won early recognition from the literary critic Northrop Frye, who wrote that his work was “really remarkable… haunting and memorable.”  He earned his medical degree at U of T, followed by psychiatric and psychoanalytic training at Columbia University and a National Institute of Mental Health Research Fellowship.

An expert in neuroplasticity, psychiatry, psychotherapy and neuroscience, he is on faculty at the University of Toronto’s Department of Psychiatry and Columbia University’s Centre for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.  He is author of two New York Times bestsellers, The Brain That Changes Itself and The Brain’s Way of Healing. His writing has appeared in medical journals and the Wall Street Journal, Time, the Daily Telegraph, the Globe and Mail and the National Post. His work has been recognized by Brain Injury Canada, the Sigourney Award for psychoanalytic achievement worldwide, the CBC Literary Award, and four National Magazine Gold Awards.

Justice Kathryn Feldman of the Ontario Court of Appeal has distinguished herself as a jurist of the highest quality. A former partner with Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP, she was appointed to the Superior Court of Justice in December 1990, where she presided over criminal and civil matters, before being elevated to the Court of Appeal in June 1998.

As a lecturer, she has made tremendous contributions to continuing legal education for students, lawyer and judges. She served as chair of the insurance committee of the Canadian Superior Court Judges’ Association and, in 2001, became the first recipient of the Canadian Superior Court Judges Association President’s Award. She is currently a director of the Canadian chapter of the International Association of Women Judges.

As an alumna, she sat on the Moss Scholarship selection committee for six years, three as chair; on the President’s International Alumnae Council; and is a recipient of the University of Toronto Arbor Award.

Graham Fraser was appointed Canada’s Commissioner of Official Languages in 2006. He has been a champion of bilingualism and diversity throughout his distinguished career. As a journalist, he wrote in both official languages on cultural and foreign policy, constitutional debates and provincial, national and international politics for the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the Gazette, Le Devoir and Maclean’s. The author of five books, including the influential Sorry, I Don’t Speak French, he has played a key role in explaining Quebec politics and the importance of bilingualism to Canadians.  

Fraser is the recipient of the Public Policy Forum’s Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism; the Baldwin-LaFontaine Award from the Canadian Club of Vancouver, which honours efforts in bilingualism and co-operation; and the Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Pléiade from the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Ottawa, Université Sainte-Anne, Université Laval, Concordia University and York University.