National Student and Thought Leadership Awards in Public Administration

It aims to recognize talent in Canadian schools at the regional level and at the national level. It promotes excellence in public administration and showcases the top talent emerging from Canadian programs each year.

CAPPA & IPAC Announce the 2024 National Student and Thought Leadership Award Winners!

The Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA) and the Institute of Public Administration in Canada (IPAC) are pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 National Student and Thought Leadership Awards!

The National Thought Leadership Awards recognize excellence in research that pushes boundaries.

Follow this link to discover this year's winners.

Criteria and Procedures

Selecting winners: CAPPA members will solicit and judge entries (best paper, best professional report, or best graduating student, however defined) from their students, and select a winner in the undergraduate and/or graduate levels (as applicable to each department). Representatives from the IPAC Regional Group will be asked to help with the adjudication. Together, the students selected from each institution are the National Student Award winners.

Giving local recognition: We encourage programs, departments and schools to hold recognition events for the winners. You may also want to approach your local IPAC group to provide recognition. In some cases the local regional group may have more than one university in their catchment area, and the range of winners will be broader.

For each nomination, please include:

  • nominator's name and contact information;
  • nominee's name and contact information;
  • a brief bio (no more than 100 words); and
  • synopsis of accomplishment (i.e., top student, best, paper, project or research, contest winner, etc.)

Please forward all nominations to youngb@uvic.ca.   If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Belle Young at youngb@uvic.ca; or Andrea Rounce at andrea.rounce@umanitoba.ca or 1-204-891-0501.

Awards

National recognition: The winners from each program are the National Student Award winners. They will be asked to participate in a poster session at the IPAC National Annual Conference in November, describing their best piece of research or analysis. A jury will select and rank the three best poster presentations for the Thought Leadership Awards for cash prizes.

The Thought Leadership Awards are:

  • $1000 for Gold
  • $500 for Silver
  • $250 for Bronze

Winners will be celebrated by IPAC and CAPPA on their respective websites.

The Award

The National Student and Thought Leadership Awards in Public Administration is a joint initiative of CAPPA and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC). It aims to recognize talent in Canadian schools at the regional level and at the national level. It promotes excellence in public administration and showcases the top talent emerging from Canadian programs each year.

Award Winners

  • 2024 Winners:
    • Gold: Roxanne Ma, York University “’Colour Me Healthy’: Considerations for Collecting Race Disaggregated Data in Ontario’s Public Health System to Address Racial Health Inequities”
    • Silver:  Chenai Wamambo, Carleton University “Are We There Yet? A Qualitative Research Study on Anti-Black Racism and Systemic Change in Lethbridge School District (LSD)”
    • Bronze:  Silvana Gomes, University of Ottawa “The Connected Federation: intergovernmental collaboration and digital government in Canada”
  • 2023 Winners:
    • Gold:   Rebecca Van Massehoven, Brock University, “Navigating Environmental Governance in Canada: The Importance of Understanding Participatory Environmental Governance”
    • Silver:  Melodie De Marinis, York University, “Perspectives of Working Mothers in the Ontario Public Service on Hybrid Work Arrangements”
    • Bronze:  Julie Matthews, Western University, “The Binner’s Project: How innovative local economic development strategies can help address wicked problems”
  • 2022 Winners:
    • Gold:  Jennifer Holmes Weier, York University “Bursting the Ottawa Bubble: Government dispersal and localization in the context of a diversity strategy”
    • Silver:  Wei Jiang, Western University, “Workforce Diversity Management in Ontario Police Services”
    • Bronze:  Claire Davies, Simon Fraser University, “Toward a Low-Carbon & Climate Resilient Agriculture Sector: Policies to Increase the Adoption of Cover Crops in British Columbia"
  • 2021 Winners:
    • Gold:  Soma Barsen, Simon Fraser University “Our Dirty Laundry: Policy interventions & considerations to address synthetic microfiber ocean pollution in British Columbia”
    • Silver:  Michael Longeway, Western University, “Accountability: Inter-local service agreements”
    • Bronze:  Ashley Rodriques, Concordia University, “Low-skilled & Essential: Immigrant Reconstruction in Times of COVID-19”
  • 2020 Winners:
    • Gold: Colin Bowbrick, Simon Fraser University “War on Drug Resistance : Policy Interventions to Tackle Antibiotic Misuse in Canada”
    • Silver:  Jennifer Lai, York University “The Accessibility of Elections to Canadians with Cognitive Disabilities”
    • Bronze:  Gonzalo Agrimbau, Universities of Manitoba and Winnipeg “Natural Infrastructure Investments: from science to implementation

News, Past Awards and Results

CAPPA & IPAC Announce the 2024 National Student and Thought Leadership Award Winners!

  July 5, 2024 The Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA) and the Institute of Public Administration in Canada (IPAC) are pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 National Student and Thought Leadership Awards! The National Student…

National Student and Thought Leadership Awards 2020: winners

January 14, 2021 The Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration (CAPPA) and the Institute of Public Administration in Canada (IPAC) are pleased to announce the winners of the 2020 National Student and Thought Leadership Awards! The National Student and…