Water Activist, Accessibility Advocate, and Sports Icon to Receive Honors at Brock’s Spring Convocation
When Brock University’s newest graduates gather to mark their accomplishments next month, they’ll be ushered into this new chapter of their lives by the inspiring words of an environmental activist, an accessibility champion and a baseball legend.
As part of Brock’s 115th Convocation celebrations from June 10 to 14, the University will bestow honorary doctorates upon Maude Barlow, Tricia Pokorny (BA ’95) and Ferguson “Fergie” Jenkins, who will each then deliver an address to the graduating class.
A respected Canadian activist and author, Barlow chairs the board of Food and Water Watch, which advocates for safe food, clean water and a livable climate for all. She is also the founder of the Blue Planet Project, a leading water justice organization.
Barlow will be honoured during Brock’s 10 a.m. Convocation ceremony on Tuesday, June 11.
In 2008-09, she served as Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the United Nations General Assembly and was a leader in the campaign to have water recognized as a human right by the UN. She is the creator of the Blue Communities project in which municipalities pledge to ban or phase out the sale of bottled water and to recognize water as a human right and a public trust. There are now more than 25 million people living in official Blue Community towns and cities around the world.
A proud Brock graduate, Pokorny is the program lead for the Come to Work program at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind in Victoria, B.C., where she assists participants with sight loss in developing workplace readiness skills.
She spent 10 years as Senior Manager of Accessibility for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, where she managed the Crown corporation’s compliance with legislative and administrative requirements of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act across the province.
Pokorny, who will receive her honorary degree at the 2:30 p.m. ceremony on Tuesday, June 11, also led the development, implementation and management of an award-winning accessibility and diversity program at Casino Niagara and Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls for 13 years.
At the 2:30 p.m. ceremony on Wednesday, June 12, Brock’s final honorary degree of the week will be awarded to Jenkins — an icon in professional baseball and Canadian sport.
With a career spanning nearly two decades in Major League Baseball, during which he played for the Texas Rangers, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox, Jenkins was the first Canadian inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame (1991).
Among his many accolades, the three-time All Star from Chatham, Ont., was awarded the National League Cy Young Award as a member of the Cubs in 1971 and was honoured with Canadian postage stamps featuring his image.
Off the field, he founded the Fergie Jenkins Foundation, which aims to “serve humanitarian need through the love of sport” and has supported hundreds of charities across North America.
Brock’s 115th Convocation will include nine ceremonies held from Monday, June 10 to Friday, June 14 in the Ian D. Beddis Gymnasium of Brock’s Walker Sports Complex. Ceremonies will take place at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. each day, except for Friday, June 14, when only a morning ceremony is scheduled.