My journey to McGill starts long ago in northern Sweden. My grandmother was the youngest of 15 children, so when the Swedish potato famine hit, her parents bought her the first shoes she’d ever owed that weren’t clogs and sent her to the thriving American frontier metropolis of Butte, Montana.
My grandmother raised a wonderful family in Butte, but she didn’t particularly extol the virtues of education to her kids. It came as a surprise, then, when her son – my father – quit his grueling jobs in the mines and set out to become an entomologist (that’s a scientist who studies insects) and then a physician. How a kid from Montana finagled his way into the University of Minnesota medical school is a story for another time!
My father’s sudden interest in advanced education led to a lifelong love affair with learning. He became quite a famous scientist and researcher – as well as a colonel in the U.S. Public Health Service, where he ran a national laboratory and got to work on the polio vaccine. Dad always told me, “You can do anything you want,” which I knew included, “as long as you get an education.”
After high school in Montana, I was accepted into four major universities at a time when some of them were just starting to admit women. I eventually chose Princeton, and after graduating I moved to New York City to work for a conglomerate (we owned Halston, Canada Dry, Johnny Walker, Avis, Max Factor, Hunt Wesson and other companies; crazy, I know). I headed to Stanford after a couple of years, where I did my MBA, and then moved to Boston as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. That’s where I met my husband, a professor of Chemistry at Harvard who shares my passion for education
We moved to Canada in 1981, and it didn’t take long for me to become aware of McGill University. I found it to be more varied in its academics and more diverse in its student body than the places I had studied. I was doubly impressed with the School of Continuing Studies, where I witnessed my friend and colleague Leonard Lewkowict earn certificates in marketing and strategy that allowed him to perpetually evolve in his career without having to interrupt his work to further his education.
When Len called me up one day to get involved with the School, I jumped at the opportunity. I joined him on the Faculty Advancement Board in 2013, when the idea of continuing education still didn’t get the respect it deserved. The notion of learning over the course of one’s entire lifetime was not at all present in people's minds, but that has changed.
Today, the School of Continuing Studies is poised to lead at a time when the world has realized that with technology, generational shifts, and social upheavals, no one is guaranteed just one career anymore, and everyone must invest continuously in learning new skills and capabilities. Education is a huge equalizer that makes so much possible.
I have been Chairperson of the Board since 2018; since that time, I’ve seen the school go through major upgrades in its programs and courses. Our partnerships in industries like aviation, our courses in AI, and our programs to help Indigenous students launch businesses are just some examples of how we have moved with the times. After all these years, I am prouder than ever to be involved with McGill’s School of Continuing Studies.
Of course, there are still challenges. Education remains cost-prohibitive for some people, including for many of the communities that we want to welcome to the School. To combat this, I created a bursary to help students attend the School; I also work diligently with the Dean and my fellow Board members to create new programs and secure donations to fund them. By making education accessible to lifelong learners, I hope to spark the flame in others that ignited my own passion for education.