Two remarkable Branksome alums are honoured at Reunion each year. Submit a nomination for our 2026 Alum Awards today!
This award recognizes an alum who has demonstrated outstanding distinction, character and vision in their professional and/or volunteer endeavours.
This award honours an alum (40 years old or younger) who has shown character and leadership in their pursuits to serve and shape their world through positive change.
Our 2025 award winners were announced to our alum community at Reunion Weekend 2025.
Tricia “CK” PURKS Hoffler’80 is the CEO of The CK Hoffler Firm, the trailblazing Atlanta-based law firm. An accomplished attorney, Ms. Hoffler was previously a partner at Edmond, Lindsay & Hoffler, LLP. and a partner at Gary, Williams et al. in Florida. She has represented and is counsel to Civil Rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson, and has managed several billion-dollar commercial cases, including record-setting medical negligence verdicts. Ms. Hoffler has also worked on significant civil rights and children’s rights cases that have resulted in bringing much needed justice for American citizens. Ms. Hoffler has served on the boards of The Pine School (Stuart, Florida), Georgetown University Law Alumni Board (Washington, DC), Planned Parenthood of South Florida (West Palm Beach, Florida) and Women in Philanthropy (Stuart, Florida - founding member). She is also a very active member of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys (GABWA) and hosts an informal shadowing program for lawyers throughout Georgia who she mentors. Recently rated a “Super Lawyer” in 2022, Hoffler also received the Randolph W. Thrower Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Bar in 2022. Ms. Hoffler served as the 78th President of the National Bar Association in July 2020 and has made regular media appearances on television and radio both domestically and internationally. She is a weekly guest host of her own radio show on Atlanta’s WAOK with Juandolyn Stokes entitled “Law and Legal.” She has also appeared and provided legal and political commentary on CNN, ABC, Court TV, and MSNBC. She is a past Installation Speaker and Branksome Hall’s first Black Head Prefect.
Jen is the Founder and CEO of Straight Up Health, a mental health clinic focused on proactive, personalized support for youth and families. As a mental health navigator, mentor, and speaker, she is passionate about helping the next generation build confidence, resilience, and real-life leadership skills.
A proud Branksome Hall alum, Jen credits her time at the school for sparking her passion for community impact and strong female leadership. Today, she works with schools, families, and organizations across the country to redefine how we support youth mental health—with compassion, clarity, and real-world tools that make a lasting difference.
Nadine’s varied and fulfilling career in the federal public service included policy analysis and development, including for laws such as the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and the pollution prevention provisions of the federal Fisheries Act. As a federal civil servant, her work was in the background, but she was willing to tackle anything she was asked to do and became knowledgeable about the breadth and scope of federal laws and how to use them creatively.
Awarded Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002, Nadine worked as a translator and increased her volunteer activity following her retirement in 2007. These efforts have included painting sets for community theatre groups, volunteering for the Pauline-Charron Centre for francophone seniors over 50 and Matthew House (which provides housing for refugees coming to Canada), and helping to organize the 100th anniversary celebration of the founding of Overbrook, an older section of Ottawa.
Nadine came to Branksome Hall as a kindergartener in 1950. After Grade 7, she and her family moved to Mexico for two years. She returned to Branksome when they moved back to Canada, completing her studies and moving on to university where she studied French, Spanish and Portuguese.
Carol’s career and volunteer work have been dedicated to promoting excellence in healthcare, with a focus on improving the health and well-being of people whose voices and needs have not always been heard, understood or supported. Carol is a child and family therapist with a private practice in Toronto. She has had roles at the Hospital for Sick Children and Children’s Aid Society, and holds a Master’s Degree in Social work and several post graduate Diplomas in Advanced Clinical Practice with individuals, children and families. As a volunteer, Carol is currently Chair of the Board of Eli’s Place, an Honorary Member of the Board at Women’s College Hospital, and Chair of the Advisory Council of Women's College Hospital Foundation. Her past volunteer work includes roles with the Sunnybrook and Women’s Hospital Boards, the National Ballet School Board, and the Holland Bloorview Rehab Hospital Board. Carol is an inspiring role model for the Branksome community because she has lived the Branksome mission of shaping a better world. Her lifelong commitment to taking care of the neediest in society is an example of a life which epitomizes our Branksome values of Sense of Community, Inclusiveness and Making a Difference.
Everyone can agree that hospital gowns deserve a redesign for improved comfort and dignity. Enter former lawyer Jackie Moss, who switched from a successful career—leading human resources, legal and corporate development functions at CIBC—to become an award-winning entrepreneur. Giftgowns was inspired by Moss’ own long hospital stay, where she recuperated wearing a traditional hospital gown. The company has been featured in Forbes, Oprah, GQ and People and the gowns sell online, in hospital gift shops across North America.
It is a distinguished global history, and Ninette Kelley has been an important part of it for nearly two decades. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was founded in December, 1950, a few months before the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was signed in Geneva. As a senior officer in UNHCR, Ninette is now writing a publication to commemorate the 70th anniversaries of those two fundamental events.
Ninette joined UNHCR in 2002 and has served in several senior management positions, both at headquarters and in the field. Prior to her current assignment, Ninette was for four years director of UNHCR’s office in New York City. Before that, she was the agency’s representative in Lebanon (2010-2015), leading one of its most complex refugee operations.
Ninette has also held various policy and consultative roles with international humanitarian agencies focusing on development and refugee issues. In Canada, she served eight years on the Immigration and Refugee Board.
She is the author, with U of T law professor Michael Trebilcock, of The Making of the Mosaic: The History of Canadian Immigration Policy (University of Toronto Press 2010) and has published in the areas of human rights law, citizenship, refugee protection, gender-related persecution and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She is a lawyer by training, and currently lives in Toronto.
Carol Szeto is the CEO of Save the Children Hong Kong, a charity organisation which is part of the global Save the Children movement, which has presence in almost 120 countries and works to ensure that the world’s most vulnerable children survive, learn and are protected. To fight the current COVID-19 pandemic, Carol has led her organisation to deliver medical and hygiene supplies to unprivileged communities in Hong Kong and China, while contributing to the global response efforts in other countries.
Carol reaches for the stars and takes risks,” says her nominator for this award.
“She is selfless and travels to the poorest part of developing countries to educate the locals to make the world a better place.
Before taking the helm of Save the Children in Hong Kong this past January, she was a Senior Country Manager at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, an international organisation based in Switzerland. Gavi partners with the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other development partners to improve access to new and underused vaccines for children living in some of the poorest countries. At Gavi, Carol managed the India and Nepal portfolios and also the global vaccine programmes for pneumonia and diarrhea.
Carol’s previous experience also includes strategy and policy at The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, marketing at Pfizer in the U.S. and the Latin America/Africa/Middle East region, and management consulting at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. She started her career as a Research Engineer at Merck & Company.
Carol has a BSc in chemical engineering from Cornell University and an MBA in finance from New York University. She was born in Canada and grew up in Hong Kong. She has also lived in the United States, Ireland, Ghana and Switzerland.
Since September 2017, Christina has been the Chief of the Cree Nation of Wemindji, in Northern Quebec. As the first-ever female Chief of her community, she has made education and economic development her priorities. Previously, Christina was the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Tawich Development Corporation. She also served as Councillor for the Cree Nation of Wemindji for one term and spent over a decade as a Career Counsellor and Employment Officer for Cree Human Resources and Development. Christina travelled to Branksome from the Cree Nation of James Bay in Grade 7 and called the school home as a boarder for seven years. Christina attended Algonquin College for Lean Management, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue for Career Development and Trent University for Native Studies.
Rebecca is President, Executive Producer and co-founder of Park Avenue Armory (named by The New York Times as New York’s “most important new cultural institution.”) From 2000 to 2006, Rebecca ran the $1.4 billion redevelopment of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Before that, she led the team that transformed 13 acres around seedy 42nd Street into a vibrant, mixed-use block of popular culture that included eight historic theatres. She also served as a lecturer at the Harvard School of Design. Rebecca holds both a Master of Science in Planning and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto.
It all started with a gift from her father — and unleashed her own.
Flashback to the Dorfman household in Toronto, more than 35 years ago: Most teenagers wanted their parents to buy them one of the new video cameras that were showing up in stores, the first hint at what would eventually be today’s Age of YouTube.
Not 12-year-old Andrea Dorfman. She wasn’t interested in what everyone else wanted. She had her eye on another prize — her dad’s Super 8 camera, collecting dust in a box, with an unexposed roll of celluloid film awaiting inside.
“The camera was just lying around and I noticed there was a reel of film in it. I asked my father if I could have it and shoot with it,” Andrea recalls.
“Sure,” her father answered. But he had a caveat, perhaps to test his daughter’s commitment. It took money to develop those homemade 8mm films. So, if she did any filming, she needed to pay for the developing herself.
And that was the moment one of Canada’s most innovative women filmmakers got her break.
Andrea dusted off the Super 8 and began shooting images around her: The wind rustling through the neighbourhood trees; moving clouds above, the dark shadows deep in the garden; a friend launching into the air from a playground swing. “I didn’t even know if I was shooting on colour or black and white film,” she recalls. “I just shot and shot, to see what would come out.”
A few days later, she paid for the developed reel of film, brought it back home and threaded it into the projector. As black and white images flickered onto the screen, Andrea was mesmerized. “It was simply magic, that’s how I remember it. I watched my friend jumping off the swing, again and again, and it was like another world. I was hooked.”
It became a passionate hobby. Fellow Branksome students might remember “that girl with the camera,” presenting her latest monster film at school assembly. “It was Grade 7 or 8. I had this little film a friend of mine and I made in a graveyard. We played piano music live to it at the student assembly. It was so cheesy and terrible — my friend was the fair maiden, putting flowers on her lover’s grave. I played a predator. It was sort of a horror film.”
It was an early indication of a recurring and powerful theme in Andrea’s later work — women overcoming adversity, danger and social taboos.
Andrea caught the eye of critics in 1998, when she burst onto the scene with two films: Swerve, the story of a group of friends who go on a road trip and become part of a lesbian love triangle, and Nine, a docudrama about a nine-year-old girl facing separation anxiety. The Atlantic Film Festival named the 29-year-old the most promising director of the year.
Andrea followed up two years later with Parsley Days, a comedy shot on a $65,000 budget, about a young woman who hopes to end her unwanted pregnancy by gorging on parsley. The comedy premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to more positive reviews —“endlessly charming” wrote The Globe and Mail — and signaled that Canada had a new, innovative woman director on the scene.
Now based in Halifax, Andrea has become a prolific filmmaker, with dozens of documentary and feature films in her iMDB profile (not to mention music videos to pay the way). She doesn’t aim for commercial films, but rather makes films to make a difference, or show us those who do. Consider The Girls of Meru, a film that follows the inspiring 160 girls who take the Kenyan government to court for not protecting them from rape.
“They won,” says Andrea. “What motivates me to make films? Social justice, children’s rights, environmental activism, feminism.”
Want to see the power and intimacy of Andrea’s work? Go to YouTube and watch How To Be Alone, the four-minute video poem she made with her friend, the poet Tanya Davis.
“We were just sitting around and thought we should do something about being alone, a topic of conversation we often returned to,” recalls Andrea. “Tanya wrote a beautiful poem. We made it into a short film.”
The film critic, Roger Ebert, loved it and tweeted it out. Eight million have watched it since. “It’s the little film that keeps on ticking,” says Andrea with a chuckle.
Yes, Andrea Dorfman — that young girl who so many years ago opted for the old-fashioned Super 8 over going digital — has gone viral.
Miro Cernetig’s latest film is Facing Saddam for National Geographic. A former Globe and Mail foreign correspondent, he is the founder of Catalytico, a strategic branding company based in Vancouver.
Ann DOWSETT Johnston'71 is an award-winning writer and an inspirational advocate. She has had a stellar career in journalism, including close to three decades at Maclean's magazine, where she was the chief architect of the magazine's famed annual university rankings, and in higher education, as a vice-principal at McGill University. In 2013, her international bestseller Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol combined her groundbreaking reporting on the topic with a searingly candid account of her own journey.
Today, she is a sought-after public speaker and consultant, as well as co-founder of two advocacy organizations—the National Roundtable on Girls, Women and Alcohol; and Faces and Voices of Recovery Canada.
My passions are to jumpstart a broad conversation about the impact of our favourite drug, including on public health and on public policy, and to destigmatize a very pernicious disease, addiction, which touches nearly every Canadian
Ann says.
Raised in the varied environs of northern Ontario, South Africa and Toronto, Ann studied at Queen's University and then joined Maclean's in 1977. In the 1990s, she turned its brand new university rankings into a huge phenomenon—the biggest-selling issue every year, and a major influence on post-secondary education—and earned five gold National Magazine Awards. In 2006, she accepted a major leadership role at McGill, in charge of development, alumni and communications and oversaw a record increase in fundraising.
Ann now devotes herself to informing, advocating and consulting about the complexities of risky drinking, for which she has won a series of national and international awards, including a Transforming Lives Award from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She consults with corporations and a wide variety of organizations, last year advising the government of Ireland.
I feel a responsibility to contextualize what's happening to young women. Our stories set us free.
she says.
Nicole LEVESQUE'95 is one of Canada's leaders in helping people with criminal records put bad behaviour behind them and become fully engaged members of society.
Since 2002, and as co-founder of the Montreal-based National Pardon Centre with her husband, Michael Ashby, she has assisted thousands of Canadians in obtaining a federal pardon for past convictions and getting rid of a record that can hamstring them in later life—in employment, in education, even in coaching sports or crossing the U.S. border.
"People deserve the chance to prove themselves," says Nicole, whose firm walks them through the process. She can also help people who were never convicted but may have been fingerprinted. That alone can deny people security clearances or cause a U.S. border official to refuse them entry.
After growing up in Thornhill, Ontario, Nicole moved to Rosedale with her family as her teen years dawned, and she attended Branksome for Grades 7 to 9. The school, she says, helped her become "a proud, strong woman." Her studies continued at the University of Surrey in England where she received her MA in Sociology and Criminology, and an associated internship in Jamaica, working in the women's prison.
Nicole proudly calls herself an entrepreneur, even though her organization is non-profit. "It's run the same way as a for-profit business—you have all the same challenges," she says. "I wanted to make a difference, and I also wanted to be my own boss."
Nicole gives back by plowing surplus revenues into education and youth counselling. She briefs young people on what rights they have even with a criminal record, and goes into prisons to talk about re-integration in society, counselling many women about their employment options.
"Pardons are the light at the tunnel for so many people," she says. "I really get a lot of pleasure out of seeing people turn their lives around."
Rebecca Singer is an investor at Decarbonization Partners, a BlackRock and Temasek joint venture that invests in the next generation of innovative decarbonization solutions and businesses to accelerate global efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Prior to joining Decarbonization Partners, Rebecca was an investor at Temasek (New York office), where she focused on direct investments for Temasek’s North American portfolio in sectors such as renewable energy, carbon capture, and bioplastics. Rebecca earned a Master of Global Affairs from Tsinghua University (Beijing, China) as a Schwarzman Scholar and before that graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Princeton University.
Gillian Christie has focused her career on promoting health at the intersection of business and technology. She is currently at Pearl Health focused on expanding access to value-based primary care. She is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Health Policy and Management, and on the leadership team for the Doctor of Public Health degree program, at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Gillian received a Doctor of Public Health degree from Harvard, a Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, and a MA from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
Gillian truly exemplifies the spirit and character of Branksome and what it means to uplift others.
In her first year of university, Ariella heard her friends raving about their art history courses, so she enrolled in a class on Baroque art and architecture. Fast forward ten years and she is currently completing her PhD in art history at the University of Toronto and holds a pre-doctoral fellowship in the research group “Visualizing Science in Media Revolutions” at the Bibliotheca Hertziana-Max Planck Institute for Art History in Rome.
Passionate from a young age about helping others and building a more equitable world, these interests were further developed during Jennifer Langill’s time at Branksome Hall. Today, these same values drive her personal and professional endeavours.
Knowledgeable in five languages, she earned a BA in global development studies from Queen’s University and an MA in geography from the University of Toronto, and is currently working towards her PhD in geography at McGill University.
Through her master’s program, Jennifer examined human-environment relationships in the Peruvian Amazon, and how environmental hazards are affecting livelihoods, local ecological knowledge, and gender roles for riverine populations. In her doctoral program at McGill, she takes a feminist approach to investigating intergenerational livelihood change for ethnic minorities in the highlands of northern Thailand. In addition to her dissertation work, she maintains multiple research collaborations, mentors undergraduate students, and co-leads anti-racism initiatives in her department at McGill.
Author of several articles in academic journals, Jennifer has organized and presented at numerous conferences. She is the recipient of over a dozen academic awards, including a Doctoral Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, the American Geographical Society Council Fellowship, and the Gilbert F. White Best Thesis in Hazards Geography Award.
In 2011, Jennifer founded Gollucoh, a non-profit micro development organization that focused on individualized support to interested households, including financial literacy training, alternative income generation, and women’s educational development in impoverished villages in Laos. While stepping back due to her dissertation work, she continues to offer youth mentorship and support for women and girls’ education in Laos. She is currently based in Toronto with her husband and their infant son.
It’s not essential to merge a life in the financial services sector with a commitment to securing micro-loans for new immigrants. That’s just part of the job for Kelly Gauthier, Managing Director and Partner at Rally Assets, who leads and advises on its portfolio of responsible and impact investment projects.
At Rally, Kelly has advised more than 50 market-leading foundations, corporate and private investors, contributing to over $250-million of capital invested in high impact solutions. Kelly is passionate about using the power of capital markets to drive the transition to a more sustainable, equitable and just economy.
A recent Ontario Volunteer Service Award winner, she was recognized for her work with Access Community Capital Fund. Access provides micro-loans to new Canadians, refugees and immigrants excluded from banking systems due to a lack of credit rating or collateral. She sits on its board of directors and chairs its investment committee.
Kelly is a trailblazer in the sustainable investment field, says the nominator for this award.
Previously she worked for Mercer Investment Consulting on the responsible investment team. She is also an active member of the Responsible and Impact Investing industries, speaking frequently and working on market building initiatives. She also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Responsible Investment Association (RIA).
Kelly has an MBA from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and a BSc in engineering from Queen’s University. She is married to Dr. Alun Ackery, an emergency room doctor and has three children.
Sohani is a Surgical Resident of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre. She also works with Project Theia, a non-profit organization that provides ophthalmic and facial reconstructive surgery to communities in developing countries. Sohani has worked with the organization Unite for Sight in the United States and throughout South Asia, performing free vision screenings to underserved populations. Sohani also founded the first vision clinic in Sri Lanka to provide free, comprehensive vision screenings for a particular diabetic eye disease—providing service to 600 patients per month. A Prefect at Branksome, Sohani was involved in public speaking and debating, and attended Model United Nations in The Hague, Netherlands. She holds an MD from New York Medical College, a Masters in public health from Cambridge University and a BSc from the University of Pennsylvania.
Emily is a speaker and advocate against gender-based violence. She is a web designer and content creator for the Good Lad Initiative, which focuses on bringing men into the #MeToo movement and finding solutions to domestic violence through discussion. Emily has been a featured podcast guest and has been published in Oxford Notes, Shameless and Feelz magazines. A global traveller, she has also worked internationally to bring greater awareness to the impacts of aquatic policy on communities. She holds a Master of Science in Water Science, Policy and Management from Oxford University as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Aquatic Sciences and Public Policy from St. Francis Xavier University.
Sarah Clarke knows what it’s like to fall through the cracks.
When she enrolled at Branksome Hall in Grade 6, Sarah could barely read — a result of several years in French Immersion and an abrupt switch into English school that left her scholastically unmoored. She found at Branksome teachers who were not only educators, but mentors. They believed in Sarah, and their compassion helped her flourish as a student and future leader.
Her own struggles to find her path and her voice fed Sarah’s impassioned advocacy for the rights of First Nations children on reserves, who lack access to basic services other Canadian kids take for granted. As principal of Clarke Child & Family Law, Sarah now specializes in child protection, custody, access and adoption cases.
Small talk is not Sarah’s thing. Launch a conversation about her work, her schooling, Toronto traffic, whatever, and the topic soon veers to advocacy. Within moments, she is deep into details of her latest case, representing a First Nations child who was denied funding for medically required orthodontic care.
Her growing renown in legal circles began with the landmark case Sarah helped steer to victory before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. Starting in 2008, first as an articling law student and then as co-counsel, Sarah stood for First Nations Child and Family Caring Society in Caring Society v. Canada.
In its ground-breaking judgment in January 2016, the tribunal found that the federal government had underfunded First Nations child welfare programs, and thereby discriminated against Canada's aboriginal people.
Sarah’s unrelenting work on this case has garnered great respect among her peers. In August 2016, she was named one of the year’s Top 25 Most Influential in Human Rights Law by Canadian Lawyer magazine. The following November, she received the Odyssey Award from the University of Windsor, for Windsor Law alumni who are making a mark early in their careers. Last June, she was honoured with the President’s Award from the Ontario Bar Association, recognizing her significant contribution to the advancement of justice in Ontario.
Much work remains to be done. Sarah continues to push the federal government to comply with the tribunal’s order. Changes have been slow and minimal, she says, and
there are daily, detrimental impacts on Aboriginal kids due to not following the spirit and letter of the law.
As a member of the Ontario government’s Office of the Children’s Lawyer panel, Sarah represents kids in the child welfare system and before the Child and Family Services Review Board. She speaks publicly to raise awareness of ongoing discrimination against First Nations families.
On a segment of TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin after the tribunal decision in 2016, Sarah’s fierce devotion to equality shone through her calm eloquence. She spoke of chronic underfunding on reserves, and of the 163,000 children brought into foster care since the infamous “Sixties Scoop” tore babies and young kids away from their families.
It’s not just about money, Sarah says. “It’s about restoring hope and the integrity of the Aboriginal family unit. It’s about dignity.
How does Sarah juggle her compelling work and her cherished family with two young children? It’s a challenge she shares with her husband, Jim Elson, whom she met in law school.
Jim’s is the hand that keeps the household humming. He gets home by six o’clock every evening from his job as a social policy analyst with the Ontario Bar Association.
I make the menu plans and he executes
says Sarah.
I have working-mom guilt
she readily admits.
I try to be present with my kids as much as possible, but I’m never there for dinner. My goal is to be home before they go to bed. I invest all my attention into those one and a half hours and our time together on weekends.
As to the origins of her extraordinary early accomplishments, her mother, Pat Robinson, reflects: “Sarah was born a leader. As a child, she was always setting the agenda for friends and family. As an adult, she still does. She is able to rally people to the cause, mentor them, inspire them and ultimately lead them to accomplish their shared goals.
Janet Sailian is a freelance communications consultant, writer and editor.
Emma BEQAJ’06 has loved cooking since before she even started school, when she would help out in her mother's kitchen. By Grade 7, she was holding formal dinner parties for her Branksome friends. So it's not surprising that four years ago, she successfully started Emma's Eatery Catering, serving meals and buffets for groups of people in homes, at corporate events, at cottages and at weddings.
Since making that leap of faith, Emma has steadily built a client roster that now includes the National Ballet School and Branksome. And she is getting plenty of notice. She has appeared on CityTV Breakfast Television, Global News The Morning Show and Rogers TV daytime. Last year, her cooking skills got the stamp of approval from the expert judges of Food Network Canada's series Chopped Canada, where she won her episode against three other chefs.
After Branksome, Emma attended Acadia University in Nova Scotia, studying languages, then entered chef school at George Brown College in Toronto. During school and afterward, she worked at a prominent Italian restaurant, but soon found that "the restaurant industry was not for me."
So she went out on her own.
Catering is more than just the food, she says. "It's always different venues, so you're creating the entire ambiance for an event with the linens, the décor, the flowers, the table settings. It's something I'd always thought about and it seemed like the right step.
She regularly consults her collection of some 95 cookbooks –
I read them as literature
– and hopes to write one herself someday. Then there's broadcasting:
I would love to have my own TV show.
Emma has used her skills to help support two Toronto charities. And she keeps on cooking.
I just love how food brings people together.
Victoria CHENG'00 was a finalist on the CBC Television show Canada's Smartest Person, and you can easily see why. She is one of those high-achieving people who is ready for anything. A classically trained violinist from childhood, still playing. A serious athlete, still racing up mountains. A graduate with two MAs, including a Harvard credit. A writer and editor, working at McGill University. And, hardly least, a mother of two young children.
Victoria grew up in Edmonton, then spent three high-school years in her parents' native Hong Kong before moving to Branksome for Grade 13. At Branksome, her language and writings skills flourished.
It was an exciting time for me intellectually, developing my passion for the written word
she says.
She met her future husband, Thomas Leenders, at the University of Waterloo, and later received an MA in English from Western University. The couple married in 2005 and soon after moved to Boston where Thomas was accepted at Harvard. Victoria took the Master's in journalism program at the Harvard Extension School, where she won the Dean's Prize for her thesis. Her classes led to regular freelance work with the Boston Globe and an internship with National Public Radio.
After the couple moved to Montreal, Victoria joined the communications team at McGill University's Faculty of Law, editing the alumni magazine and pioneering a more digital approach. For a time, she edited McGill's research magazine, then rejoined the Faculty of Law in her former role.
Outside work, she volunteers in her daughter's school and plays her violin in an improvisational orchestra.
I don't know from one year to the next what the new one will bring," she says, "but I trust that it's going to be exciting and entertaining and fun.
This year is the Class of 2020's first Reunion, so we're catching up with what they've been up to. This week, we’re talking with Katie KOSCHE’20 all about their academic and outdoor adventures!
This year is the Class of 2020's first Reunion, so we're catching up with what they've been up to. Next up are twin sisters Arianne ETTEHADIEH'20 and Sara ETTEHADIEH'20.
We’d like to introduce you to our amazing Reunion Representatives for this graduation year: Elaine LEE'20, Laeticia NIU'20 and Siena IANNI-PALARCHIO'20.
Meet the AvRuskin Sisters — Hayley (Class of '87), Vanessa (Class of '90) and Gillian (Class of '92).
Thanks to brain surgery, Cassandra POTICHNYJ’07 is two years free of epileptic seizures. But she recalls every detail.
Branksome Hall has partnered with Roots Canada to offer an exclusive collection of co-branded apparel, now available at The Shop. The collection merges Branksome Hall’s spirit and tradition with Roots’ iconic Canadian style, allowing the Branksome community to showcase their school pride with a uniquely Canadian touch.
Branksome Hall’s third annual Branksome on Bay event, held on November 19, 2024, welcomed a record crowd, bringing together professionals, alums and students to explore emerging trends in technology, entrepreneurship and the future of education.
Branksome Hall welcomed alums, employees, parents and guests to campus on October 22 for No Pausing on Menopause, an enlightening evening focused on women’s health.
The Branksome Hall campus was alive with colour, music and excitement as students, parents, employees and alums gathered for a spectacular Brazilian Carnival-themed Welcome Back event on September 13, 2024.
As a member of UCLA’s rowing team, Lauren O’DONOHUE’15 realized it’s not just physical fitness that athletes need to maintain. Their mental well-being is just as vital.
Branksome Hall
10 Elm Ave, Toronto, ON, Canada
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Land Acknowledgement
We wish to acknowledge this land on which Branksome operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Wendat, the Seneca and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and go to school on this land.*
*The Land Acknowledgement may evolve as we honour our commitment to Truth and Reconciliation in partnership with Indigenous communities.
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