Awards & Bursaries

Message from FSA President, Colin Jones; on behalf of the FSA Board of Directors.

Since 2014, the BCIT Faculty & Staff Association have partnered with BCIT and the BCIT Alumni Association for the Distinguished Alumni Awards (DAA) by honouring a BCIT alumnus who returned to the Institute as an FSA member. Following a call for nominations from the FSA membership, the FSA board deliberated over the submitted nominees and we are thrilled to officially announce our selection for 2022.

Despite a pandemic-related postponement in this initiative, the FSA is thrilled to announce the next recipient for the BCITFSA Distinguished Alumni Award!

For over 30 years, Judy Shandler has been an integral part of BCIT. Judy initially joined BCIT as an instructor and then moved into IT Services (ITS) while continuing to teach in Part-Time Studies (PTS) . In both Judy’s teaching and ITS work as a Senior Business Analyst, Judy has spent her career helping BCIT deliver excellence in education. Judy has always approached this work with a generous and cooperative spirit, along with her expert knowledge of systems and methodologies.

Over the years, Judy has taken on a range of initiatives that advance, and improve, the work of her colleagues. While serving as the FSA Performance Development System (PDS) Coordinator (the PDS is a collaboration between the FSA and BCIT), Judy led initiatives for the continuous improvement of faculty and technical staff through student, client, and peer feedback. This enables providing insights to support each individual’s pursuit of professional development and professional improvement over the continuum of their time at BCIT.

In her work as the PDS Coordinator, Judy has met with hundreds of colleagues to collaborate, promote the resources and tools, receive feedback from users, encourage participation, and ultimately bring the old, paper system online. Having a robust best practices approach to professional development empowers individuals while promoting teaching and service excellence.

Judy has served as an FSA Tech Rep, on numerous committees representing the FSA membership, and is currently a member of the FSA’s elected board of directors. Her commitments extend throughout the BCIT community and into the greater Vancouver community as a Dragonboating and Outrigger Coach.

Judy has coached continuously, since 1987 to the present, at False Creek Racing Canoe Club and Dragon Zone Paddling Club in Vancouver, sharing her coaching skills to support these organizations which provide sport and recreation to paddlers of all ages and abilities, enhancing the health and wellbeing of the wider community.

FSA members work every day to advance public, post-secondary education in the areas of teaching, student services, and research. FSA members’ contributions are crucial to the FSA and to BCIT but also to British Columbia and beyond. Judy’s service to both BCIT and her union makes this community stronger every day.

Constantly learning and improving, Judy has completed a Masters and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership, as well as achieving the Lean Greenbelt Certification. Judy combines her passion for lifelong learning with a passion for collaboration. It’s her skills in fostering exceptional professional relationships with colleagues and clients that have propelled Judy’s work to the highest level.

Judy’s nominators had these words to say about Judy:

Judy has a great spirit of collaboration and listening, and is able to bring her expertise to situations in a sensitive and empathetic way. I believe Judy’s contributions speak for themselves in making this a better place for all of us to work, including through her role as a Tech Rep and her elected position on the BCIT Board of Governors. I am proud to know Judy and honoured to nominate her for this award. 

Judy has often said to me, “I want to know that my work matters.” This drives Judy to connect with people, organizations, communities, and committees. She sits on the BCIT Board of Governors, helping set the future for BCIT, she sits on numerous FSA committees that offer her an opportunity to help people and share her wisdom. 

Judy is consistently concerned with quality, fairness, and equity, and in her unassuming way, and in the face of apathy, ignorance, and outright resistance, she just keeps doing her best to make things better. And she generally succeeds. 

As FSA president, it is my honour to celebrate members. It is a great pleasure to join the FSA board in recognizing Judy for her accomplishments, her dedication to the FSA, and her commitment to sharing her experience with others. We look forward to presenting the award to Judy in May at the BCIT Distinguished Awards event.

We encourage members to watch for an opportunity to nominate an FSA colleague for the next BCITFSA Distinguished Alumni Award. You can see all past FSA DAA recipients here. 

Two notes with respect to the pandemic-influenced delay for this announcement. First, the recipient was selected prior to their election to the FSA board and thus was eligible for the award at the time of selection. The award would normally have been presented in October 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic. The current plan is for the awards to be presented on May 9, 2022.