This year, the recipient of OISE CPL’s Award of Excellence is Gelareh Keshavarz.
Gelareh started her journey with UofT in 2009, and with OISE’s Continuing and Professional Learning division in 2019. Between designing, developing, and facilitating CPL courses, Gelareh’s proactive collaborations and engagement with our extended CPL and learner communities, in Canada and internationally, have been unwavering. As a Learning Consultant at CPL, Gelareh has proven the transformative power education can have and its ability to expand the learners’ horizons, and moreover, to connect educational communities, beyond geographical borders.
In addition to using the most effective instructional methods, materials, technology, and learning management systems, Gelareh pushes the limits of her role as a Learning Consultant and, like an architect, pays extra care to the learners’ needs, interests, and abilities as she develops her innovative learning solutions. She even goes to the extent of immersing herself in the learners’ culture to maximize the impact of her proactive approach to learner engagement.
In the spirit of celebrating EDI on today’s forum, it is important to also highlight Gelareh’s commitment to expand CPL’s community reach and support its commitment to education mobility. For example, she applied the EDI lens and UDL guidelines to ensure student-centered relevancy. More recently, Gelareh has started co-developing CPL’s first Occupation-Specific Language Program.
Gelareh, thank you for your support, professionalism, and camaraderie. It’s an honour to work with you!
