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Niagara College graduates go on to have impactful and important careers. With their diplomas, degrees and certificates in hand, they shape industries and communities, affecting everything from what we eat or wear to our safety and security. 

Their efforts don’t go unnoticed. Niagara College has nominated seven members of its alumni community for the 2021 Ontario Premier’s Awards. Presented annually by Colleges Ontario, the Premier’s Awards celebrate the outstanding contributions of college alumni in Ontario and throughout the world. Awards are presented in seven categories: Apprenticeship, Business, Community Services, Creative Arts and Design, Health Sciences, Recent Graduate, and Technology.

Here are Niagara College’s 2021 Premier’s Awards nominees: 

Technology — Wanito Bernadin

Chief Information Officer, National Capital Commission of Canada, and graduate of NC’s Business Administration – Marketing (Co-op) program (2003)

Wanito Bernadin oversees heritage buildings, agriculture facilities, infrastructure, including bridges and parklands, and the six official residences in Canada’s capital, Ottawa. His mandate is to ensure the nation’s capital is a source of pride for all Canadians. His portfolio also includes cybersecurity.

Bernadin is known for his public speaking and people skills,. He also has a talent for bringing out the best in his staff. 

In his free time, he is heavily involved in his community, counselling members of his church and feeding and caring for people living in challenged communities within Ottawa.

View Alumni Spotlight on Wanito Bernadin here.

Apprenticeship – Aaron Foster

Executive Chef, W Hotel, and graduate of NC’s Culinary Management (Co-op) program (2003)

Aaron Foster was recently appointed executive chef at the new W Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. In that role, he oversees two restaurants headed up by New York celebrity chef Andrew Carmellini and helps to generate revenue of more than $30 million. 

Foster has spent much of his work life in hotel kitchens around the world. Earlier in his career, he was named best new chef by an influential Thai magazine when he worked in the Red Sky Restaurant at the Centara Grand Hotel. Under his leadership, Red Sky was also named best new restaurant. 

He’s accomplished much, all with a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which he speaks about openly in an effort to support young cooks facing similar challenges. 

View Alumni Spotlight on Aaron Foster here.

Business – Lora Tisi

International retail strategist, and graduate of NC’s Fashion Arts program (1979)

By being able to tap into the emotions and memories of the consumer, Lora Tisi has helped grow emerging fashion retailers into name brands all of us have likely had in our closets at one time or another. In the mid-1980s, she grew Northern Reflections into an iconic purveyor of high-quality sweatshirts, rising from buyer to company president in just 13 years. From there, she led American Eagle Outfitters in Canada, launching 46 stores in 108 days. The it was on to RW&CO where she grew the fashion chain’s market for men by recruiting Montreal Canadiens hockey player P.K. Subban as a model. She also established an Indigenous ambassador in model Ashley Callingbull for the brand.

More recently, Tisi became a board member for the Indigenous Advanced Education Skills Council (IAESC), which works to address the low graduation rate among Indigenous youth, and was appointed to Niagara College’s Board of Governors earlier this year. 

View Alumni Spotlight on Lora Tisi here.

Community Services – Monique Belair

Director of Emergency Services and Fire Chief, City of Belleville, and graduate of NC’s Law and Security Administration program (1985)

Monique Belair is the City of Belleville’s Director of Emergency Services and Fire Chief. But she’s also a seasoned pro at helping young women see their potential in non-traditional careers, just like she was able to do herself when she enlisted in the Canadian Forces Fire Academy at 19.

Throughout her career, Belair has worked diverse posts, including fire suppression, communications, training and education, investigation, and fire prevention. She also spent seven years working in the Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office, and was Deputy Fire Chief for both the St. Catharines and Oakville fire departments.

In 2019, she established Camp Molly where she gives teenage girls the chance to wear firefighter uniforms and have real-life and practical learning experiences.

View Alumni Spotlight on Monique Belair here.

Creative Arts and Design – Mark Suknanan/Priyanka

Entertainer, first winner of Canada’s Drag Race, and graduate of NC’s Broadcasting – Radio, Television and Film program (2012)

When Mark Suknanan walked into an audition for the first edition of Canada’s Drag Race dressed as Priyanka, he knew his life was going to change. It did. Weeks later, Priyanka walked off the reality television show set as its first winner. 

More than that, Priyanka was the first drag queen of Indo-Caribbean descent to win in the worldwide Drag Race franchise. Next came the cover of Elle Magazine. Priyanka was the first drag queen featured on the front of the iconic fashion glossy. All of it followed 10 years of hard work to become a hugely popular correspondent on the YTV kids’ show, The Zone.

View Alumni Spotlight on Mark Suknanan/Priyanka here.

Health Science – Kevin Smith

Chief of Niagara Emergency Medical Services, Director of Emergency Services Division, and graduate of NC’s Ambulance and Emergency Care program (1992)

The Mobile Integrative Health Program that Kevin Smith spent 10 years developing has become a provincial model for a new type of emergency care. 

The program came to be after calls to Niagara Emergency Medical Services started reaching unmanageable levels, taking a toll on paramedics and the health system. Many of those calls didn’t qualify as acute but they still needed help. 

To solve the problem, Smith partnered paramedics with a mental health practitioner or occupational therapist. Instead of waiting for a call, they would go into the community to assess needs of frequent callers and connect them with the right resources. Smith also started a pilot program that put a nurse in dispatch to triage calls that weren’t acute. Seeing the importance of the program, which is unique to Niagara, the province invested $8.2 million in it this year.

Smith, whose career spans more than three decades, is also a member of Niagara College’s Board of Governors.

View Alumni Spotlight on Kevin Smith here.

Recent Graduate – Ryan Thorpe

Investigative reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press, and graduate of NC’s Journalism program (2017)

Ryan Thorpe could have still been called a cub reporter when he went undercover and infiltrated a neo-Nazi group just two years after graduating from journalism school. Still, he succeeded, broke the story and then continued following it as the group’s leader was arrested in the U.S., where he awaits sentencing for planning a terror attack there. The dangerous work earned Thorpe prestigious professional awards and nominations, national and international media attention, and a CBC podcast called White Hot Hate, a six-part series following the case from Thorpe’s perspective as an infiltrator.  

All of this followed winning a National Newspaper Award for his writing about drug use and gang violence in Winnipeg where he continues to chase important and challenging stories that tap into his interest in social justice issues.

View Alumni Spotlight on Ryan Thorpe here.

Premier’s Awards nominees will be celebrated and winners will be announced at a gala event later this year. 

Over the years, several Niagara College alumni have been recognized with Premier’s Awards, including:

• 2014 winner Royal Canadian Navy Capt. Rebecca Patterson (Nursing grad, 1987);
• 2012 winner David Pratt (Greenhouse Technician grad, 2007);
• 2011 winner Jerry Howell (Computer Engineering Technology grad, 1988);
• 2008 winner Jordan Harris (Winery and Viticulture Technician grad, 2004);
• 2003 winner Heather Kilty (Social Welfare Worker grad, 1969); and
• 1995 winner Carol Alaimo (Journalism-Print grad, 1984).

For information about the Premier’s Awards and 2021 nominees, visit co-awards.org/