Kelly Hannah-Moffat named 2024 Woman of Distinction by YWCA Toronto

The annual award celebrates extraordinary women who are working to advance gender equity across a range of areas such as business, education, social justice, advocacy, health, arts and philanthropy.

Hannah-Moffat, a professor in the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies who is cross-appointed to the department of sociology, is a world-renowned scholar, administrator and advocate for penal reform who is playing a leading role in pushing for change in the criminal justice system, YWCA Toronto noted.

“Her work advocates for human rights and challenges oppressive practices within the justice system, especially those that harm criminalized women who are disproportionately Indigenous and Black. She has forged a path through uncharted territory since the late 1990s,” the award citation reads. “Kelly’s expertise and recommendations have been sought out for numerous legal cases and inquests investigating women’s prison conditions, solitary confinement and rights violations, impacting policies with the prison system.”

YWCA Toronto also cited Hannah-Moffat’s groundbreaking work on risk algorithms and AI’s potential to reproduce bias, structural inequalities and racial discrimination.

She and four other laureates will be celebrated at YWCA Toronto’s Women of Distinction Awards Gala in May.

"I hope learning about the YWCA Women of Distinction Award and its recipients motivates at least one more person to reflect on what they can do and what changes they can make to create opportunities for women in all areas of society," Hannah-Moffat said.

Notisha Massaquoi named a 2023 YWCA Toronto Woman of Distinction

lanthierj — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 16:26:54 +0000

Notisha Massaquoi named a 2023 YWCA Toronto Woman of Distinction

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lanthierj Thu, 03/23/2023 - 12:26

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YWCA Women of Distinction

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(photo by Harry Choi)

Notisha Massaquoi, a world-renowned researcher in health equity, has been recognized with a 2023 YWCA Toronto Women of Distinction Award celebrating women who further gender equality in their field.

An assistant professor in the department of health and society at the ��Ƶ Scarborough, Massaquoi helped establish several organizations serving Black communities in Canada, including Africans in Partnership Against AIDS, TAIBU Community Health Centre and the Women’s Health in Women’s Hands (WHIWH). She also served as the executive director of WHIWH for 22 years.

“Health equity for me is the understanding that people with the lived experience of the inequity are the only experts that can help you find solutions,” she says.

In 2020-21, Massaquoi was a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow at U of T’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and researched the relationship between violence and health in Black communities. After joining U of T Scarborough she founded the Black Health Equity Lab, dedicated to researching health-care inequalities faced by the Black community in Toronto and co-creating solutions

“People can’t be complacent and say ‘Well, we're better off than we were 20 years ago.’ We all still have to be outraged at inequity. And then we all have to act on that collective outrage,” Massaquoi says.

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YWCA Women of Distinction

Kelly Hannah-Moffat named 2024 Woman of Distinction by YWCA Toronto

Read more about the 2024 Women of Distinction awards

Notisha Massaquoi named a 2023 YWCA Toronto Woman of Distinction

Read the U of T Scarborough story