Award Recipients: 2021
Every year, Algonquin College celebrates the incredible achievements of its alumni through the Alumni of Distinction Awards. These awards honour the extraordinary contributions our graduates make to the community while achieving career success.
Here are the 2021 recipients:
Alumna of the Year: Patricia Boal
Co-anchor, CTV Ottawa News
Journalism – Print, 1994
Patricia Boal is co-anchor of CTV News at Six, alongside Graham Richardson. She has a passion for telling stories and breaking news, and has held positions from sports anchor to news anchor, covering many significant stories. Boal did live coverage of the 2018 Ottawa-area tornadoes, reported from the flood zone in 2017 and 2019, and reported from several Olympic Games for the Olympic News Channel. She has also interviewed such notable Canadians as Alex Trebeck and Corey Hart. Boal also worked as an anchor at 580 CFRA, where she covered the Canadian Peacekeepers in Bosnia in 1999, the federal referendum vote in Montreal in 1995, and the Paul Bernardo murder trial in Toronto in the same year. She also did sideline reporting for CFRA’s Ottawa Rough Riders broadcast and hosted Overtime, a weekly show focusing on the Ottawa Senators on Rogers TV. Boal gives back to her community by co-anchoring the annual CHEO telethon and hosting numerous local charity events (in person and virtually!)
Read Patricia Boal’s biography
Apprenticeship: Adam Vettorel
Co-Owner and Chef, North & Navy and Cantina Gia
Cook Apprenticeship, 2007
Adam Vettorel is owner and chef of North & Navy and Cantina Gia. North & Navy has led the Ottawa restaurant industry in recreating itself and adapting due to the pandemic. Vettorel has been featured in the local media heavily since the advent of COVID-19.
Vettorel is a graduate of the Cook apprenticeship program and honed his craft working under many notable chefs.
North & Navy has been named one of Ottawa Magazine’s Top 10 Restaurants. Vettorel has launched a podcast – At the Pass with Adam Vettorel – in which he talks with prominent chefs in the Ottawa restaurant scene.
Read Adam Vettorel’s biography.
Business: Michael Wood
Former Chief Marketing Officer/Managing Partner, Ottawa Special Events
Travel Counsellor, 1997
Michael Wood’s professional experiences started in the music industry as a touring musician. Retiring from playing professionally in 2007, he moved on to operate a music management and marketing company, co-founded an AI communication company, wrote a best-selling music business book and co-founded Ottawa Special Events, a one-stop-shop for all event production rentals.
Wood has also become a leading voice for small business in the National Capital Region. He has led a delegation of business owners via round tables with Ministers both provincially and federally. To date, Wood has helped connect over 50,000 people to Ministers, MPs and MPPs.
Changing Lives: Tom Sidney
Councillor, Town of Renfrew
Clinic Manager, Robbie Dean Centre
Social Service Worker, 2002
Social Services Worker Tom Sidney has dedicated his career to helping vulnerable people, specializing in suicide prevention and post-suicide debriefing, and working with individuals and families in crisis. He is also an exceptional public speaker who provides engaging community training sessions on mental-health-related topics. As Clinical Manager of the Robbie Dean Family Counselling Centre and an elected Councillor for the Town of Renfrew , Sidney continues to dedicate himself to helping people. He has also been the Eastern Ontario coordinator for Emergency Disaster Services, Social Service Department of the Salvation Army including being the coordinator/ Team Leader for the joint Salvation Army/Red Cross Victim Response Team with Ottawa Fire Service. Sidney is a suicide prevention specialist and diamond-award-winning certified empowerment coach.
Community Services: Crystal Martin-Lapenskie
President and CEO, Okpik Consulting
Social Service Worker, 2013
Crystal Martin-Lapenskie has traveled around the world, working directly with Indigenous leaders, elected officials and like-minded individuals to highlight the most pressing social justice issues facing Inuit youth. A voice for Inuit communities, she has taken on leadership positions in economic development areas while also supporting not-for-profit organizations and starting her own consulting business.
She has consulted with every level of government and notable corporations to further the 94 calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation report, which have become her playbook as she brings attention to the issues facing young people in Canada’s North.
Read Crystal Martin-Lapenskie’s biography
Creative Arts & Design: Joseph A. Dandurand
Poet; Director, Kwantlen Cultural Centre
General Arts and Science (Theatre/Performing Arts), 1990
Joseph A. Dandurand is a prolific poet, a playwright, a storyteller, a researcher, an archaeologist and Director of the Kwantlen Cultural Centre. A member of the Kwantlen First Nation, Dandurand has had a passion and talent for storytelling from a young age. After receiving his degree from Algonquin College, he studied theatre and direction at the University of Ottawa and went on to produce several plays. He was the playwright-in-residence for the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, for Native Earth in Toronto, and for the National Arts Centre. For the last 14 years, he has been the Heritage/Lands Officer for his people, tasked with protecting his people’s heritage from the many destructive elements of development in the Kwantlen territory.
Read Joseph A. Dandurand’s biography
Health Sciences: Kim Franchina
Registered Nurse, St. Patrick’s Home of Ottawa Foundation
Nursing, 1991
Nursing Assistant Program, 1988
Over the course of her nursing career, Kim Franchina has dedicated herself to lifelong learning, continuously updating her skills, education and knowledge. Since graduating from the Nursing program at Algonquin College, she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Nursing, and has Canadian Nurses Association specializations in oncology and hospice/palliative care, in addition to other specialized training. Her cutting-edge knowledge is essential to her role as a professor at Algonquin, and in her role as a nurse. She has served in numerous nursing positions over the years, including developing and rolling out an 18-month pilot project at The Ottawa Hospital for under-served patients with sickle cell disease. She has volunteered with the Canadian Association of Nurses in Oncology on the Champlain Chapter Executive and was a National Recognition of Excellence committee member with the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. A Thalidomide survivor, Franchina has participated in many marathons and other physical activities to raise funds for charity and uses her experiences as a survivor to show her patients and students who feel overwhelmed with challenges that anything can be overcome with the right attitude and determination.
Read Kim Franchina’s biography
Brian Fraser Recent Graduate: Carl Clergé
Senior Analyst, Multi Unit Underwriting, CMHC
Business Administration – Finance, 2016
Carl Clergé pushed forward with an ambitious objective to raise enough funds to ensure an endowed bursary for a Black student at his alma mater. It was a goal he quickly reached through advocacy and community outreach. He rallied his network and raised $15,000 in four months, a feat for a recent graduate in his 20s. Motivated by both his mother’s hard work to provide him a sound education after she immigrated in 1989 and the Black Lives Matter movement, Clergé is making a difference in the lives of students today and for generations to come.
Rena Bowen Volunteer of the Year: Jeffrey Lalonde
Constable, Cornwall Police Services
Police Foundations, 1999
Jeffrey Lalonde has a long history of connecting with community, youth and local businesses as a constable with the Cornwall Police Services and as a dedicated volunteer. He was a longtime negotiator in Cornwall Police Service’s history, spent over five years in its crime prevention branch, and is the former Vice President of the Cornwall Police Association. In 2013, he and his wife founded an annual local charity event in support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which has raised over $150,000. He organized a soccer fundraiser for local competitive soccer teams for four years that had youth playing against the local police, raising $40,000 for the teams in the process. In 2019, he was awarded the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers.
Read Jeffrey Lalonde’s biography
Technology: Marc Brouillard
Chief Technology Officer, Government of Canada
Sommelier, 2004
Computer Science, 1995
In his career as a senior public service and private sector executive, Marc Brouillard has provided vision and strategic leadership in pursuing world-class excellence in digital transformation, information management and technology, and cybersecurity. He is currently Chief Technology Officer for the Government of Canada in the Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and acted as the interim Chief Information Officer of Canada at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. Before he joined the Government of Canada, Brouillard was Vice President of Business Development for an ecommerce services start up and held numerous positions in technology consulting and business development at Montage IT Services, a division of MTS/Allstream.
Read Marc Brouillard’s biography
Alumni Employer of the Year: Mercury Filmworks
Mercury Filmworks is an independent Canadian entertainment studio based in Ottawa that collaborates with partners across the globe to produce world-class content. Founded in Vancouver in 1997 by Clint Eland, the current CEO, the studio has animated award-winning premium features and TV shows for Disney, Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Universal, Nickelodeon, DreamWorks, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, and more. Mercury has over 350 employees at its Ottawa location, 94 of whom are Algonquin College alumni. The studio has a history of hiring and mentoring Algonquin College graduates and has supported the College through fundraising. In 2020, Mercury was named one of the Best Offices in Ottawa by the Ottawa Business Journal.