2021 PAC & UTAGA Award Recipients

Glen Norcliffe

Glen Norcliffe’s career as a geographer began at the age of 4 when his 80-year-old kindergarten teacher presented him with an 1869 Phillips World Atlas. He spent the next 10 years searching in vain in newer atlases for Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the process becoming familiar with the World’s geography. His undergraduate studies at Cambridge coincided with the “awakening” of geography led by figures such as Peter Haggett and Richard Chorley. He continued his graduate work at the University of Toronto where Leslie Curry and Emilio Casetti were pointing the discipline in new directions. His doctorate at Bristol University, supervised by Michael Chisholm, confirmed his focus on industrial geography and regional growth. He joined the Faculty of York University in 1970 and 52 years later is still a faculty member, although his research interests have evolved to embrace social, political and cultural constructions within economic geography. Visiting fellowships in Kenya, France, Great Britain and China have led to several fruitful research projects. He is currently working on the sport economy, technology (especially for the disabled), and interpretations of extractive peripheries.

Keisha St. Louis-McBurnie

Keisha St. Louis-McBurnie is an urban planner and researcher, born and raised in co-operative housing in downtown Toronto. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts (Hons. B.A.) in Political Science and Urban Studies with High Distinction from the University of Toronto, and is a recent graduate of the Master of Science in Planning (MScPl) program in the Department of Geography and Planning. As a student in the Department, Keisha served as President of the Graduate Geography and Planning Student Society (GGAPSS) in the 2019-2020 academic year. As GGAPSS President, she contributed significantly to graduate education and programming, working alongside the Department to increase equitable access to funding, creating and promoting mentorship opportunities, and establishing the GGAPSS COVID-19 Bursary for students. Facing the challenges of the first year of the pandemic, her leadership ensured the successful continuation of graduate student orientation, including anti-oppression training to foster a safer and more just learning environment. Her advocacy and communication also extended to the work of challenging the Department to actively address systemic anti-Black racism at the University. This includes serving as a student representative on the 2020 Planning Pro-gram Review Committee to support the critical reimagining of our curriculum.

Academically, Keisha has been the recipient of a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship-Masters (CGS-M) by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research. 

Puneh Jamshidi

Puneh is a recent graduate from the School of Urban and Regional Planning, Toronto Metropolitan University, and holds a B.A. from the University of Toronto, where she specialized in Environmental Geography and minored in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). As President of UTAGA, Puneh has shown excellent leadership and initiative and has fostered a sense of community. Amidst the challenges of the pandemic, she ensured numerous opportunities for alumni connection and discussion, including UTAGA meetings and a successful annual lecture. Through her passion for the fields of geography and planning, as well as her knowledge of the student experience, Puneh has promoted new perspectives and an ongoing engagement between alumni and students.

Angela Gibson

Angela joined the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) in 2020 as Head, Strategy and Fore-sight responsible for ensuring that the third largest transit agency in North America is ready for change and disruption. Angela leads a challenging effort of integrating equity and inclusion in her diverse portfolio which includes fare policy, digital connectivity, innovation, accessibility and systems planning. Angela is a Registered Professional Planner with over 18 years of urban planning experience focused on creating complete and connected communities through facilitating the synergies between land use and transit planning. Prior to joining the TTC, Angela worked for various municipal governments including York, Durham and the Town of Ajax in the capacity of leading intergovernmental relations, transportation planning, diversity and inclusion programs and strategic plans. As a city builder Angela has led a number of major regional initiatives including transportation planning for urban growth centres and universal accessibility programs. Angela is an alumnus of the University of Toronto Urban Planning program where she has established a scholarship (named after her father, Thomas Panton) for visible minorities in the Urban Planning field at the University of Toronto to help support continued diversity within the planning profession.

Renee Gomes

Renée is a champion of creative, multi-sector approaches to city building, and she has led numerous strategies for advancing public policy objectives through commercially successful real estate projects. She graduated from University of Toronto’s Planning program in 2004, after which she served as a member of the Planning Alumni Committee for several years. Renée’s experience includes both public and private sector roles, through which she has led complex master planning and municipal approvals initiatives in Toronto’s waterfront, across the Greater Toronto Area, and in England. She was most recently Chief Development Officer at First Gulf Corporation, and in January 2022 she will be joining DiamondCorp as the Senior Vice President of Development. Together with Jeffrey Cantos, Renée designed and instructs the Land Use Planning course in the University of Toronto’s Program in Planning. She is passionate about helping students to understand Ontario’s planning framework and how it can be used to shape communities. Renée is a Board Director of Evergreen and a member of the Management Committee for ULI Toronto. She is a Registered Professional Planner and a member of the Canadian Institute of Planners.

Jeffrey Cantos

Since graduating from the Department in 2004, Jeffrey has been involved with Planning students and the program. Jeff was an active participant with the Planning Alumni Commit-tee and Chaired PAC between 2009-2011. During his time as PAC Chair, he mobilized his former classmates in instituting the Matthew Hanson Planning Opportunities Workshop in honour of our classmate, Matt, who is dearly missed. Jeff co-taught Land Use Planning for the last ten years and always has a sense of pride when he interacts with former students in a professional setting. More recently, Jeff (with Renee Gomes) designed and executed the Professional Development Modules for Planning students intended to expose students to the various paths they can take post-graduation, along with helpful tips for their journey. Jeff is currently the Manager for the City of Toronto’s Official Plan Review, where’s he is centring his team’s work around policies that seek equitable outcomes for all Torontonians and those yet to arrive.

Natalia Zdaniuk is a writer, former geography student, and the Events & Communications Coordinator for the Department of Geography & Planning. As a graduate student in the department, Natalia completed her M.A. thesis exploring queer struggles for ‘safer spaces’ through the lens of critical-race and decolonial scholarship. As the Events & Communications Coordinator for the last three years, she has worked with the Planning Alumni Committee (PAC) and University of Toronto Association of Geography Alumni (UTAGA) to organize events and outreach, including the annual UTAGA lecture series, the PAC Spring Social, and award activities. Natalia’s background in social and political geography has also played an important role in her fiction writing which she will continue to pursue at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in Fall 2022.