Meet the winners of KPU’s 2024 JEDI awards

🔊 Listen to Post

Each year, the Justice, Equity, Diversion, and Inclusion (JEDI) awards celebrate exceptional individuals doing significant work towards improving the inclusivity of Kwantlen Polytechnic University. 

This year, three individuals were selected for the award — Ann Marie Davison, Greg Chan, and Destiny Lang. The recipients were awarded during a ceremony on April 25 at the KPU Langley campus.

Davison is a KPU biology instructor and chair of the university’s accessibility committee. She has also been a member of the Disability Inclusion Group (DIG) at KPU, which did accessibility work prior to the establishment of the accessibility committee.

Davison was a key in contributing to KPU’s first official accessibility plan, which launched in fall last year. She has also done advocacy work for accessibility over her more than 20-year-long career at KPU.

“I want to make a place where disability isn’t a bad word,” she says, adding that in the Fir and Spruce building, there used to be a lounge that was two steps down in the hallway leading to the atrium. 

“One day, when I was at a meeting, chatting about things that needed to change, I brought that up and said, ‘For 20 years, I’ve been looking to students two steps down, and I really hate that.’” 

After bringing it up at the meeting, it was eventually changed. With decades of work, Davison says receiving the award was gratifying. 

“It was really nice to have someone say, ‘Hey, you deserve an award for what you’ve been doing.’”

To break down JEDI barriers, Davison says it’s important to talk to people and ask whether they need assistance, but to do so respectfully. She also encourages students to fill out an optionally anonymous feedback form on KPU’s website, discussing how to make the university more accessible. 

Chan has been an English instructor at KPU for the past 29 years. He specializes in film studies and teaches upper-level English courses, along with the ARTS 4800 practicum. He is also the director of KDocs Film Festival’s community outreach program and a juror for the Sundar Prize Film Festival. 

In classes, Chan highlights BIPOC representation in literature and film. The intersectionality of marginalized groups is also a big part of his service work, research, and teaching. 

One of Chan’s most meaningful experiences was when he was teaching an English class in the fall of 2019. They were exploring Obasan, a novel by Canadian author and Japanese internment camp survivor Joy Kogawa.

In collaboration with KPU instructor Ying-Yueh Chuang’s ceramics class, they made a ceramics piece and hosted an art show. Today, those pieces can be found in the Historic Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver. 

The KDocsFF community outreach program focuses on students, learning, and social justice. 

“We like to call it documentary activism,” Chan says. 

In 2023, KDocsFF sparked a creative collaboration that Chan coordinated, resulting in the Kat Norris mural installed in the Surrey campus library. 

Chan says JEDI work has always been a part of his life and that receiving the award “was a powerful experience.” 

“I’m very pleased because I believe it represents the work and the people that I feel I represent in these communities and organizations.”

To foster JEDI, Chan says to participate as much as possible — there is programming available in the Office of the Vice President, Equity and Inclusive Communities (OEIC), KDocsFF, and its Social Justice Lab to get started.

Lang is a third-year fashion design student and was the Kwantlen Student Association queer students representative for the 2023-24 term. Participating in queer and intersectional advocacy work, they are a KPU Pride peer leader and were part of the university’s panel discussion on understanding SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) on May 15.

Earlier this year, Lang successfully advocated for gender-affirming health care to be covered by the KSA’s medical insurance, which will come into effect in September. They say they were happy when a friend told them she would be able to start some of her medical transition when the coverage kicks in. 

Lang says being exposed to inequalities and social justice spaces led to a natural progression towards the JEDI work they do to make the world more equitable. 

“No one is free until all of us are free,” they say. “To me, the JEDI award means that I have influenced a significant societal change.” 

Lang says to get involved, whether that’s with social identities like queer, BIPOC, and disabled communities or even just participating in something local to contribute to JEDI.

“A lot of us are deeply ingrained [with] harmful ideas that we don’t realize,” they say. “If you want to open yourself up to learning about different people, cultures, [and] histories, [then] be curious [and] non-judgmental, and that includes not judging the community or proof that you’re learning from but also your internal reaction.”