Gervan Fearon, president of George Brown College (GBC) was appointed to the Order of Ontario on Jan. 1.
The appointment recognized his commitment to providing transformative education, and his focus on equity, inclusion and community empowerment.
“I think the opportunity to be able to inspire our students here at George Brown College, to be able to say to communities, to individuals at a broad level across Ontario, across Canada, maybe even broader that their work their efforts [are] important… It’s quite an honor and quite amazing as well,” Fearon said.
Fearon has been president of GBC since August 2021. Prior to joining GBC, he served as the president at Brock University for four years.
He also served in the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Ontario Ministry of Finance, along with being part of various community boards.
At GBC, Fearon is committed to providing educational experiences that are equitable and help strengthen communities and individuals.
He mentions individual impacts he has had as an educator as one of the highlights of his career so far.
“I’ve had students, community members, just a wide range of individuals who have pointed to my activities in a classroom or in research or engagement with community where they go, ‘what you contributed to me resulted in me finding a career in banking’ or in not for profit or in volunteer work and so forth,” Fearon said.
Fearon also highlighted his learning in technology and innovation as a highlight in his career. Under his leadership, GBC has ventured into constructing the largest institutional mass timber building – the Limberlost building – in Ontario.
“What’s been really profound for me is to recognize that not only are we teaching skills and, and, and amazing abilities and people go out and do amazing things, but we’re also working with individuals who are going to go out and become a key driver in in the economy, and create jobs and employment and new products for so many people,” Fearon says, reflecting on his experiences so far as president of GBC.
Fearon is the first black president of GBC, in addition to being the first black president of a Canadian university during his time at Brock University.
He therefore shared that equity in education has been important in what he does. As part of this, Fearon mentioned the importance of being involved with the Scarborough Charter in his career.
The Scarborough Charter was initiated by the University of Toronto in collaboration with other colleges and institutions to recognize Black racism and build a way forward to ensure institutional accountability.
“I got a chance to work on the original steering committee on some of that work,” said Fearon.
Noella Milne, GBC’s chancellor was also recently awarded with the Order of Canada, after previously being appointed to the Order of Ontario.
“It basically says to everybody associated with the college that you have that we have here at the college, some of the highest recognized at a societal level, Canada, Ontario level, some of the best people as recognized by their peers…and that’s something for us all to be proud of, but also to recognize that one’s professor and instructor in the classroom, the staff, your colleagues, that you are amongst amazing people in their own right,” Fearon said.
Fearon shared that these recognitions for individuals at GBC bring a lot of attention to the college and its various initiatives.
“I think that one of the value propositions that we do as a college is that our students, our alumni can say ‘I went there’ and it advertises for itself, and it brings esteem for itself,” he said. “And as a result, we bring value to all our alumni, all our students. So, in that sense, I think it really does, you know, bolster the reputation of the college.”
Fearon shared that the Order of Ontario allows him to amplify the effects of his actions and allow him to make a bigger impact from now onwards.
