BSN
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Patrick Byam is a McGill Alum with over a dozen years of experience in the healthcare, education and non-profit sectors. As a passionate champion of healthcare advancement, Patrick has spent his career building positive change in healthcare delivery in Canada, the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean.
Patrick graduated from McGill in 2004 with a degree in Psychology and Biology. He also holds a Master of Public Health from Yale University, and a Master of Health Administration from the University of Ottawa. Currently, Patrick is the Director of the Safe and Health Schools Branch within the Ontario Ministry of Education. His team develops and supports the implementation of policies and programs to build safe, healthy and inclusive school environments across Ontario.
Some of Patrick’s favourite experiences at McGill include taking an immunology course on infectious diseases, competing on the varsity
swim team, and his time as a member of the Caribbean Students Society (CSS). Patrick is motivated to transform lives, reduce inequities, and build healthy and vibrant communities where people feel a sense of community and belonging.
To current students, Patrick says: “Believe in yourself, put in your best effort, and be willing to learn and to grow”.
Feel free to reach out to Patrick via LinkedIn!
Patrick’s family has a beautiful history at McGill that must be highlighted:
My great-grandfather, Oliver Michael Francis, is an inspiration for our family. He was born in Grenada in 1887 as the son of a slave. My great-grandfather was quite ambitious. He moved to New York then to Nova Scotia, worked on the railroad for a number of years, and then got into McGill Medicine.
During his time at McGill University, my great-grandfather was one of only 18 black students studying medicine. In the midst of World War I and the 1918 Flu Pandemic, my great grandfather served the black community in Montreal. He ultimately became a surgeon with a keen interest in public health. Following his studies and further training in Nova Scotia, he returned to the Caribbean and became one of the first black doctors in the region.
My grandmother was born in Guyana. She and her brother both went to McGill in the 1940s. My grandmother studied geography and then attended teachers college at Columbia University. My great-uncle studied law and eventually went into engineering settling in Canada.
Fast forward to the 1970s, my mother studied architecture at McGill. One generation later, I completed my Bachelor of Science at McGill. I was soon followed by youngest sister, Maxine, who also completed her undergraduate studies at McGill.
To me, the story of my great-grandfather demonstrates the transformative power of a good education…it has the profound power to transform lives for generations to come.
PRISCILLA JABOUIN
Priscilla Jabouin is a McGill Alum with significant expertise in career counseling and coaching; personal and professional development training; program design, facilitation, and implementation; and mindfulness and self-awareness.
Priscilla graduated from McGill in 2012 with a Masters in Counselling Psychology. She also holds a BA Honours in Psychology from the University of Ottawa, a Bachelor in Education from Queen’s University, and an MA in Child’s Study from Concordia University. In 2017, she launched her holistic coaching business and brand My Map to Happiness. She empowers women to start living a life they love by inspiring them to define and pursue their purpose. Additionally, Priscilla is the Career Specialist for the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.
In 2014, after realising that she no longer enjoyed the constraints of a 9-5 job, Priscilla decided to embark on a journey of self-discovery. She quit her full-time job and moved to the Bahamas to live in a yogic spiritual community. This was a life-changing experience where she discovered herself, what is important to her, and how she wants to live her life.
Priscilla’s message to younger folks (including her younger self) would be that everything that is happening at any given moment, especially in one's career, is a piece of a bigger puzzle that will make sense once you start putting the pieces together.
Feel free to reach out to Priscilla via LinkedIn and include a message on why you’d like to connect!
Anthony Morgan is a McGill Law Alum and a passionate advocate for Black rights. He is currently the Manager of the City of Toronto’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism Unit, where he leads a team of 7 (and soon to be more!) people to ensure the implementation of the Toronto Action Plan to Confront Anti-Black Racism. The unit takes an intersectional, anti-racist approach to policy planning development. Anthony is also a freelance columnist for The Monitor, where his column Colour-Coded Justice appears regularly.
In addition to holding an LL.B. and B.C.L. from McGill University Faculty of Law, Anthony is completing a Masters of Studies in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford. He also holds an Hons. B.A. from the University of Toronto in Ethics, Society & Law.
Being the only Black man in his year at McGill Law, Anthony stressed
ANTHONY MORGAN
the importance of student groups such as the BSN, the BLSAM, and the BLSAC that foster community. These organizations helped him navigate McGill’s predominantly white spaces and granted him the opportunity to discuss blackness as well as Black people and the law.
Since graduating from McGill, one of Anthony’s most difficult yet memorable experiences was travelling to Geneva, Switzerland to speak to the UN Human Rights Committees -- specifically the Committee on Economics, Social, and Cultural Rights -- and represent the issues of Black Canadians. Prior to attending, Anthony had written the report “The Blackening Marginalization of Multiculturalism in Canada” and was set to highlight the key arguments from this paper. The immense weight of bringing Black voices to a world stage made him nervous to speak up at first, but the failure of other academics and activists to distinctly name Anti-Black racism led him to rise to the occasion in order for his report to not get lost in the pile. Anthony’s advocacy successfully enabled the UN Committee to make 5 points & calls for change for African Canadians.
To current Black students, Anthony says, “Relax, it’s going to be okay!”. As a student, he was concerned about being able to do racial justice work and still be able to financially support himself and the family he knew he eventually wanted to have. As he reflects back, he recognises that it would have been okay for him to have a bit more fun. Anthony also stresses the importance of university friendships as these connections will always be fruitful later on in your career.
Lastly, Anthony emphasizes the need to augment opportunities for Black members of the Montreal community and its surrounding boroughs' to feel welcome on McGill’s campus. Too many high school students from the GTA, like himself, feel more of a sense of connectivity and belonging at McGill than high school students from Little Burgundy, RDP, Montreal North, etc., and that's not okay! While it is the university's responsibility to fix this, McGill's current Black students can play a pivotal role in making that shift happen. This is especially important in light of McGill's new anti-Black racism action plan.
Feel free to reach out to Anthony via LinkedIn!
AUDREA GOLDING
Audrea Golding is a Partner at Fragomen: a leading firm dedicated exclusively to immigration services worldwide. During her 20 years at Fragomen, Audrea has developed and managed large-scale mobility programs with a focus on the Americas region. Her solutions are client-oriented: she coordinates with Fragomen’s global teams in order to be a one-firm solution for clients regardless of where they’re sending people around the world.
Audrea graduated from McGill in 1992 with a B.A. in Political Science. She also holds a law degree from Osgoode Law School at York University. During her time at McGill, Audrea was involved with the Caribbean Students’ Society (CSS), the Black Students’ Network (BSN), and the McGill Journal of Political Studies (MJPS). As VP External of the BSN, her highlights include working with the McGill Daily to write their BHM Issue, and interviewing Spike Lee for BSN x CKUT Radio’s Black
Talk show. As Associate Editor for the MJPS, Audrea solicited articles for publication, allowing her to build her leadership and editorial experience.
Driven to succeed in her field, Audrea consistently takes herself out of her comfort zone by networking with industry professionals to foster meaningful connections to whom she could showcase her capabilities. Outside of her professional life, the pool is Audrea’s oasis. Swimming, along with yoga, allow her to decompress and practice self care.
Amid these uncertain times, Audrea has observed the ways in which ‘liberal’ environments continue to debate the extent that systemic racism is embedded within society. The existence of these conversations demonstrates how politically and economically polarized both Canada and the US still are; individuals are institutionalized into such privilege that they don’t understand how that privilege comes at the expense of everyone else. Moving forward, she is cautiously optimistic that significant progress will be made in the next few years. She hopes to see more Black faces at the senior level of her firm, along with the implementation of preferential reads and lines of credits for Black people to start their own practices, particularly in Toronto.
To her younger self (and current students), Audrea says to be a little bit more selfish with your time. Black people, especially Black women, often feel pressured to always be giving. Audrea would want to remind herself that it is okay to pull back sometimes and prioritize her own wellbeing.
Feel free to reach out to Audrea via LinkedIn!