The OCASA Doug Light Award for Lifetime Achievement will be awarded to Gail Murdock, Vice-President Academic at Confederation College.

Among achievements in her career, Gail is recognized as an expert in Aboriginal education which has developed aboriginal content in all programming across the college, with Aboriginal Learning Outcomes embedded in existing courses ñ an accomplishment that has attracted attention as a model for other colleges.

The award will be presented at the OCASA Leaders and Innovators Conference June 27 in King City.

On a provincial level, she has been heavily involved in the Northern Collaboration Project. The aim of which is to bring together six Northern Colleges with the intent of sharing resources, programming and best practices. Her nominators stressed that she has provided ìgreat leadership and shown deep commitment to making the collaboration successful.î

Gail joined the faculty of Confederation at the Sioux Lookout Campus in 1989. As a program co-ordinator she co-developed and delivered the Ontario College Certificate: Aboriginal Transition. She held the position of regional Manager of the Dryden and Sioux Lookout Campuses from 2001 to 2005; Associate Dean of the Negahneewin College of Academic and Community Development at Confederation in 2005-2007; and Dean of Business, Hospitality and Media Arts for six years until her appointment as VPA in 2013.

She has served on numerous college and provincial committees, and has been active throughout her career on community committees and organizations, including the Thunder Bay, Sioux Lookout and Dryden Chambers of Commerce; Ontario Literacy Coalition, and in 2006 was co-presenter on Canadian and Aboriginal Relations at NISOD and in 2004 presented at the League of Innovation.

The OCASA Doug Light Lifetime Achievement Award, newly named in 2013, pays tribute to an administrator within the Ontario college system who has significantly influenced college education throughout her/his career, demonstrating leadership, contribution to others and excellence of performance.

The award is named for the late Doug Light who served 26 years as a college administrator, including terms as president of two colleges, Centennial College in Scarborough and George Brown College in Toronto.