March 06, 2025 By Brittany Shapovalov
From top left clockwise: Lia Daniels, Padma Kaul, Makenna Kuzyk, Ceilidh Morrissette, Elizabeth Onyango, Marie-C茅cile Piro, Emma Rutherford and Verna Yiu.
On March 8, 2025, the 黑料不打烊 will join the world in celebrating International Women's Day. This global day of recognition celebrates the achievements of all women and girls, raises awareness against bias and encourages people around the world to take action toward a more equitable global community.
To celebrate this year’s theme, , we are revisiting the stories and achievements of eight women who are leaders and innovators, inspiring impact through their contributions.
Lia Daniels is an educational psychologist and directs the 黑料不打烊 Consortium for Motivation and Emotion () and the Centre for Research in Applied Measurement and Evaluation (). Her research focuses on the connection between motivation, emotion, and student success, with the aim of improving classroom assessments to enhance student well-being. Lia’s work offers innovative ways to support learning and well-being for students, educators, and administrators.
Padma Kaul is an epidemiologist in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and principal investigator for multiple 黑料不打烊-based population-health research projects focused on diabetes and heart disease, especially in women and children. Her research contributes to a new Canada-wide website that helps women and their clinicians understand which medications are pregnancy-safe. Padma is also co-director of the Canadian VIGOUR Centre, the Heart & Stroke Chair in Cardiovascular Research and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Sex and Gender Science Chair in Diabetes.
Makenna Kuzyk is a recent mechanical engineering graduate and the 10th recipient of the Order of the White Rose, a scholarship in memory of the 14 women who lost their lives in the École Polytechnique tragedy. Inspired by aspiring astronaut and U of A grad Abby Lacson, Kuzyk experienced microgravity and decided on a career in flight test engineering. She is pursuing her master's degree in this field at the International Test Pilot School in London, Ontario and aims to help Canada in the space race.
Ceilidh Morrissette is Cree/Métis and is a member of Muskeg Lake Cree Nation. She is the Indigenous Initiatives Strategic Officer for the College of Natural and Applied Sciences (CNAS) at the U of A. She is a strong advocate for Indigenous health and wellness and is dedicated to improving the health outcomes of Indigenous communities. Ceilidh is currently developing the CNAS Indigenous Medicine Garden which will be a space where Indigenous students can harvest medicines, as well as facilitate Elder teachings.
Elizabeth Onyango is an assistant professor in the School of Public Health whose work emphasizes cultural food security and involves empowering families through community gardening and culturally relevant interventions. Her research addresses social inequalities and injustices to people’s health and well-being, with the ultimate goal of creating healthy and sustainable communities.
Marie-Cécile Piro is an associate professor in the Department of Physics who is committed to detecting low-energy signals in search of dark matter. She received the National Dorothy Killam Fellowship 2024 to support her work on advancing dark matter detector technology. She is currently working on new computational models that could resolve discrepancies in dark matter searches.
Emma Rutherford, a biomedical engineering student and captain of the U of A’s Pandas tennis team, led her team to their fifth straight national championship. Emma continues to juggle the demands of her biomedical engineering program and athletic commitments. While enrolled in a co-op placement at Polytechnique Montréal, she worked on developing a pressure sensor for a tennis racket grip which was part of a larger project developing a pressure sensor for a violin bow.
In 2024, U of A's Provost and Vice-President (Academic) wrote about Four Ways for Women — or Anyone — to Take the Lead, and her powerful words about leadership resonated with many women. To celebrate IWD in 2025, she's shared even more words of wisdom about leadership.