Ms. Jeanette Southwood
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa
Faculty of Energy Systems and Nuclear Science
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
For her distinguished career as an award‑winning engineer and a leader in the engineering consulting sector, the university is proud to confer upon Ms. Jeanette Southwood the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
Ms. Southwood is Vice-President, Strategy and Partnerships at Engineers Canada, the national organization of 12 engineering regulators that license the country’s more than 290,000 engineers. She leads a team of professionals focused on the future growth of the profession for the continued benefit of society.
Prior to joining Engineers Canada, Ms. Southwood led global, employee-owned consulting firm Golder Associates’ Canadian Urban Development and Infrastructure and Global Sustainable Cities teams.
Early in her career she received the Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) Young Engineer Award for exceptional achievements in work and excellence in service to the community and the profession. She sat as a PEO volunteer, including as Committee Chair and Chapter Director, from 1993 to 2014.
A dedicated leader in her volunteer work, Ms. Southwood has served on several boards and committees of local, provincial and national organizations. In 2014, she was honoured as one of Canada’s Clean50 for her work as an influencer dedicated to sustainable development, leading change, championing innovation and changing our world for the better.
She has shared her knowledge and experience with aspiring young professionals as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Toronto. As a role model for how engineers contribute to our world, Ms. Southwood has inspired many women to seek engineering careers and enabled the engineering profession to access previously untapped talent.
Ms. Southwood is a recipient of the Province of Ontario’s Leading Women Building Communities Award, the Ontario Volunteer Service Award and the Ontario Professional Engineers Awards Engineering Excellence Medal. In 2015, she was named one of Women’s Executive Network Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women.
In August 2017, the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum’s Metallurgy and Materials Society will recognize her as one of the Women of Innovation for her experience and accomplishments.
Ms. Southwood holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering and a Master of Applied Science in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from the University of Toronto. She is a Professional Engineer (Ontario), Fellow of Engineers Canada, and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.
