
Age: Age 36
Occupation: Senior Director, Student Wellness and Accessibility Services, University of Calgary
In 2023, registered psychologist Meg Martin was hired by the University of Calgary as the manager for its Sexual and Gender-based Violence Prevention and Support Office. Serving UCalgary’s 60,000 students, faculty and staff, the office raises awareness about sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), supports those who have experienced it, and provides coaching on bystander intervention, consent disclosures and policy regulations.
In just one year, Martin, who has since moved into a temporary role as the university’s senior director of Student Wellness and Accessibility Services, not only created the office from the ground up, but expanded it well beyond its original scope, doubling its staff to four full-time employees (plus two student mentors) and instituting a restorative, community-based approach to educational programming that is designed to be accessible and non-intimidating.
Through this office, Martin debuted the informational “What You Didn’t Know Wednesdays” webinar series and piloted the first feminist self-defence program in the country. “When we focus education on the things we can get punished for, we really miss the point,” she says.
Aside from her work at the university, Martin has led several projects over the past decade that have raised Calgary’s profile in the underreported area of SGBV. In the summer of 2022, she secured funding from Hockey Canada to create and instruct mandatory training as a response to its recent sexual assault scandal. Before that, she helped launch Alberta’s One Line, a toll-free talk service for anyone impacted by sexual violence, and has raised more than $1 million for various crisis response and educational programs in the province through grant proposals.
“People are really resilient,” Martin says. “They have incredible abilities to connect with their community, to make meaning of their own experiences.”
Thank yous
“My partner in life and all things, Mike; my community of supportive family and friends; Paula Russel and Jen Quin.”
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