Doctor of Education
(honoris causa) DEd
Dr. Dawn Memee Lavell-Harvard is the President of the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC), elected at the 41st Annual General Assembly, July 11, 2015, in Montreal, Quebec. She is a proud member of the Wikwemikong First Nation, is the first Aboriginal Trudeau Scholar and has worked tirelessly to advance the rights of Aboriginal women over the course of her career.
In 2015, Dr. Harvard was named a member of the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments. She was the president of the Ontario Native Women's Association from 2004 – 2015, and was interim president of NWAC from February 2015 until her election in July of that year. Previously she served as vice-president of NWAC for three years. Dr. Harvard is proud to follow in the footsteps of her mother, Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, a noted advocate for Indigenous women’s rights. Since joining the Board of the Ontario Native Women Association as a youth director in 1994, Dr. Harvard has been working toward the empowerment of Aboriginal women and their families. She was co-editor of the original volume on Indigenous mothering, Until Our Hearts Are on the Ground: Aboriginal Mothering, Oppression, Resistance and Rebirth, and has recently released a new book, with Kim Anderson, titled Mothers of the Nations. Dr. Harvard is the mother of three girls.
Dr. Harvard received an honorary doctorate of Education and delivered the convocation address on June 9, 2016