Congratulations to you all – the Class of 2026 – on your tremendous accomplishment. You are now Western graduates, and we celebrate you for your hard work and for the many ways you have meaningfully contributed to our university community.

We recognize the challenges you overcame, the resilience you showed, and how you pushed yourselves to earn your place on the convocation stage today.

In my role as Chancellor, I am fortunate to be a member of this extraordinary community and witness the expertise and the ideas being generated by students and faculty at Western. Our graduates have been making important contributions to society for generations. Our dynamic programs have equipped our students to make substantial impact in Canada and around the world.

Convocation is not only a celebration of individual achievement – it is also a powerful reminder of the transformative role that higher education plays in shaping lives and communities. At Western, we continue to build on our legacy of excellence: in research, in education and in impact.

It is all of you who have fueled the excellence that makes Western one of the top universities in the world. You have inspired our faculty to continue to push boundaries and drive impact toward a greater purpose. I feel very privileged to share this important milestone with you as you begin the next phase of your life while continuing to challenge yourself and find ways to make the world a better place.

Today, take the time to celebrate and feel pride in all that you accomplished. Thank those who have supported you along the way: your family, your friends, your professors and your mentors. I hope you will remember your time at Western and maintain a connection with us, and with all the important relationships you have gained here.

On behalf of Western’s administration and alumni, I offer you my warmest congratulations and best wishes. We all look forward to seeing where the Western University Class of 2026 will go!

Convocation is a time of celebration – when we come together to recognize and reflect on the achievements of Western’s graduates. This is the culmination of years of study, research and writings.

Congratulations! This day you will realize one of your most important dreams, surrounded by family, friends and peers who have supported your efforts; faculty and staff members who have created an environment of learning and discovery; and community members who support you and Western’s mission and values.

We are proud of your contributions and achievements and we are excited to see you move forward to make an impact in your chosen field and on the world. 

We hope that your experiences at Western have helped shape your perspectives, allowed you to work alongside and network with a diverse group of friends and classmates, and provided you with fond memories of special times shared with others. 

We hope that you will share those experiences as alumni of this fine institution and continue to stay a part of the Western family.

On behalf of the Board of Governors, congratulations and wishing you all the best in your future adventures.

Congratulations – you did it!

It is my great pleasure to recognize your outstanding achievement at Western and to welcome you into the alumni family.

On behalf of everyone at Western who has supported your journey, I wish you all the best for continued success. We share your pride and excitement in this moment.

Warm regards to you and your loved ones on this happy day.

Take this in. You’ve earned it.

What you carry from Western won’t always be visible today. It reveals itself over time in how you work, the standards you hold, and the people you choose to keep close.

There are things you’ll remember for the rest of your life that happened within a few blocks of here. A conversation that reoriented you. A moment you almost quit and didn’t. A person who saw something in you before you saw it in yourself. Western didn’t just educate you. It shaped the version of you walking out today.

In the years ahead, talk about this place more than you think you should. Be proud of it. It reflects that you believed in yourself, and in something bigger than yourself.

Stay close to the people who made this place what it was for you. Those friendships will outlast most of the plans you’ve made.

When you meet another Western alum across a dinner table or on the other side of the world, pay attention to that moment. There’s an ease to it. A shorthand. A genuine willingness to help.

That’s not accidental.

Some of you are leaving with a clear sense of what comes next. Most of you aren’t. That’s fine. People who do remarkable things rarely had a perfect plan. They had conviction and they kept moving.

That’s where a global community of more than 393,000 Western alumni comes in. Over your career, you’ll find each other everywhere: boardrooms, factory floors, labs, startups, classrooms, and public service. When you do, show up for one another. Stay connected through events hosted by the Alumni Association and make use of tools like the Purple Perks app to access benefits available only to those who are purple and proud.

Open doors when you can. And when you have the chance, take someone with you.

Enjoy today. I can't wait to see what you do with tomorrow.

Professor Shauna Burke is an Associate Professor and Acting Director in the School of Health Studies at Western University and an award-winning educator, researcher, and mentor. Professor Burke’s internationally recognized program of research explores child and youth health, with a focus on childhood obesity, health behaviours, and belonging.

Professor Burke has delivered more than 100 presentations, workshops, and invited lectures at conferences and academic institutions worldwide and has published extensively in the areas of public health, sport and exercise psychology, and education. She is also co-author of the widely used Canadian textbook Core Concepts in Health, now in its fifth edition.

A passionate advocate for student learning and well-being, Professor Burke's work is guided by the belief that every student deserves to feel that they belong. Her commitment to creating inclusive, engaging, and supportive learning environments has earned her numerous teaching and mentorship awards including Western’s highest teaching honour, the Edward G. Pleva Award for Excellence in Teaching, as well as the Marilyn Robinson Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Faculty of Health Sciences Teaching Award of Excellence, and Obesity Canada’s Faculty Supervisor Award. Through her teaching, research, and mentorship, Professor Burke inspires students to lead with curiosity, compassion, and a commitment to improving the health and well-being of others.

Mitch Frazer is the Managing Partner of Mintz LLP and current Chancellor of Ontario Tech University.

He is the co-founder of the National Institute on Ageing at Toronto Metropolitan University, a former adjunct professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and a published author. A committed philanthropist, he supports numerous educational and health-related organizations and causes.

A distinguished community leader, Mitch currently serves as chair of the North York General Board of Governors, is a member and former chair of the Toronto French School Board of Directors and sits on the Board of Directors for Leon’s Furniture Limited and the Board of Trustees for Forum Real Estate Income and Impact Fund. He is past chair of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Board of Governors and a former member of the Ontario Science Centre Board of Trustees.

An avid runner, Mitch has completed all seven Abbott world marathon majors. He was named one of the 25 most influential lawyers in Canada by Canadian Lawyer magazine and is a recipient of numerous awards and honours including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the King Charles III Coronation Medal, the Ontario Bar Association Award of Excellence in Pension and Benefits Law, the CCAE Friend of Education Award, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Toronto Metropolitan University. He has also been admitted to the Order of Ontario.

Professor Lauren Tribe is a Western graduate and an accomplished researcher, educator, and advocate. After earning her BSc (Honours) in Biochemistry, BESc, and PhD in Chemical Engineering, Professor Tribe joined Western as a faculty member and is currently an Associate Professor in Chemical, Biochemical, and Biomedical Engineering.

Throughout her career, Professor Tribe has held leadership roles in Engineering including Associate Chair of Undergraduate Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and Assistant Dean, First Year Studies. In addition, she is recognized for championing new experiential engineering courses focusing on mentorship, student success, and international student opportunities. She has been honoured for her excellence in teaching as an Experiential Scholar and Teaching Fellow and as a recipient of several teaching awards including the Maurice Bergougnou Teaching Award, the R. Mohan Mathur Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Edward G. Pleva for Excellence in Teaching, Western’s top teaching honour.

A passionate advocate for women in engineering, Professor Tribe has been appointed Chair of The Ontario Network of Women in Engineering (ONWiE), where she is dedicated to partnering with schools in Ontario and across Canada to inspire girls and non-binary youth to pursue the profession.

Professor Ingrid Johnsrude is Chair of the Department of Psychology at Western University. Her research examines why understanding speech in noisy settings, such as restaurants, becomes difficult for middle-aged and older adults, and how the brain achieves successful speech perception when listening conditions are poor. Using psychophysical, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging methods, her team studies adults with and without hearing loss to identify cognitive and neural mechanisms that support listening in adverse conditions. This work is a first step toward new approaches for treating everyday listening difficulties. She has also made influential contributions to the development of neuroimaging methods.

Professor Johnsrude trained in clinical psychology at McGill University under pioneering neuropsychologist Brenda Milner, then worked at University College London and the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, UK. She held a Canada Research Chair at Queen's University before being recruited to Western as its first Western Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience. She is past Director of Western’s Brain and Mind Institute (now the Centre for Brain and Mind).

Her research, recognized by NSERC's E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship and an NSERC Accelerator Award, appears in more than 130 publications cited over 35,000 times. Her former trainees now work in audiology, clinical psychology, industry research, and data science, and hold academic positions in Canada, the US, the UK, and Europe.