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BEVERLEY JACOBS
LLB ’94
B
everley Jacobs is making a difference for Aboriginal
women in Canada.
Jacobs is a lawyer and owner at Bear Clan Consulting
and a Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) community representative
from the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory,
Bear Clan.
She is past president of the Native Women’s
Association of Canada (NWAC). As NWAC president
from 2004-09, Jacobs brought public attention to the
fact that some 500 Aboriginal women had been found
murdered or gone missing in Canada over a 20-year
period. She personally gathered information by meeting
with families and pushed governments to take action to investigate and uncover why.
Under her, NWAC also worked to address other inequalities affecting Aboriginal
women in Canada, and to revitalize traditional values that promote equality.
As a law student in Windsor 20 years ago, she persevered despite being a single
mother and the only Aboriginal student in her class.The support of professors, the dean
and associate dean were the bulwark she says that she used against the tide of despair. “I
think that’s what saved me—those relationships,” she says.
ANDREA ROWE-PARRAGA
BASc ’97, MASc ’00
I
n her role as project manager for Ottawa Community Housing (OCH), Andrea
Rowe-Parraga is responsible for helping to identify and solve building problems for
the agency’s 15,000 units—the second-largest housing provider in Canada.
The alumna says her role is to look at the condition of all of the corporation’s
building and help determine if they need to be sold, demolished, retrofitted or fixed.
Her mechanical engineering experience is in the fields of building science, forensic
engineering and automotive engineering where she has conducted research, testing
analysis, problem solving and report writing.
Rowe-Parraga, a 2010 recipient of the UWindsor Alumni Association Odyssey
Award, says that the knowledge she gained at UWindsor “provided me with the
confidence to take on any project, knowing that my foundation in engineering would
provide the scientific background required to examine, diagnose and resolve any problem.”
After graduation, Rowe-Parraga joined the Ford Quality Department as a graduate
co-op student and pursued her Master of Applied Science in NVH powertrain research
at UWindsor. In 2000, she became the first student to graduate from the NVH
Powertrain Research & Development Group. She joined OCH in 2010 and is currently
involved with a project related to the restructuring of the entire corporation.
PADRUIG
MACINTOSH
BASc ’01
Y
ou can’t
blame
Capt. Padruig
MacIntosh if
his head is in
the clouds. As
a member of
Canada’s 431 Air
Demonstration
Squadron
(Snowbirds),
that’s where
you’ll frequently find him.
The Windsor native knew from a
young age that he wanted to be a pilot
like his mother. He attended air shows
throughout the region and learned all he
could about airplanes.
MacIntosh joined the Canadian Forces
a year after earning his engineering degree.
In 2005, he earned Canadian Forces pilot
wings after he completed hundreds of
hours of in-air training, and was selected
to fly jets. He then served as a Canadian
Forces flying instructor.
In February 2010, after a month
of the most mentally demanding
tryouts MacIntosh says that he had
ever experienced, he became one of the
Snowbirds’ four newest members.
The alumnus credits his university
education as the bridge to realizing his
aspirations. “Without the degree I earned, I
never would have become a product design
engineer and later a pilot for the Canadian
Forces. I never would have earned Canada’s
trust in being one of its ambassadors as a
member of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds.”
MacIntosh is a 2007 Alumni
Association Odyssey Award recipient.
