Thompson Rivers University will award Honourary Doctorates to four distinguished individuals when the campus convenes its Spring 2013 Convocation ceremonies at the university’s Kamloops campus, on June 12, 13, and 14.

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This year’s Honourary Doctorates:

Marie Battiste: a First Nations educator and researcher whose work urges the de-colonization of Aboriginal education as a means for Aboriginals to improve their physical, spiritual and mental health.
Chief Wayne Christian: a North Okanagan First Nations leader whose practical solutions approach has helped create better conditions for Aboriginals in his own community and around the world.
Spencer West: a motivational speaker who has turned a major disability into an impressive ability to inspire and empower others.
Mark Brown: a local businessman whose success epitomizes the entrepreneurial archetype of rags to riches.

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Marie Battiste

MARIE BATTISTE—June 12, at 2pm, Faculty of Arts 

Marie Battiste is a researcher, educator, and tireless advocate of Aboriginal peoples. Among her research interests are  decolonization in the areas of Aboriginal education, language, social justice, policy, and power; and the protection and advancement of Indigenous knowledge.

Currently co-lead of the Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre, Dr. Battiste has served as a Professor in Research and Leadership in Aboriginal Education at the University of Saskatchewan since 1993. She has presented nationally and internationally; won several prestigious awards in the areas of publishing, and curriculum development; authored and co-authored numerous papers, books, chapters, and reviews; and continues to serve on boards of
such influential organizations as the International Research Institute for Maori and Indigenous Education (University of Auckland, New Zealand). Dr. Battiste holds two honourary degrees.

CHIEF WAYNE CHRISTIAN—June 13, at 10am, School of Nursing 

Kukpi7 Wunuxtsin (Chief Wayne Christian)

Chief Wayne Christian is a life-long leader whose journey began in 1971 as president of his high school student council in Armstrong BC. Since then, he has been elected chief of the Splatsin First Nation several times and has advocated for better conditions for Aboriginal people in the areas of health, title and rights, and culture on provincial and national committees.

Chief Christian has spent considerable time advocating on behalf of youth, from creating sport and culture opportunities to being a co-investigator of the Cedar project, a federally-funded longitudinal cohort study addressing the HIV-related vulnerabilities of Aboriginal young people using drugs.

He has been instrumental in the creation of innovative programs such as Survivors of Trauma, which assesses multi-generational impacts of residential schools.
Chief Christian’s belief that strength lies in pulling together is evident in his work in band relations in the Secwepemc nation, through various committees and programs. He has served for years as a hockey coach and is vice-president of the Secwepemc Cultural Education Society.

SPENCER WEST—June 14, at 10am, Faculty of Human, Social, and Educational Development

Spencer West

Spencer West uses his perceived disability to motivate and inspire millions of people around the world to be leaders and voices for social change.

Having had both legs amputated at the hip due to the genetic disease, sacral agenesis, West walks on his hands and has turned this into inspiration through action. From May 6 to 16, 2013 West will be walking from Edmonton to Calgary to raise money for sustainable clean water projects in East Africa. Last year he gained worldwide media attention by climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and raising more than $500,000 in the process for the same Africa-based projects. He has motivated millions through the Me to We speakers program and through the Go Global speaking tour operated by Free The Children.

His autobiography, titled Standing Tall: My Journey, would be
aptly described as beyond all odds. He has shared the speaker’s stage with luminaries the likes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dr. Jane Goodall, former US Vice-President, Al Gore, Mia Farrow, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Betty Williams and Elie Wiesel, and his musical idol, Jason Mraz.

 MARK BROWN—June 14, at 2pm, School of Business and Economics

Mark Brown

Mark Brown is a Kamloops success story and the embodiment of every entrepreneur’s dream.  Arriving in Kamloops in 1981 with an old pick-up truck, a beaten-up industrial trailer and very little money, he refurbished the trailer, sold it, and with the proceeds, bought two more old trailers.

Again, he refurbished them, sold them and repeated the process, putting himself on the path to eventually selling his company, Northern Trailer, in 2007 for more than $70 million. Much of Brown’s success lay in penetrating the niche market of portable buildings for industrial camps for coastal logging operations, interior mining ventures and major projects such as Tumbler Ridge, Revelstoke Dam and the Coquihalla Highway. However, Brown acknowledges that his accomplishments are most importantly a result of surrounding the company with great, forward thinking staff who always focused on doing the right thing and remaining committed to customers’ needs.

By strategically locating his business in Kamloops where the major highways met and climates suited wood buildings and working on them, Brown retained a competitive edge through delivery time and price to much of BC and Alberta.

Loyal to Kamloops as ‘home base’, the Brown’s, Mark and Ellen, contributed substantially to the local economy, allowing for the return a portion of business profits to local community groups and organizations prior to the sale.

Since the sale to Horizon North Logistics, headquartered in Calgary, Brown continues to work for Northern Trailer as its president. The Brown family’s giving has since been directed towards the areas of health, well-being, the disenfranchised, leisure, arts and culture, the environment, employment opportunities, education and Thompson Rivers University.