Cambrian VP honoured for outstanding leadership, vision

Elizabeth (Betty) Freelandt, a vice-president at Cambrian College, has been named the 2008 winner of the Ontario College Administrative Staff Association's(OCASA) Doug Light Award.

Freelandt, who is vice-president of student services and strategic initiatives at Cambrian College, began teaching at Cambrian in 1980 and has held various positions such as coordinator, department head, chair of the school of business, dean, school of business, media, information technology before moving to her present position in 2002.

The OCASA Doug Light Award for Administrative Excellence is awarded to an administrator who has demonstrated professionalism through outstanding leadership, contributions to community, and excellence of performance. The award is named for the late Doug Light who served 26 years as a college administrator, including terms as president of two colleges, Centennial College in Scarborough and George Brown College in Toronto.

In forwarding her nomination, colleagues praised her leadership and noted that "Betty has been instrumental in creating a strong and forward thinking division and is responsible for implementing many important and diverse directives that guides the various departments within the division."

Freelandt was the visionary in the building of a $3.2-million student centre, which opened at Cambrian in 2003. Under her leadership Cambrian College became the only college in Canada to partner on the "Lets Talk Science" Program to encourage students to pursue science studies. She has also worked extensively with secondary school principals and school board members from the four area French and English Public and Catholic School Boards to establish the Secondary/College Strategic  Planning Committee.

Under her lead the student service division spearheaded the $2 million re-engineering and renovation of the college library to become an integrated full service library learning commons. Committed to student engagement programs such as a Student Leadership Academy, School Councils, Mature Student Association have been developed to promote student life on campus.

She has served as the administrative staff representative on the Cambrian College Board of Governors, has chaired the provincial coordinating committee on student services and is, at present, taking a leadership role on establishing a Provincial Student Leadership Academy. She was awarded the Fellow Certified Management Accountant (FCMA) designation by the Certified Management Accountants of Ontario in recognition of her achievements, for bringing distinction to the profession, and serving as a role model.

Also at the provincial level, for several years she served as the OCASA College Representative from Cambrian, during which time she also served on the executive as treasurer for two years.

She has presented provincially, nationally and internationally on her work on secondary school partnerships and student retention initiatives. She initiated an innovative partnership with INCO was nominated by the Conference Board of Canada for a Business/Education Partnership Award.

With a firm belief in life-long learning and opening doors for our college graduates, she has negotiated college/university articulation agreements with Canadian, Australian and American Universities. She was member of a team that successfully implemented an ambulance program in Turkey as part of Cambrian's international focus, and has worked with Cambrian's college partner in India.