Siobhan Stewart

Hello,

My name is Siobhan Stewart and I am the newly hired Black Student Success Facilitator for the Faculty of the Arts. To provide some context, this role was established by the Dean of Arts as a response to some of the key recommendations that were made by students in  the 2020 Anti-Black Racism Campus Climate Report. 

My role consists of three main components.

1. Build Relationships with Internal and External Stakeholders to learn about key programming in order to better support Black-identified students in Arts
2. Facilitate and provide co-curricular support to Black-identifed students in the Arts.
3. Create and implement Black-identified student engagement programming in the Arts

My office is in JOR 344C which is located inside of the Student Success Centre. I work and am available for connecting with students and various initiatives on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. I look forward to continuing to build on the great work that has already been done and is currently underway in the area of equity, diversity and inclusion across our faculty and campus, specifically anti-Black racism. 

To briefly tell you about myself, I have an Honours Bachelors of Arts in Anthropology where I focused on access to health care for refugees and migrants in a Canadian and Australian context. I studied at McMaster University and served as the Director of the McMaster Student’s Union’s Diversity Services and following that became the first black woman and fourth female president of the McMaster Student’s Union in 2012-2013. During my time at McMaster, I also served in various capacities on the President’s Advisory Committee on Building an Inclusive Community for 5 years.I was also valedictorian of my graduating class and am a Weston Loran Scholar (formerly called the Canadian Merit Scholarship) and Millenium Scholarship recipient. I have worked in both the private and public sector in the areas of social services, financial services, not-for-profit and municipal politics. 

This role is deeply personal for me because while I have experienced some successes in my personal and professional life, I have also navigated various challenges in different contexts which will support the co-creation of  initiatives to support Black students in the faculty of Arts. 

My passions include spoken word, crossfit, dancing, personal development, being a caregiver and educating people about financial literacy.