This past week, the Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo (FAUW) recognized Tizazu Mekennon, associate professor in the faculty of engineering and Canada Research Chair in sustainable multiphase polymers, as the recipient of the 2024 Equity and Inclusivity Award. 

FAUW’s Equity and Inclusivity Award is a recognition that is given in celebration of excellence in equity, inclusivity and diversity. This award recognizes a member or affiliate of UW’s community whose actions have demonstrated an exemplary commitment to improving equity, inclusivity and diversity at UW. This award is given to an individual, group, or unit annually. Recipients of the award receive the lifetime title of FAUW Equity Fellow. 

Mekennon is originally from Ethiopia, and it is there that he began his post-secondary education journey. In 2009, he graduated with an MSc in chemical engineering at Addis Ababa University. Upon graduating, he made his way up north, earning his PhD in bioresource engineering from the University of Alberta in 2013 from his research on biopolymers and multiphase polymers. 

Upon completing his studies, Mekennon entered the workforce where he worked for multiple years as a scientist with industry giant, Dupont. In 2017, he shared that “[his] passion for academia, teaching and research” led him back to the higher education landscape. In 2017, he was brought on as a junior professor here at the University of Waterloo. He shared an interesting observation regarding his initial years at the University of Waterloo: “At this point, I was the only black professor within the faculty of engineering here at UW, and perhaps there was no Indigenous professor.” 

Combining this observation with the obvious under-representation of racial minorities — specifically Indigenous and black people — in high-up government, industry and academic positions. Fused with the social injustice of the George Floyd incident taking place across the border in 2020, Tiz worked closely with the dean of engineering, Mary Wells, to begin developing a program that would work to address the social injustice of under-representation of racial minorities in engineering. 

This led to the development of the Indigenous and Black Engineering and Technology (IBET) PhD program. Mekennon shared: “This program’s main aim is to expand diversity efforts regarding high-level academic roles — we want to provide racial minority individuals with opportunities to expand their education through mentorship, and support systems.”  He said that in many cases, students of racial minority status are deterred from pursuing continued education due to a lack of representation and available support systems at that level.  

Mekennon further explained that “diversification efforts have made a very positive impact as far as undergraduate studies go, but not so much on the graduate level scale”. This observation could even be one of the main reasons why the majority of individuals who hold these high-up positions in government, academia, and industry are white. 

Regarding the specifics of the IBET PhD program, Mekennon says that “there are three main components. 1: Target research fellowship, including a $30,000 research funding grant to alleviate financial barriers and ensure high-quality research opportunities and experiences. 2: Mentorship, pairing students up with PhD mentors within the program to provide them with effective career and professional development whether it is in academia, government, or industry. 3: Networking and Community Building, this includes yearly conferences and other opportunities for Black and Indigenous individuals to build connections amongst each other.” 

In discussing the application process for students interested in this program, he shared that “although the applicant pool is quite small, we still have quite the competitive screening process.” He expanded on this by stating, “Students will first need to get accepted within their desired school based on the merit requirements of the school, and will then be considered for the IBET PhD Program fellowship.” 

The program officially launched in January 2021 and currently has 18 partnerships with Universities across Canada, such as the University of Toronto, Western University, University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, University of Calgary, Queens University, McGill University, Concordia University, and McMaster University. “When we first launched the program, there was strong support from multiple universities across the nation. We currently have a strong base of connections throughout Ontario and the Western regions of Canada, [and] I’d like to eventually expand into the Eastern regions, including French-speaking programs in Quebec.” 

Mekennon shared that as of now, there are around 60 IBET Fellow students within this program, and added: “Although we want to make this option open to any individuals of racial minority status the opportunity to pursue further education, we need to ensure that we can provide them with resources effectively”. This comment was made alluding to the idea of keeping the number of participants at a reasonable cap to ensure all can feel the full benefits of the program. 

“It is not all about reaching quotas,” says Mekennon. At IBET PhD, we want to ensure that the individuals enrolled in this program have the opportunity to be educated and guided by like-minded individuals with the goal of diversity and equal opportunity for all.”