50 years of Social Science
Sarah Janes ’13 | April 20, 2018
Meet four Social Sciences grads who are contributing to a brighter world in education, health care, business and global development.
Troy Hill ’07 (Sociology) works for the Federal Government (Indigenous and Northern Affairs). He has been an active member of the Hamilton Aboriginal Council and has been a strong advocate for the Aboriginal students in our schools. He assists with alternative supports and resources for Indigenous students. He has been part of the Native Language program at HWDSB and works to develop self identification policy and procedure.
Brenda Flaherty ’90 (Sociology) served as executive vice-president of Clinical Operations and chief operating officer at Hamilton Health Sciences. She began her career at HHS as a registered nurse in the emergency department, and held several clinical and leadership roles within the organization. She actively volunteers as chair of the board of YMCA Canada and is chair of the board for the change foundation. She is devoted to serving her community.
Tayce Wakefield ’80 (Political Science) joined General Motors of Canada in the Government Relations department in 1984. She was appointed director in 1989 and held senior roles in public relations and corporate affairs. She worked on a variety of key legislative issues including pension reform, labour and environmental issues, trade and tax legislation and has been responsible for advocacy, media relations, employee communications and charitable contributions.
Jock Brandis ’68 (Anthropology) has worked as a teacher in Kingston, Jamaica. He established a career in the film industry. A trip to Mali in 2001 to help build a water treatment system for a small village launched the next phase of Jock’s life. He saw the work required from villagers to shell peanuts in large numbers. He wanted to help by providing a shelling machine, and when none existed, he invented one and his colleagues founded a not-for-profit organization, Full Belly Project, to share other simple and powerful technologies with developing countries.
What was your journey to and during your time at McMaster?
Hill: Shé:kon sewakwékon Troy Hill ni iónkiats, karienkehake, ni wakonwentsioten, Ohswé:ken kherihonnyén:ni
Translation: Greetings everyone, my name is Troy Hill. I am Mohawk from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory where I teach.
I had been going to McMaster since I was born — my mom and I would ride the bus from the east end of Hamilton so I could attend daycare there. When I was 16 years old I got a job working as an orderly at the McMaster hospital before moving on to an office job. I did that for 15 years. During those years I spent a lot of time around the physicians, who eventually strongly encouraged me to go back to school. I was really supported and influenced by them. McMaster was the natural choice. During my first year I was awarded a grant to attend the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education in New Zealand. That experience changed my life. It taught me a lot about Polynesian restorative justice.
Your career path was very specific as a nurse; how did a degree in sociology compliment the work you were already doing?
Flaherty: My Social Sciences degree advanced my knowledge in so many aspects for my role. As my responsibilities at Hamilton Health Sciences increased I took courses such as gerontology and clinical ethics. Clinical ethics allowed me to be a member of one of the first clinical ethics committees in the hospital. Gerontology informed the way that I performed my job by understanding how to care for and support the aging population in the community. It was those types of classes that really broadened my thinking as it related to system issues and challenges. As a clinical leader it influenced my thinking of some of the challenges and the opportunities for the health care system.
How did McMaster influence your career?
Wakefield: I always had an interest in politics, originally through family, and then that interest got sharpened at McMaster where I was provided with a formal grounding in politics. I got a job with General Motors Canada in their Government Relations department at a time when it was just starting out. I found myself working as an advocate for what was then the largest company in the country. It was at a time when lobbying was becoming much more constructive in its approach to contributing to public policy process by looking at long-term solutions not only for the company, but also for the country.
Why is your work important to you?
Brandis: My mother always made me firmly believe that people should be of service to others. I was raised in the farm co-op movement when my parents began the first one in northern British Columbia. It’s an honourable thing for me to do. My Full Belly Project organization’s mission is to design and distribute income-generating devices that improve life in rural communities. People look for complete solutions, not just one tool to solve one problem.
“Social Sciences teaches you to recognize the patterns and the patterns are key to making anything different or making a change.” — Jock Brandis ‘68
“Social Sciences teaches you to recognize the patterns and the patterns are key to making anything different or making a change.” — Jock Brandis ‘68
What would you tell future students about Social Sciences at McMaster?
Hill: McMaster is a university that turned everything around for me. It was a system that finally worked for me. If I hadn’t had Indigenous Studies as a student, I wouldn’t have been able to exist as an Indigenous student in the classroom. Social Sciences really fosters the analytical process. They exhaust the dialogue in the classroom because it fosters critical analysis.
Flaherty: Social Sciences really advanced me and prepared me to be a better leader in the health care system. I chose a specific career path like nursing and the education from McMaster provided me with the broader knowledge that I could apply to my career and volunteer work. My degree in sociology then prepared me for my master’s degree in public administration within the health policy stream.
Wakefield: The more you learn about the world the more you appreciate how special McMaster is. It’s always had such great student and academic leadership, really collaborative kind of epic. At the undergraduate level, your goal should be to look for the education, develop your mind, broaden your perspective, learn how to think, analyze, and how to understand other people. If something in the Social Sciences intrigues you, pursue that interest because that will likely develop into a passion and that will help you excel.
Brandis: Anthropology helps with the understanding of situations in order to then figure out a solution. Any education opens up the foundation for understanding how the world works. It’s an eye opener in terms of how people interact with each other and how the world works and what people respond to. Social Sciences teaches you to recognize the patterns and the patterns are key to making anything different or making a change.
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