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Award Recipients

President’s Awards 2021 Recipients | Support Staff Distinguished Service Award


Danny Cunha Faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology

“His generosity of spirit and a willingness to assist is a hallmark of his day to day persona and truly epitomizes Humber’s values.”

Philip Stubbs, Project Manager, Faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology


Danny’s colleagues, students, and fellow community members can attest to the positive impact that he has had on the School of Applied Technology for all of these years.

Danny’s exemplary everyday conduct demonstrates his conviction to providing the best service and the best example to both our students and our faculty. Not one to ever say no, Danny faces each day and each challenge with conviction and determination. This past year of Covid has challenged every aspect of the hands-on delivery of skilled trades; Danny has met that challenge by delivering consistent service, guidance, and innovative solutions to problems of social distancing, lab health and safety, availability of consumables for labs, and general care and maintenance of equipment.

Providing technical support to the Home Renovation, Plumbing Techniques, and Mechanical Techniques – Millwright programs, as well as a variety of other programs Danny has contact with instructors, program coordinators, support staff, students, families, industry professionals, and the public as a whole. Always willing to assist, he has provided support that spans any number of activities including assisting faculty members within classrooms with equipment operation, supporting hands-on classroom delivery by providing student guidance in the proper use and care of tools and equipment. His enthusiasm for the trades is infectious and his encouragement of students in their pursuits clearly shows his overall commitment to Humber’s education mission.

Hardeep Kaur Information Technology Services

“She is focused on enriching the student experience through the development and delivery of exceptional services which are easy to use, meet our clients needs and are secure.”

Bruce MacMillan, Manager, Infrastructure Technology, Information Technology Services


Through her dedication and hard work, Hardeep has been an incredible contributor to the delivery of our technology services.

Hardeep has been an important innovator in Digital Solutions being one of the leaders in our transformation to cloud-based services and establishing a new, innovative, infrastructure-as-code approach to managing infrastructure asset. She always volunteers to take on new and challenging work while also ensuring that all her day-to-day work gets completed.

She has played a key role in several initiatives at Amazon Web Services (AWS) such as improving our security by implementing a Web application firewall, writing AWS code to manage our network services, and load testing several critical services such as our Web sites to ensure performance and service availability meet our objectives. She has also worked to improve remote access for students to facilitate access to labs and has provided tailored access for international students.

Hardeep, through her own initiative, has gone beyond our basic training requirement and attained AWS certification (AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate) which has improved Humber’s ability to operate efficiently and securely in the cloud.

Hardeep played a key role in improving the student experience in three major areas this year. She led the work to establish a remote access solution (ChinaConnect) for our international students in China; she took the lead role in implementing the innovative Queue-It solution to improve Humber’s overall student registration experience; and she also provided a networking solution to the Faculty of Media & Creative Arts that allows it to now offer remote lab access.

Hardeep has played an important role in developing our infrastructure-as-code approach to managing our AWS workloads. As such, she has worked to develop and train other staff to learn and improve their abilities to transition to this new style of work. Additionaly, Hardeep has taken on the mentorship of new, junior network resources to train them in learning key parts of our technology infrastructure such as firewalls and application delivery services.

Hardeep has joined in many extra team building activities such as running and step challenges to promote both a positive and supportive environment while encouraging others to live a healthy and well balanced life. She is a positive contributor to all meetings and projects which enhances confidence and being non-adversarial when we face challenges.

Marlene Barbosa-Valerio Advancement and Alumni

“Always happy to help – even when her own plate is more than full. She is a ray of sunshine – even during tough and busy times.”

Melissa Beauchamp, Director, Annual and Leadership Giving, Advancement and Alumni


Marlene is deeply committed to student success and routinely goes above and beyond to ensure deserving students have the financial support they need in order to focus on their studies.

Marlene is the epitome of a model employee of Humber College. She exudes kindness, professionalism and a love for her alma mater. She is a Humber alumna, three times over, graduating from the Faculty of Business’ Accounting, Human Resources and Business Administration programs.

She is always keen to learn new things, and see how she can implement efficiencies and new processes in her work which she demonstrates regularly. She interacts with hundreds of students a year, providing them guidance on how to apply for scholarships. Her favourite part of her job is seeing these young students achieve academic success and be rewarded, or be able to receive financial support when they really need it, making a difference of staying in school. Her connection to their success is strong, and she only wants the best for them.

In her current role, Marlene liaises with key contacts in each of the faculties who are the representatives for any scholarship related work. To hear from some of them directly, please see the quotes below.

Outside of her role, Marlene also offers her assistance to our team to work at all our events, which we have many throughout the year including over 12 scholarship events, Convocation, Humber Golf Classic, donor events, Orientation and more. Marlene has also previously participated on the SSAW committee, and is our office’s health and safety representative.

Marlene exemplifies Humber’s core values on a daily basis, especially courage and innovation.

Tanya Reda Office of the Registrar

“Tanya looks for opportunities and ways to contribute to a healthy work environment while promoting wellness among the team she works with and others she works with indirectly.”

Rhonda Harrison, Manager, Registration, Scheduling and Curriculum, Office of the Registrar


Tanya has consistently demonstrated an innovative and enthusiastic approach to her work with faculties, students and departments.

Tanya promotes wellness and team-building activities by being the one who takes the initiative to register our entire team for any Office of the Registrar or Humber-wide wellness or training sessions. One time, we were all registered for a Humber walk and when the day arrived, it was raining, but rain or shine, we walked soaking wet as a team. She is a believer in finding balance between work and home life. When her peers are faced with a challenging task or moment, she is always willing to provide genuine support and encouragement. When asked to comment on Tanya as a team member, one of her coworkers commented,

“I truly enjoy working with Tanya. She is incredibly approachable, reliable, and kind-hearted. When working on a project together, it is a tag-team effort; she supports and utilizes my individual strengths alongside her own. She is a valuable coworker, employee, and human being.”

Tanya is an extraordinary and supportive employee to her peers, and approaches all of her work and the opportunities presented to her with an elite level of professionalism, respect, commitment and enthusiasm. These remarkable traits extend beyond Humber, as Tanya is this corner-stone of her family, demonstrating the same compassion, courage, and devotion within her home. I believe her character represents the core values that Humber stands on, and as a leader, I am delighted to have Tanya on my team and I am proud to provide my highest recommendation, as she is most deserving of this recognition.