Above: Christine Bibby, Grand Erie's Safe and Inclusive Schools lead.

Christine Bibby Honoured with Patti McCleister Memorial Award

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 2022

Christine Bibby, Grand Erie’s Safe and Inclusive Schools Lead, was presented with the Patti McCleister Memorial Award on Monday evening, the highest honour bestowed upon a staff member. It is given annually to the Grand Erie employee who exemplifies outstanding leadership, inspires others, and is a driving force in realizing the board’s vision to Learn, Lead and Inspire.

Many factors contribute to a student’s ability to learn, succeed and thrive. Christine’s various leadership roles in Grand Erie over the years have enhanced our understanding of these factors, and ability to act on that understanding. Christine has been a member of the Safe and Inclusive Schools team since it began in 2008, and her own ongoing learning has shaped its evolution, and ours. She helped establish the Safe and Inclusive Schools committee, connecting this work to equity and inclusion. She led the creation of the Violence Threat Risk Assessment Protocol and the Traumatic Events Response Protocol.

Qualified to train staff in Restorative Practices, Violence Threat Risk Assessment and Progressive Discipline, we have benefitted immensely from the example she sets and the capacity she builds in others to lead. The culmination of her efforts is the establishment of the Equity Advisory Group, which will create an Equity Action Plan for the board.

Outside of Grand Erie, she is a member of the BRAVE committee, a collaborative group that coordinates community response to gendered violence, domestic violence and sexual violence. She is also the co-chair of the Brantford/Brant Crisis Response Team, an initiative she helped to mobilize.

There is no traumatic event in Grand Erie that Christine has not responded to and supported staff through. She has been there for our leaders with clear thought, vast knowledge and calm patience, helping them navigate some of the most difficult moments of their careers. She is being honoured with the Patti McCleister Memorial Award as her own career in Grand Erie concludes, leaving our board so much better off for the learning, leadership and inspiration she’s provided. In the words of her nominator, Superintendent Wayne Baker, “Christine has always stressed that anything worthwhile must be sustainable; it's not dependent on any one individual. Grand Erie is a more inclusive place because of Christine Bibby and will continue to improve. That will be her legacy.”