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Message from the Director
 Welcome!
Hello everyone!
I’m so happy to welcome you to the School of Social Work at McGill University, located on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehà:ka, part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and Anishinaabeg Nations. These lands are also places of meeting and exchange for the Huron/Wendat and Abenaki. We are thankful for their care of the waters and lands of this region and by saying these words, it signals our desire to walk the talk of authentic reconciliation.
This is my 18th year at McGill and my second year as the Director of the School. Prior to taking on the role of Director, I had the privilege of serving as the Director of the BSW and MSW programs and am the co-founder of Indigenous Access McGill (IAM) in 2007. I am also a mother to 3 young men, and am a researcher, a teacher, and a community advocate. I have focused my academic career on working with First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities and supporting Indigenous youth, as well as exploring the lived experiences of refugeed peoples resettling locally, regionally and nationally. I’m grateful to part of an educational community that is actively working to reclaim space for equity-focused social work. You are joining a passionate, dedicated McGill community committed to delivering inclusive and innovative approaches to social work practice to make positive change in the lives of individuals, families and communities marginalized based on geography, culture, religion, and/or socioeconomic status, both historically and present day.
As the Director of both the BSW and MSW programs, I enjoyed reading applicants’ statements of interest, learning your hopes and goals for your social work education. My goals for the School are (1) to proactively work toward creating a sustainable learning environment grounded on social justice, authentic reconciliation, and belonging. We are still feeling the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, which impaired our community building. Building respectful, authentic relationships takes time, energy, and commitment. I dedicate myself fully to continuing the process that our previous director, Dr. Nico Trocmé, began, which is my second goal for the School: (2) sustaining a progressive body which strives to engage students and faculty in critical inquiry, promote equity in relationships and practice, model empathy and contribute to a respectful, inclusive environment where we can all thrive.
I seek to widen opportunities for our social work students to reach individuals and families living and working in communities impacted both historically and contemporaneously by colonization, systemic racism and discrimination. From an equity-focused standpoint, social work education must continue to make inroads on transforming the student body, staff and faculty to reflect the diversity of the contexts in which we practice. This includes creating and nurturing pathways and providing effective, culturally grounded mentoring for students from historically and present-day marginalized communities interested in continuing in social work education through the master’s and doctoral levels. While maintaining progressive, critically grounded social work education curricula, we will advocate for revisioning standards that historically have served to continue modes of colonization and discrimination and ensure that curriculum content reflects the realities of its students.
The excellence of the School resides in its people—the staff, faculty and students. I encourage you to take a look at our Faculty page and see their research and teaching interests. You will be able to find someone whose area of interest is aligned with yours. Thus, as you journey through this program, don’t hesitate to ask questions; reach out to us and to your peers. Your cohort, those you see around you, will be your resource and referral network, your allies in creating positive social change.
I strongly encourage self-reflection, an open, respectful exchange of ideas and a willingness to dialogue across difference regardless of the subject matter of the course. I believe that approaching learning from a critical perspective widens the space for inquiry into our own values, assumptions, biases and social location. I am energized your choice of social work, which I believe is a calling as much as a career. I look forward to engaging collaboratively in improving the lives of those with whom we live, work, and share community.
Dr. Nicole Ives,
Director
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