Alumni Stories

By Kate Hargreaves 

On a muggy September morning, Dayna Pidhoresky (BSc ’09, BA ’10) lined up with more than 1,500 runners on Windsor’s Riverside Drive, awaiting the start of the second annual Windsor Waterfront Half-Marathon. 

Just over 71 minutes later, she broke the tape at the finish line, at the same time taking down a personal best (PB) that had stood for 15 years. 

“It did feel very humid warming up, and we were unsure if a PB would be possible on a day like that,” Pidhoresky recalls.  

By Victor Romao

MBA students at the University of Windsor's Odette School of Business gained insights into artificial intelligence governance and built professional connections at MBA Connect in July.

The annual experiential learning event in July brought together MBA students, Odette faculty, corporate partners, alumniand community leaders to discuss emerging business issues and create networking opportunities.

By Victor Romao

It’s a Thursday afternoon at Sunset House. Conversations shift from art and literature to technology, politics and the changing landscape of higher education.

Ideas are exchanged, stories and perspectives shared and a steady rhythm of curiosity fills the meeting room.

For members of the Windsor University Retirees’ Association (WURA), retirement is not an ending. It signals the start of something new.

By Victor Romao

Some of life's most valuable lessons happen outside the classroom.

For University of Windsor alumnus Michael Ruffolo, travelling across North America as a member of the Odette Debate Team offered more than an opportunity to compete.

It provided a foundation in collaboration, persuasion and critical thinking that would shape his career at the forefront of the creator economy.

By Kate Hargreaves 

Dr. Jim Potvin didn’t know much about ergonomics when he was first hired to help the General Motors (GM) transmission plant in Windsor improve worker safety. 

He needed a summer job and had heard that the plant hired engineering students. Potvin, however, was a kinesiology student. 

By Kate Hargreaves 

With her glitter-covered eyeglasses, Kate Reynolds (BMus ’06) knows that she looks like a children’s librarian. However, part of her goal as the founder of Storytime Solidarity is to shake up assumptions about who leads storytime. 

By Kate Hargreaves 

On the road from UWindsor's School of Visual Arts to Canada's Drag Race, artistry has always taken centre stage for Jo Primeau (BFA '11). 

Better known as drag persona Juice Boxx, Primeau began performing back in 2016 after graduating from UWindsor and moving to Toronto to study makeup and special effects at Complections Makeup Artistry (now CMU College).  

Work in television, film and events, followed by a role with MAC Cosmetics, eventually led Primeau to drag. 

By Victor Romao 

A co-op placement is often viewed as a bridge between the classroom and the workplace.  

For some students, it can also become the first step toward a long-term career. 

The opportunity to gain practical experience, build professional relationships and apply classroom knowledge can open doors well beyond graduation. 

That was the case for Ashley Deslippe (BComm ’25).  

By Kate Hargreaves

Being legally protected on the basis of gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation is not the same thing as belonging. 

That is the message of a new report by UWindsor sociology professor Dr. Carlo Handy Charles examining the experiences of Black queer and trans migrants in Windsor-Essex. 

UWindsor alumna Sarah Mitton (BSc '18) has taken home her second straight gold in the Commonwealth Games, boosting Canada toward a third-place finish out of 74 Commonwealth nations and territories. 

The former Lancer shot put phenom, who also represented Canada at both the 2020 and 2024 summer Olympics, is a U Sports title holder and was U Sports female athlete of the year in 2018.  

By Victor Romao

Winning a Barbie case competition earned four Odette School of Business MBA students a behind-the-scenes look at one of the world's most recognizable brands.

Andrea Rivait, Hagen Nelson, Meghan Rae and Fatima Rizvi, members of the MBA Class of 2026, recently visited Mattel Canada's headquarters in Mississauga after taking top honours in a competition that challenged students to develop strategic and marketing recommendations for Barbie.

By Kate Hargreaves

How hot is too hot to exercise safely?  

For Canadian varsity coaches, athletes and even youth sports organizations, getting a clear answer to that question is surprisingly difficult. 

With extreme heat blanketing southern Ontario in recent weeks, UWindsor Kinesiology professors Dr. Anthony Bain and Dr. Andrew Perrotta sought out heat training guidelines governing Canadian varsity sports. 

“I was shocked that we had nothing,” says Bain. 

By Kate Hargreaves

While elite soccer players around the world were gearing up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, behind the scenes staff were making sure that cities across North America were ready to host them alongside thousands of cheering fans. 

One of those people is UWindsor graduate Adam Powell, who spent 15 months during the planning phase of the event as host city operations manager in Vancouver before becoming host city director at the start of the tournament.  

By Sara Meikle

Administering medication may appear straightforward, but behind every dose is a complex series of steps where errors can still occur despite the best intentions of health-care professionals.

Nearly two decades after introducing a medication incident reporting system for nursing students, the University of Windsor is seeing evidence that its efforts to build a culture of safety are taking hold.

By Sara Meikle

Each year, Windsor Law honours graduates whose careers demonstrate the impact lawyers can have beyond the courtroom — advancing justice, strengthening communities and upholding the values at the heart of the legal profession.

By Sara Meikle

Just a few years ago, Aaron Aine imagined a very different future.

Growing up in Uganda, he studied history, economics and literature with plans to become a lawyer. Nursing was never part of the plan.

Everything changed after immigrating to Canada in 2019. Aine completed his final year of high school in Scarborough before enrolling in the University of Windsor's nursing program at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He was adapting to a new country, a new education system and a new way of learning all at once.

By Kate Hargreaves 

When social work professor Maddie Brockbank first saw the call for applications to UWindsor’s Innovation Fellowship, she wasn’t sure her work would be a good fit. 

“I remember thinking, this is not for me,” she recalls. 

By Kate Hargreaves 

The first time Eve Uwayesu walked into the Toronto Tempo's offices, the WNBA's newest team was still being built — and so was a moment in professional women's sport that nobody could have predicted a decade ago. 

"Everyone watches women's sports." 

By Sara Meikle

Reinforcing its position as a global leader in legal scholarship, the University of Windsor is co-convening an international conversation on South Asia's most pressing legal issues.

By Sara Meikle

Nearly two decades after Bitcoin first appeared, blockchain technology remains one of the most talked-about and often misunderstood innovations of the digital age.

For Dr. Muharem Kianieff, a professor at the University of Windsor Faculty of Law, that enduring fascination inspired a newly expanded second edition of his book, Blockchain Technology and the Law: Opportunities and Risks.