Dr. Maddie Brockbank is one of the first cohort of Innovation Fellows in a new program at the University of Windsor (KYLE ARCHIBALD/University of Windsor)
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.
The fellowship, launched in 2026 by the Office of Research and Innovation, helps support early-stage founders, creators and entrepreneurs as they develop their ideas and ventures.
“As a social justice social worker, to be among tech and business entrepreneurs, I didn’t know if I was cut out for it,” says Brockbank.
“I was so intimidated applying and almost talked myself out of it several times because the world of business and commercialization just feels very exclusive.”
What made her reconsider was that the fellowship was not centred only on marketing a product. It also invited those looking to take the next step in mobilizing a service or solution.
As a social worker, the emphasis on service spoke to Brockbank, and she applied and was selected as part of the fellowship’s first cohort.
Despite her initial doubts, a month into the fellowship, Brockbank is glad she applied.
As an Innovation Fellow, Brockbank and her cohort are eligible to receive up to $12,000 to support them in the early growth of their projects. They also attend weekly workshops on key aspects of developing their ventures, including meeting with mentors, campus experts and industry experts.
Brockbank says the experience has been a whirlwind of learning about business, pitching her ideas and receiving valuable feedback and advice. She’s also been able to connect with a varied and interdisciplinary cohort of fellows all working to mobilize their knowledge in creative ways.
“I’m surrounded by truly brilliant people who are doing such diverse and innovative work,” says Brockbank.
“Just by being close to them and hearing them talk, I’m learning so much about the different approaches you can take to this work and the ways people are conceptualizing something academic into business, translating it into something tangible and accessible for non-specialist audiences.”
Brockbank has been particularly struck by the community-mindedness of the projects across her cohort. “All of the projects are so rooted in bettering the communities that people are working in,” she says.
As for her own work, Brockbank is aiming to scale a framework she co-designed as part of her dissertation to engage men in gender-based and sexual violence prevention. In her doctoral work, she worked with a group of men who were post-secondary students and a community board of anti-violence service providers to design a framework that resonated with that population.
“It was really informed by what men are curious about — what they’re noticing is missing — rooted in their own experiences,” she explains.
For the Innovation Fellowship, Brockbank is working on ways to mobilize this framework in various contexts, from schools to businesses, unions and professional sports.
Wrapping her head around marketing the service — including charging a fee — was a challenge for Brockbank, coming from a background in social work and the non-profit sector.
“Working in a lot of these really successful environments, like professional sports teams, they should pay for this kind of work,” she says. “They should support initiatives that aren’t solely about brand and marketing but about making sure that people connected to that community are safe and their well-being is central.”
“I had to kind of work through that in my head, but I was really glad I ended up going for it,” she says.
With the fellowship funding and support, Brockbank is working on building a brand around her anti-violence framework, including an e-learning platform and website that organizations, teams and businesses can access.
“I have a lot of hope for this framework being something that can be readily applied and taken on by these organizations to build institutional capacity to respond to gender-based and sexual violence,” she says, noting that what is often missing is a proactive rather than reactive approach to violence.
“It’s not a blame game or pointing fingers at one person, but it’s looking at how we create a locker room where rape culture gets challenged, where safety is the priority, where connection and calling in is more readily talked about,” she explains.
Part of creating this culture shift involves having men act as champions and role models, something Brockbank has seen the impact of when working with pro sports teams. When she has included male professional athletes in anti-violence programming, she says participants are more likely to absorb the message.
“I love the work that I do. I love going into classrooms and locker rooms to talk about this stuff,” she says. “But I also saw the impact that a pro athlete coming in with their jersey on had on the youth. I think role modelling is essential, and the framework relies on those champions and leaders who are going to walk the talk and create a culture in their institutions.”
As part of that work, as she pilots the framework this fall with Lancer men’s varsity teams, Brockbank will be working alongside a placement student who is a varsity volleyball player and will serve as a peer facilitator.
Brockbank has also been encouraged by entrepreneur-in-residence Shane Kilpatrick to imagine scaling her framework further to military settings, workplaces and schools.
“I did a lot of work with skilled tradesmen because that is a hyper-masculine male-dominated space,” she says, noting that there is substantial demand within unions for ways to build institutional capacity around men supporting anti-violence.
“Anywhere where hyper-masculine norms and ideals are still so fortified, I think this could be helpful to address things before a problem happens.”
To learn more about the Innovation Fellowship, visit the program website.