Mary Gordon

Mary Gordon, Member of the Order of Canada, Author, and Social Entrepreneur has created award-winning programs that have been informed by the power of the loving relationships of families.

In 1996 Mary Gordon founded Roots of Empathy, a not-for-profit, evidence-based classroom program that has shown dramatic effect in reducing levels of aggression and violence among schoolchildren while raising social emotional competence and increasing empathy.

Mary is also the founder of Canada's first and largest school-based parenting and family literacy program, which she initiated in 1981. This program has been used as best practice model throughout North America and has attracted the attention of educators and policy makers from Japan, Australia, Jordan, South Africa, and England.

Recognized nationally and internationally as a child advocate and parenting expert, Ms. Gordon speaks and consults to governments, education organizations, and public institutions. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards recognizing her contribution to innovation in education and international social entrepreneurship and the author of Roots of Empathy: Changing the World Child by Child, published in 2005.

In 2006 Ms. Gordon is collaborating with the World Bank Institute of the World Bank in Paris and is a contributing member of the World Health Organization. The Nelson Mandela Children’s Foundation in collaboration with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) brought her to South Africa to share her parenting expertise.

Ms. Gordon served as a panel member on the U.S. Government's Early Childhood Development Research Agenda Setting Committee and was a member of the groundbreaking "Ontario Early Years Study", chaired by Dr. Fraser Mustard and the Honorable Margaret McCain. Mary Gordon is a panel member of Best Start, Ontario’s comprehensive strategy for healthy development and wellbeing to help all of Ontario's young children be successful in school and in life.

In June 2002, Mary Gordon became the first female Canadian Ashoka Fellow, recognizing her as a member of an international circle of "social entrepreneurs who have the creativity that enables them to envision new and better ways to address persistent social problems and the entrepreneurial skill and determination required to bring their ideas to fruition." According to Ashoka which has 20 years of success in identifying and investing in social entrepreneurs around the globe, only individuals whose ideas meet the highest standards of innovation, entrepreneurial skill, creativity, social impact and human ethics are selected as Fellows.

In the past five years Mary Gordon has been the recipient of the following awards:

• The first Fraser Mustard Award which recognizes corporations and individuals for their contributions to the physical, emotional and intellectual well-being of Canada's next generation of leaders
• Commemorative Medal for the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by the Ontario Teachers' Federation for her service to students, teachers and the profession in Ontario
• Community Services Award from the Psychology Foundation of Canada
• Distinguished Educator Award (national), given by the University of Toronto
• Ontario Teachers' Federation Fellowship Lifetime Award
• Woman of the Village, Every Child is Sacred, 2005
• Member of the Order of Canada