A North Vancouver resident has been named one of the 10 most influential Hispanic Canadians of the year.
Sophie Lavieri, a senior chemistry lecturer at Simon Fraser University, and nine others were honoured Nov. 13 in Vancouver at a ceremony organized by Latincouver.
Created and run by the Canadian Hispanic Business Alliance, the national awards program recognizes those who have "influence in the Canadian mainstream, education, achievements and awards, support of the Hispanic community and volunteerism, and entrepreneurship."
Lavieri is the first-ever Venezuelan recipient of the award. Raised in the city of San Fernando de Apure, she moved to Canada in 2000 with her husband and their two children and was hired at SFU in 2001. Shortly after, she founded a volunteer-run science education outreach program for children. Her Science in Action workshops have reached thousands of kids, many of them from aboriginal communities and inner-city schools.
"Kids, they want to do things, and they learn by doing, so that's the main thing about Science in Action," Lavieri says. Since its inception, the hands-on program has expanded to cover a range of science subjects and is now offered in both elementary and high school classrooms.
Lavieri's passion for science developed at a young age. Both her parents were pharmacists and they allowed her and her three brothers to help out at the pharmacy. They encouraged her education, she says, and she eventually went on to earn a degree in pharmacy and a PhD in chemistry from the Central University of Venezuela.
Outside of her teaching, Lavieri was also instrumental in securing the $4 million needed to build an astronomical observatory and science outreach centre on Burnaby Mountain.
She also volunteers singing in retirement homes with the choir she founded, Chemsemble (a merging of "chemistry" and "ensemble").
Past awards to her credit include SFU 's Excellence in Teaching Award (2006) and a Faculty of Science Excellence in Teaching Award (2004), the YWCA Women of Distinction Award (2009) and the Waldo Briño Inspirational Latin Award (2014) from Latincouver.
