Renowned researcher and educator, Dr Mildred Cahill has been recognized for her work with marginalized groups and distance career counselling with the Etta St John Wileman Award for Lifetime Achievement in Career Development. The highest honour in the profession, the award from The Canadian Journal of Career Development was presented to Cahill on January 25 at the Cannexus conference in Ottawa.

Cahill is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She has 25 years of demonstrated expertise in the areas of inclusive career development/counselling, cultural diversity, including First Nations, young girls and women, displaced workers, youth and adults in transition, policy implementation and evaluation. In the past, she directed the Centre for Distance Career Counselling, a collaborative research venture with a mandate to design, implement and evaluate career development programs for diverse culture groups.

In presenting the award, which comes in the shape of an Inuksuk, Dr Robert Shea, Editor of The Canadian Journal of Career Development, praised Cahill’s significant and sustained commitment to the profession, citing her involvement at the K-12, post-secondary and community levels.

“Her most recent work was with Inuit students in Labrador,” said Shea. “Dr Cahill epitomizes the theme of the Inukshuk, which also appears on the cover of the Journal – that “one who guides the way and asks for nothing in return.”

Shea added that the Etta St John Wileman Award is not necessarily given every year and is reserved to celebrate leaders who combine the role of researcher, educator, author and practitioner and who have devoted their lives to furthering the profession of career development.

In the early 1900s, Etta St John Wileman was a champion of career and workplace development in Canada. Wileman was a strong advocate for a national system of employment offices. She lobbied for the role of parents and schools in the career guidance of children. Her vision was that “Work is a social obligation which has to be provided in order that both individual and society may reap the benefit of constant productivity.”