Valerie Gibbons, pioneering public servant named to help Environment Ministry, & ground-breaking rose breeder Felicitas Svejda to receive hon. degrees from York U.

TORONTO, June 19, 2000 -- Valerie Gibbons, a former top-level Ontario public servant appointed Friday to help improve the Environment ministry's protection efforts, and world-renowned plant geneticist Felicitas Svejda, will receive honorary degrees from York University Tues., June 20.

Valerie Gibbons, one of Ontario's first female deputy ministers, has decades of experience and proven effectiveness in public policy implementation. She served as deputy minister for Community and Social Services, Consumer and Commercial Relations, and the Management Board Secretariat. As an exemplar of the highest standard of public service, Gibbons made significant contributions to equity in the delivery of services to children and families with special needs. Now the head of a policy consulting firm called Executive Resource Group, Gibbons will begin her work with Ontario's Environment Minister Dan Newman and his ministry in July.

Gibbons will receive her honorary Doctor of Laws degree and address convocation Tues., June 20, 2:30 p.m.

Felicitas Svejda, now retired, was a plant geneticist and rose breeder at the federal Department of Agriculture's Genetics and Plant Breeding Institute at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa. Svejda developed the Explorer Series of hardy roses (named after such famous Canadian explorers as Henry Hudson, Samuel de Champlain, John Cabot, and Martin Frobisher) which are resistant to both insects and Canada's harsh climate. An author of numerous articles on rose breeding and horticulture, she is a past member of the Agricultural Institute of Canada and the Canadian, American and International Societies of Horticultural Science.

Svejda will receive her honorary Doctor of Science degree and address convocation Tues., June 20, 10 a.m.

Both convocation ceremonies will be held on York's Keele Campus, in the convocation tent, located east of the Centre for Film and Theatre, 4700 Keele St.

**PHOTO OPPORTUNITY Svejda and Gibbons will pose for photos amid Svejda's famed Explorer Roses during a 4:30 p.m. garden party in their honour. The party will take place in the gardens of the Hoover Homestead, an historic property built in 1848, located west of the Passy Gardens residences, off The Pond Road, Keele Campus.

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For more information, please contact:

Ken Turriff, Media Relations Officer
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22086
kturriff@yorku.ca
YU/069/00