Join us in celebrating and supporting the legacy of Pearl Sullivan
Pearl Sullivan could do anything she set her formidable mind and spirit to. While small in stature, her vision for Waterloo Engineering was without limits. As the eighth Dean of Engineering and the first woman, Pearl knew she was standing on the shoulders of giants and used this vantage point to re-imagine engineering education and research with revolutionary spaces and transformative programs.
Under her leadership from July 2012 to December 2019, Dean Sullivan ensured that Waterloo continued as a global leader in engineering education and championed the Faculty’s work in disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, nanotechnology, robotics and wireless communications. More than an accomplished academic, Pearl understood Canada’s role in global innovation and worked tirelessly to expand the potential for industry collaboration.
She led the Faculty of Engineering’s successful $100 million Educating the Engineer of the Future fundraising campaign and delighted in knowing that Engineering 7 is now the “front door of Engineering” on campus. She was passionate about many things but none more so than ensuring every student had the world’s finest experiential education. She loved her family, her faculty, she loved dancing, good food, and K-pop. But what she loved most was making Waterloo Engineering a place where students could fulfill their greatest aspirations.
And her favourite place in E7 was the Engineering IDEAs Clinic. For Pearl, the IDEAs Clinic was the epitome of the engineering student experience – it is where engineering students get their first taste of what it means to ideate, create and collaborate like an engineer as they tackle open-ended, real-world problems in a classroom setting. With each engineering discipline working on customized activities aligned with their studies, student teams engage in more than challenging problem-solving - they learn teamwork skills that help in developing engineers with deep knowledge and broad general skills.
In honour of Pearl Sullivan’s legacy, we invite you to support the Pearl Sullivan IDEAs Clinic.
For questions, please contact Prachi Surti at psurti@uwaterloo.ca. For information about giving from the US, please visit the US Gifts page.
Gifts over $10,000 will be recognized on the donor wall in the Ideas Clinic and all other gifts will be recognized on the digital donor wall in the E7 Atrium.