Professor Maydianne Andrade’s distinguished career is marked by innovative leadership and actualizing best practices for inclusion in the workplace. She is the founder of the Toronto Initiative for Diversity and Excellence (TIDE), co-founder and president of the Canadian Black Scientists Network, and the Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs and Equity at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC). Andrade shows leaders how to mitigate and resolve unconscious bias and systemic barriers in the workplace to cultivate cultures of inclusion and equity.
Andrade earned her Ph.D. in neurobiology and behaviour from Cornell University and has been a professor at UTSC for more than 20 years. As the Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs and Equity, she drove the creation of new processes and programs to increase transparency and inclusive practices across the campus. In 2019, Andrade was awarded the Ludwik and Estelle Jus Memorial Human Rights Prize for her accomplishments in equity and inclusion education.
As the founder of TIDE, Andrade leads a multi-disciplinary group of faculty volunteers that provide data-informed talks, workshops, and practical advice on increasing representation and inclusion in the university. She is also chair of the national Killam Program selection committee, where she co-created and operationalized processes for equitable adjudication of research excellence across disciplines. Andrade is the co-founder and president of the Canadian Black Scientists Network, where she advocates for Black innovators and STEM professionals.
An award-winning teacher, researcher, and science outreach educator, Andrade was recently promoted to University Professor, the highest academic rank at the University of Toronto. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Animal Behaviour Society and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and sits on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Council of Canadian Academies. She’s been featured on CBC’s Quirks and Quarks, Ideas, and The Nature of Things, and was the host and co-creator of The New Normal, a podcast exploring equity and collective action
