Alumni Profiles
![Odelia Duffus (Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies, '22): "The best and most effective way to [solve] conflict is restorative justice and I'll preach that forever. I did not believe in it when I started at CMU, but now I do..."](https://www.cmu.ca/phpthumb/phpThumb.php?src=/uploaded/Odelia_Duffus_sq_2454.png&w=1500&h=1000&aoe=0&q=100&f=.jpg "Odelia Duffus (Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies, '22): \"The best and most effective way to [solve] conflict is restorative justice and I'll preach that forever. I did not believe in it when I started at CMU, but now I do...\"")
CMU alumna transforms dream for justice through peace program
CMU alumna Odelia Duffus wanted to be a lawyer after she graduated high school. Six years later, she's liaising with the court—but not in the role she expected.
Duffus is a mediator and caseworker with Mediation Services, a Winnipeg-based organization offering conflict resolution and training to workplaces, families, and communities. She wants to make a safer and more just future for all people involved in conflict, by navigating it in ways alternative to conventional punishment. Through mediation, she acts as a neutral third party that hears each side's perspective and helps create an agreement that benefits everyone and an appropriate solution.
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CMU alum recontextualizes art song through queer, ecological lens
At first glance, it may not seem like music, climate justice, and queerness would cross career paths. But Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) alum Anna Bigland-Pritchard has built a life that weaves together these strands.
The 30-year-old soprano lives in Victoria, BC, where she divides her time between studying under renowned soprano Nancy Argenta, managing marketing at Vancouver Bach Choirs, directing music ministry at Oak Bay United Church, and teaching through her small business, ABP Music Studio. She also dedicates time to advocating for climate justice and facilitating workshops on eco-mindfulness, which she has done for institutions like KAIROS, University of Toronto, and CMU.
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Two CMU alumni prove the value of creative veterinary care
The first veterinary college was created in response to a cattle plague decimating southern France in the middle of the 18th century. Though microbiology had not yet been established as a concrete area of study, the first veterinary scientists worked tirelessly in search of a remedy, and within a few years, the plague was controlled, the cattle population was revived, and France resumed economic stability.
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Alumnus explores the relationship between art and commerce in daring new novel
In 2017, André Forget was asked by friend and collaborator Joel Peters (CMU, 2011) to write a short story about a fictitious underwater organ. The only rule was to keep the story around 2,000 words. Forget ended up writing a 10,000-word academic dissertation about the mythical instrument, which he named the hydroöganon. Complete with invented scholars debating each other's theses and extensive details as to the engineering of the instrument, the story, originally titled The Lower Registers, served as the impetus for writing his debut novel In the City of Pigs, published by Dundurn Press in the summer of 2022.
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Summer 2022 alumni updates (new content)
Readers of CMU's The Blazer magazine often say they flip right to the Alumni News section before reading anything else.
Again, as with the past several issues of The Blazer in its digest format, we were unable to squeeze in alumni news. Below is a compilation of updates provided to CMU by alumni.
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