Mi’kmaw advocate Kayla Mansfield-Brown honoured with Outstanding Young Alumni Award

By Fred Sgambati (’83) The Acadia Alumni Association is pleased to announce that two-time graduate Kayla Mansfield-Brown (‘Dancing Deer’ - 2014, 2019) is the 2021 recipient of the Acadia Alumni Outstanding Young Alumni Award. Her impact as a woman, mother of four, Mi’kmaw leader and proud Acadia graduate who completed a Master’s of Education in Leadership at Acadia last year is difficult to overstate. A strong and outspoken advocate for social and environmental justice, gender equity and Indigenous rights, Kayla received in 2018 the ‘Fearless Leader’ Award from One Woman, an international organization dedicated to female empowerment, and earned the Graduate Student of the Year award at Acadia in 2019 for her commitment to academics and community involvement. More recently, Kayla was the recipient of the Dwight Dorey Youth Advocacy Award, presented to an Indigenous youth by the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, which works to bring awareness to Indigenous rights, culture, education and language.

Natalie Irwin ('01)

Natalie Irwin (’01) resides in the Unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe Territories (Ottawa) where, in addition to completing an MA, Sustainable Energy Policy part-time at Carleton University, she is Director of Stakeholder Engagement at Efficiency Canada, the national voice for an energy efficiency economy. Prior to joining the national think-tank, Natalie managed the successful trade-ally program for EfficiencyOne, the franchise holder that operates Efficiency Nova Scotia for the province. As a Professional Business Relationship Manager, her role encompasses stakeholder engagement with North American energy efficiency organizations, partners, and associations. Upon graduation from Acadia University with her Bachelor of Business Administration, Natalie received the Golden A Award for her volunteer work with the Acadia Students’ Union, as a student member of the Board of Governors, and as SMARTT President of the former student-alumni group. Since then, Natalie has continued to be an active volunteer and in 2019 was awarded the national Chapter Volunteer Leadership Award from the Canada Green Building Council and received in 2016 the Best Super-Connector Award by Halifax Partnership for her work with their Connector Program.