Four outstanding leaders to be honoured during UPEI Convocation 2025
The University of Prince Edward Island will honour four outstanding leaders with honorary degrees during Convocation 2025, which will take place from May 13 to 16. Over 1,200 students are set to graduate over four ceremonies, which start at 10:00 am each day at the UPEI Chi-Wan Young Sports Centre.
This year’s honorary degree recipients are Leo Broderick, educator and social activist; Wayne Carew, businessman, volunteer, and community leader; Scott Parsons, singer-songwriter and diversity and inclusion activist; and the Hon. Antoinette Perry, educator and former Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island.
“UPEI congratulates these remarkable leaders, who will be receiving the University’s highest honour because of their significant contributions to their respective fields and communities,” said Dr. Wendy Rodgers, President and Vice-Chancellor. “The University is proud to recognize their achievements and service in the areas of social activism, education, business, community leadership, the arts, and diversity and inclusion.”
On Tuesday, May 13, the ceremony will include the presentation of certificates, diplomas, and degrees to graduates of the Faculty of Nursing and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. An honorary degree will be conferred upon Leo Broderick.
On Wednesday, May 14, the ceremony will include the presentation of certificates, diplomas, and degrees to graduates of the Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering and the McDougall Faculty of Business. An honorary degree will be conferred upon Wayne Carew.
On Thursday, May 15, the ceremony will include the presentation of certificates, diplomas, and degrees to graduates of the faculties of Arts, Education, and Graduate Studies. An honorary degree will be conferred upon Scott Parsons.
On Friday, May 16, the ceremony will include the presentation of certificates, diplomas, and degrees to graduates of the Faculty of Science. An honorary degree will be conferred upon the Hon. Antoinette Perry.
About the 2025 UPEI honorary degree recipients:
Leo Broderick has a long history of community involvement. In addition to his distinguished career as a teacher, he has consistently proven how ordinary citizens can make an impact in making the world a safer and fairer place through activism. Over many years, Broderick has advocated for justice in a wide variety of areas: care of the environment, water protection, health care, trade justice, peace, and maintaining public broadcasting on PEI.
Broderick is not afraid to speak out or take a stand on issues. His commitment to these ideals was influenced by his exposure to the cooperative movement in Tignish, PEI, where he was born in 1945.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint Dunstan’s University (SDU) in 1968 and holds a Bachelor of Education degree from UPEI and a Master of Education degree from Dalhousie University. While he began teaching in Quebec, he spent most of his career at Colonel Gray Senior High School in Charlottetown where he demonstrated a deep and abiding commitment to the education of Islanders.
Broderick’s long-standing career was further exemplified with his involvement in the PEI Teacher’s Federation. He served in many capacities, including as president from 1993–95. In 1994, he was elected vice-president of the Canadian Teacher’s Federation, the first PEI teacher to serve on the national executive.
He served on the board of directors for the Council of Canadians, Canada’s leading social action organization, and in 2017, he was elected to the volunteer position of national chairperson. He has attended several World Trade Organization Summits, World Social Forums, and international events from Cologne and Seattle to Hong Kong and Nairobi. In 2001, he attended the Quebec City Peoples Summit with his family, protesting globalization, the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, and corporatization.
He has been a provincial political candidate, canvassed for charitable organizations, and served Saint Dunstan’s Parish in several capacities, including as parish council president on two occasions. He also served on the SDU Board of Governors.
Broderick continually strives to understand and demonstrate the impact of global events on the local community by engaging with the wider world. His love for PEI and his actions to protect it and its people have resulted in him receiving the 2002 Ken Wordroper Founder’s Award from the Council of Canadians; an Eagle Feather from Keptin John Joe Sark, a Mi’kmaq elder, in 2014; the 2018 Outstanding Volunteer Award from the Volunteer Resource Council of PEI; the Order of Prince Edward Island Medal of Merit in 2019; and the NDP Environmental Award in November 2023.
Wayne Carew is a prominent businessman and former Prince Edward Island politician who has combined a successful career with a lifetime of volunteerism and community leadership.
Carew holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree (1976) and a Diploma in Public Administration (1978) from the University of Prince Edward Island. After earning a Diploma in Hospital Administration in 1982, he began a career that included senior positions in health care, notably director of personnel at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and executive director at the Prince County Hospital. He also was the executive director of the Confederation of the Arts. He then pursued business opportunities, owning Carew Chev Olds Cadillac in Summerside and Carew Ford Lincoln in Moncton, while serving on the boards of numerous community, health, and charitable organizations.
Carew was appointed to the premier’s task force for the closing of CFB Summerside, later serving as chair of the Slemon Park Corporation board of directors and the Summerside Regional Development Corporation, where he also served as president. He chaired the PEI School of Nursing board and served as a board member with the Windsor Foundation. He went on to be treasurer of the Prince County Hospital and a board member of the Moncton City Hospital Foundation.
After serving as councillor for the City of Summerside and the Village of West Royalty, he was elected by acclamation as the leader of the PEI Liberal Party in 1999. A past president of the Rotary Club of Summerside, he was recognized for 40 years of service and was awarded the Paul Harris Fellow from Rotary International.
Carew has long been involved with the Canada Games movement, starting when he became vice-president of the 2009 Canada Summer Games Host Society. He joined the Canada Games Council Board of Directors and was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013 in recognition of his contributions to amateur sport. He was appointed to the Governor General’s Smart and Caring Community Advisory Committee in 2014 and became chair of the Greater Charlottetown Chamber of Commerce’s Island Advance Advisory Board in 2019.
When the Canada Winter Games were announced for PEI in 2023, Carew was appointed chair of the host society. After the games, he was proud to announce a surplus of $5.5 million—the largest of any Canada Games—which is now part of a legacy fund.
In 2010, Carew joined the MRSB management team and now is senior counsel at Confederation M&A. His extensive management and ownership experience has given him a leading edge in achieving successful merger and acquisition deals for his clients.
In response to learning he will be inducted to the Junior Achievement of PEI Business Hall of Fame in May 2025, Carew said the secret to his success was working with many amazing people and always finding ways to talk to his employees.
Carew was nominated by the Canada Games Council and, as a result, is a recipient of the King Charles III medal for his leadership on two host societies.
He lives in Breadalbane, PEI, and enjoys spending time boating and travelling.
Scott Parsons is a multi-disciplined Island musician who has consistently utilized his talents to enrich his community. His involvement with theatre, film, radio, and television sparked a creativity that carries over to his work with youth. Parsons has employed his artistry to make a positive impact, fostering inclusion and diversity.
Born in Picton, Ontario, where his father was on a military posting, Parsons and his nine siblings grew up on Prince Edward Island. His father is Black but had a Scottish ancestor, “hence where ‘Parsons’ came from.” His mother has both English and Mi’kmaq heritage.
Parsons has played his almost 50-year body of work at many benefits and small venues. Notable folk festival appearances have included the Mariposa Folk Festival (Toronto), Winnipeg Folk Festival, Deep Roots Festival (Wolfville, NS), Gene MacLellan Song Festival (PEI), and the Stan Rogers Festival (NS). He has done two extensive tours of Switzerland and played across Canada, the US, England, Wales, Scotland, and the Orkney Islands. He has opened for Blue Rodeo and Jesse Winchester, backed up Daisy DeBolt, and was bass player for Gene MacLellan.
Working with at-risk youth, Parsons helped them transform their lives. He led and organized a program called Around the Block with the PEI Council of People with Disabilities, where Islanders with disabilities were trained in puppetry. The troupe performed a play at schools across the Island, addressing anti-bullying and inclusion. He has also led music workshops with Indigenous youth at Lennox Island and Abegweit First Nations.
Parsons played a pivotal role in founding the Black Cultural Society of PEI and is a past president. He has made it his mission to uncover and recognize the almost forgotten history of Black Islanders, dedicating nearly five decades to sharing their stories and the events that shaped their lives. The singer-songwriter has been recognized with numerous awards from Music PEI and the East Coast Music Association.
Throughout his career, he has been more than willing to donate his time and energy to his community. He has played at many benefits for individuals and organizations and performed at citizenship ceremonies on PEI for the Government of Canada.
Parsons was acknowledged for his contributions with the Order of Prince Edward Island in 2023 and the East Coast Music Association Stompin’ Tom Award in 2022. He was named one of CBC Atlantic’s Black Changemakers for 2024.
The Hon. Antoinette Perry is a highly respected educator from Tignish, PEI, who served as the 29th Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island from 2017–2024.
Perry studied music education at the Université de Moncton before returning home to teach at Tignish Consolidated Elementary School. After a distinguished 32-year career teaching music and French in Tignish, she retired in 2009.
Having learned to play the pipe organ at St. Simon and St. Jude Roman Catholic Church in Tignish at an early age, she became guardian of the church’s 1882 pipe organ in 2000. She spearheaded a restoration project in 2011, which, thanks to her community’s generosity, raised $150,000 in four years and saw the magnificent instrument restored to its original state. She previously was choir director and co-coordinator of the parish’s Summer Organ Recital Series, and she continued to serve as an organist while she was lieutenant-governor.
Her lifelong passion for music, teaching, and her Acadian culture found expression in many ways, including establishment of the West Prince Music Festival and service on the executive committee of the Prince Edward Island Music Educators Association. She also served on the PEI Education Commission.
Perry served on the West Prince Arts Council and the Tignish Historical Preservation Society, and, in 1979, she composed the theme song “Acadiens, c’est l’heure” for the celebrations of the 375th anniversary of the arrival of the first Acadians and the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Société Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin on PEI. She also directed the PEI bicentennial choir in Tignish for the first-ever recording of “Ave Maris Stella,” the Acadian national anthem.
Perry credits her late parents, Anne Marie and Eugene, for teaching her about respect, gratitude, generosity, protecting the environment, and giving back to the community—values that she has espoused her entire life. She was named the first Honorary Patron to the Island Nature Trust in 2021.
Perry has been a generous donor to UPEI over the years, in particular donating to campaigns and awards that support music students. In addition to her music and cultural interests, she enjoys cooking, yoga, travel, and discovering hidden Island treasures.
