The Asper Centre’s Executive Director, Cheryl Milne has been awarded the University of Toronto’s 2025 Chancellor’s Distinguished Leadership Award.
Recipients of this award demonstrate outstanding leadership and significantly advance the University’s mission to foster an academic community in which the learning and scholarship of every member may flourish. There are three categories of the Chancellor’s Leadership Award: Influential Leader; Distinguished Leader; and Emerging Leader.
As a Distinguished Leader, Cheryl Milne has dedicated her career to advocating for access to justice and the human rights of marginalized groups, particularly children. She was a pioneer in children’s human rights advocacy long before it gained widespread recognition. At Justice for Children and Youth, Cheryl handled numerous high-profile constitutional cases, many reaching the Supreme Court of Canada. Cheryl’s career progressed to the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights at the Faculty of Law, where she became the centre’s inaugural Executive Director. This unique role allowed her to excel as a constitutional litigator and innovative legal educator. The centre is the only clinic in Canada that integrates constitutional research, policy, teaching, and practice. Cheryl was instrumental in shaping the centre’s mission to advance constitutional rights through advocacy, education, and research. She developed its objectives to contribute significantly to constitutional advocacy, serve as an expert resource, and increase awareness and acceptance of constitutional rights.
Recognized as a leading constitutional lawyer, Cheryl is also a respected legal educator. Her teaching approach combines classroom theory, practical training, and critical and ethical reflection opportunities, exemplifying modern experiential legal education. Her “Constitutional Litigator in Residence” program enhances the Centre’s advocacy and educational goals by pairing students with leading practitioners in an immersive environment. In 2019, Cheryl received the Law Society of Ontario Medal for her contributions to the profession, including her advocacy for children’s and marginalized communities’ rights, groundbreaking constitutional litigation, innovative legal education methods, and volunteerism.
Cheryl was nominated byBrittany Twiss, Assistant Dean, JD Program, Faculty of Law.
Read more about the award here.