Gail Cuthbert Brandt went from Renison residence student to its first woman principal

Gail Cuthbert Brandt registered for an Arts degree in History at Renison in 1963, lived in residence for three years, acting as a don in her final year there. Close to thirty years later she came back as head of the college.

In 1992 she became the first woman to serve as Renison’s principal, and the first woman to head any college at the University of Waterloo, serving as Principal and Vice-Chancellor until 2002. She was also the first woman to chair Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion, which helped Renison build international ties.

As a historian she specialized in Canadian social and women’s history, including women’s working lives and rural communities. She co-authored Canadian Women: A History and Feminist Politics on the Farm, wrote Through the Mill about girls and women in Quebec’s cotton industry, and documented the college in Bold and Courageous Dreams: A History of Renison University College. Renison profiled her for Women’s History Month on October 1.