Gwendolyn “Wendy Yip

Gwendolyn (“Wendy”) Yip, the wife of Professor Santa Ono, has a special role as University Ambassador for UBC. She volunteers her time to build community within UBC and beyond, to promote good will for the university and to encourage the efforts of faculty, staff, and students at UBC campus. In particular, she has engaged substantively with the Asian Canadian & Asian Migration Studies program, the Museum of Anthropology (as an Advisory Board member since 2019), and Transcending Boundaries, an ad hoc working committee at UBC for promoting wellness and brain health through the use of music, arts, and exercise. Wendy serves as Honorary President to the UBC Faculty Women’s Club, which supports women faculty, staff and spouses, and raises funds for student scholarships. Additionally, she supports and promotes the activities of Green College, St. John’s College, UBC’s Music, Opera and Theatre programs, the Belkin Art Gallery, and UBC Athletics.

Beyond UBC, Wendy is honoured to have been invited to join the Pacific Canada Heritage Centre / Museum of Migration as the President of the Board, since January 2020. She has served on the Advisory Board of the Chinatown Storytelling Centre since autumn 2018, a project of the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation. She also volunteers at her daughter’s VSB school as time permits.

Wendy trained as an immunologist at McGill University and as a lawyer at Boston University. She practiced law for a decade in the US, primarily in patent law, but with some experience in poverty and family law, health law, and criminal prosecution. Wendy also served as a Legal Fellow at what is now the Asian American Justice Center in Washington, DC, where she championed affirmative action and co-authored a report on Asian American business participation in public contracts. She taught patent law as a visiting fellow at the London School for Economics 2001-02. From 2012-2016, Wendy was First Lady of the University of Cincinnati and helped to fundraise for UC, Cincinnati Zoo, and the Seven Hills Neighborhood House, an inner-city community centre where she remains a board member. She is married to Santa J. Ono, 15th President of UBC, with whom she is trying to raise two independent, resilient and compassionate daughters.

Photo credit: Paul H Joseph