Leading with Heart and Purpose: Jody Weller Receives 2025 OCSOA Nelson Excellence in Leadership Award
We are excited to share with our community that last Thursday, May 15, 2025, Jody Weller, Superintendent of Education at the Nipissing-Parry Sound Catholic District School Board (NPSC), received the 2025 Nelson Excellence in Leadership Award from the Ontario Catholic Supervisory Officers’ Association (OCSOA) during their Annual General Meeting and Conference.
The Nelson Excellence in Leadership Award, provided by the Canadian Association of School System Administrators (CASSA), recognizes and celebrates leadership, dedication, and enthusiasm in guiding children’s learning. As the 2025 recipient, Jody ensures that educational experiences for our students are broad in scope, rich in quality, and promote student growth by creating environments that foster positive perceptions of learning. She has most notably exemplified these traits of servant leadership through her significant contributions to Indigenous education across our NPSC classrooms, as well as regionally and provincially.
Jody is known as a progressive, innovative, and inspirational Catholic curriculum leader. On the evening of May 6, 2025, as NPSC celebrated the 2025 recipients of the Director of Education Award of Excellence in Catholic Education and the inaugural Barbara McCool Award of Leadership in Special Education, Jody was surprised with another profound honour.
In collaboration with Elder George Couchie, an NPSC community partner and member of Nipissing First Nation, Jody was gifted a buffalo hide drum to acknowledge and commend her devoted work in the field of Indigenous education in our community. While sharing the gift’s symbolism, George explained that the buffalo is an animal ‘who runs toward the storm’ – a vivid reflection of Jody’s unwavering courage and strength in her efforts to support the success of our Indigenous students and to ensure the permeation of Indigenous perspectives throughout the fabric of our programs at NPSC.
Please join our NPSC family as we offer prayerful and heartfelt congratulations to Jody Weller!
