Improving educational opportunities for disadvantaged people

Dr. Tanyss Munro has spent her life, with her husband, best-selling author Gem Munro, creating a world worthy of children and youth around the world through education. They spent a couple of decades working with some of the most impoverished, troubled Indigenous communities in Canada’s far north – and by helping youth to become powerful catalysts of change, communities were transformed. Their focus now is on the one-third of children worldwide denied an education. From there she became a senior advisor to Reginal Tribal governments, to Federal Ministers and to governments around the world through the Commonwealth of Learning. In 2006 Tanyss and Gem with their 4 children including Grace developed a unique approach many said would never work to provide the most marginalized children quality education. For her work, Tanyss is the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.