Dr. Chidi Igwe is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (Saskatchewan) for volunteerism and community service. He is an educator, a public and community servant, and a communications professional.
Dr. Igwe is a good example of how public education funding can make a difference in the lives of individual Canadians. He benefited from many different scholarships which allowed him to go to school in Canada. He believes that government’s support for public education helps to expand access to opportunities.
Dr. Igwe was born in 1977 in Ukwu-Oba, a small village in Southern Nigeria. His mother was a Sunday school teacher and his father operated a small provision store in the village.
After obtaining his Bachelor of Arts in French Studies from Ambrose Ali University (Nigeria), he moved to Canada in 2003 to pursue his Master’s degree thanks to a scholarship from the University of Regina. In 2004, he received another scholarship from Dalhousie University which allowed him to obtain his PhD in 2010.
Dr. Igwe became a permanent resident in 2006 and a Canadian citizen in 2009. In 2007, he returned to Regina and began to teach at the University of Regina as a sessional lecturer. He became an Assistant Professor in 2010 and has taught different levels of undergraduate and graduate courses.
In 2015, he joined the Saskatchewan public service and worked for the Government of Saskatchewan as a Communications Consultant for more than six years. He served with the Ministry of Education from 2015 to 2019, and with the Ministries of Trade and Export Development, Immigration and Career Training, and Energy and Resources from 2019 to 2022.
Today, he works as Marketing and Communications Manager at La Cité, University of Regina where he is also a Research Associate and continues to teach.
As one who benefited immensely from public education funding in Canada, Dr. Igwe looks for opportunities to give back to society through public service and volunteering.
He has served as director, secretary, public relations officer, vice-president, president, etc., in many community-based organizations in Saskatchewan. This includes the Multilingual Association of Regina, the Saskatchewan Organization for Heritage Languages, the Igbo Cultural Association of Saskatchewan, the African Canadian Resource Network, etc.
A family, Christian man, Igwe enjoys the company of his wife, Lawretta Igwe. They have five children, Chidera, Chioma, Chiamaka, Chinaza and Chiemezuo.