Ecologist Madhur Anand has been appointed interim director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation, based at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Anand, a poet and professor in the school of environmental sciences at the University of Guelph, specializes in complex modelling and analysis and is a past Canada Research Chair in Global Ecological Change. Her appointment started Sept. 1 and runs until Aug. 31, 2016.
Garry Fehr was named director of the Agriculture Centre of Excellence at the University of the Fraser Valley for a three-year term. Dr. Fehr has been a member of UFV’s faculty of geography and the environment since 2007. In this new role he will engage in stakeholder relations and contribute to the university’s programming and research in the areas of agricultural education, career development and innovation. Dr. Fehr started his academic career after working for 19 years in the construction and primary resources services sector, including several years spent leading humanitarian aid projects in B.C., Latin America and India. He completed his BA in geography in 2003 as a mature student at Thompson Rivers University and earned his PhD at the University of Guelph in 2008. ACE opened at UFV’s Chilliwack campus in 2014 as a provincial hub for agricultural innovation.
Wilfrid Laurier University has appointed former Deloitte chairman John Bowey as the new chair of the university’s board of governors, effective July 1. Mr. Bowey has served on Laurier’s board as a community-at-large representative since 2011. Previously, he served as vice-chair and chair of the audit and compliance committee. He was also a member of the Laurier Senate.
Ryerson University President and Vice-chancellor Sheldon Levy has been named deputy minister of training, colleges and universities with the Government of Ontario. In this role, Mr. Levy will support the government’s innovation agenda and a review of its post- secondary funding formula. Mr. Levy has been at the helm of Ryerson during a decade of sub-stantial growth at the institution. The government appointment will begin Dec. 1.
Eric Pierni has been appointed advancement manager and executive director of the Delton Glebe Counselling Centre at the Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, a federated college of Wilfrid Laurier University. Mr. Pierni is a private-practice therapist, having recently graduated from the seminary’s MA program in spiritual care and psychotherapy. Mr. Pierni also worked in online marketing and is a co-founder of Kijiji Canada.
On Oct. 22, Jack Cowin will be installed as chancellor of Western University. A Western alumnus, Mr. Cowin is founder and executive chair of Competitive Foods Australia Ltd. After moving from Canada to Australia in 1969, Mr. Cowin opened franchises of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Domino’s Pizza, and launched his own fast food chain, Hungry Jack’s. The company now operates 350 restaurants and five food processing facilities, which export to 29 countries.
On Aug. 1, Jennifer Burns began her term as chief information officer at the University of British Columbia. Ms. Burns has more than 19 years of management and leadership experience and 15 years of IT operations management in public and private sectors. She has been on the IT management team at UBC for over 13 years and was deputy CIO before taking on her new role.
Susan Crocker was named chancellor of St. Francis Xavier University, the first woman and layperson to hold this post. Ms. Crocker is a past member of the StFX board of governors and chairs the Coady International Institute’s advisory board. She was a partner with Ernst & Young management consulting, senior vice-president, equity and derivative markets, with the Toronto Stock Exchange, and president and CEO of the Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan. Since leaving the finance sector in 2001, she has been a philanthropist and community leader in the arts and not-for-profit sector.
Tim McTiernan was reappointed president and vice-chancellor of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) for a second term of four years, beginning July 1, 2016. Dr. McTiernan previously served in various senior leadership roles at the University of Toronto, and in the governments of Ontario and Yukon, and was president of Canadore College in North Bay.
John Walsh was reappointed vice-provost of the University of Guelph-Humber for a third five-year term. First appointed in 2005, Mr. Walsh oversees academics and administration at Guelph-Humber. Previously, he served as director of U of G’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (now the School of Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management) and as associate dean of the former faculty of management. He was also acting vice-president, academic, and acting president of Royal Roads University.
Christopher Manfredi was named provost and vice-principal, academic, at McGill University. His five-year term began on July 1. Dr. Manfredi joined McGill’s department of political science in 1988 and served as chair of the department for five years. From 2006 to 2015, he served as dean of the faculty of arts. His research interests include judicial politics, constitutional design, constitutional theory, law and politics, and legal mobilization.
At York University, Lyndon Martin has been appointed dean of the faculty of education. His five-year term will begin July 1, 2016. Dr. Martin joined York in 2009 as associate professor of education and has since served as associate dean of undergraduate programs (2011-2014) and academic programs (2014-2015), and was involved in the re-conceptualization of York’s BEd program.
Since July 1, chemistry professor Ulrich Krull has been acting principal and vice-president at the University of Toronto at Mississauga. Most recently UTM’s vice-principal, special initiatives, Dr. Krull holds the AstraZeneca Chair in Biotechnology and is a leading analytical chemist in Canada. He previously served as vice-principal, research, as vice-dean, graduate studies, and as associate dean of sciences. Dr. Krull will hold the post until Dec. 31.
Marlys L. Koschinsky has been appointed scientific and executive director for Western University’s Robarts Research Institute at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. Currently dean of the faculty of science at the University of Windsor, Dr. Koschinsky is an internationally recognized expert in lipoproteins and cardiovascular disease. She spent 17 years at Queen’s University serving as director of the cardiac, circulatory and respiratory research program, and acting head of the department of physiology. In 2008, she moved to U of Windsor. Her appointment began Oct. 1.
The Trudeau Foundation has announced the recipients of this year’s research fellowships for public intellectuals in the humanities and social sciences. Each fellow receives $225,000 over three years. The 2015 fellows are: Jocelyn Downie (faculty of medicine and Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University), an expert in the legal issues surrounding medically assisted dying; Bessma Momani (department of political science, University of Waterloo), who specializes in the local economic governance and political economy of the Middle East; Cleo Paskal (Montreal Centre for International Studies, Université de Montréal), who will research how political, economic, and environmental changes in the Indo-Pacific might shape Canadian foreign policy; René Provost (faculty of law, McGill University), who will explore the legitimacy of armed, non-state groups seeking justice through insurgent courts; and Nancy Turner (environmental studies, University of Victoria), a specialist in ethnobotany and ethnoecology, who will examine how these research areas can support indigenous policy develop-ment and decision-making.