Memorial University announced the appointment of Violet Ford as its new associate vice-president, Indigenous research. Ms. Ford, originally from Makkovik, Labrador, was the first Indigenous woman to become a lawyer in Newfoundland and Labrador and Canada’s first female lawyer of Inuit ancestry. She is a PhD candidate in Inuit legal traditions in the faculty of law at the University of Lapland, Finland, and played a role in drafting provisions of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Ms. Ford began her five-year term on Sept. 7.
Louise Spiteri has been appointed interim chair of Dalhousie University’s senate. Dr. Spiteri, a professor in Dalhousie’s school of information management, is the first woman to hold the chair position in 30 years. In this role, she will oversee the business of the senate, serve as chair of the governance and planning committee and sit on the university’s board of governors. Dr. Spiteri has served in the senate for several years, including a year as interim vice-chair of academic programs from 2020 to 2021.