The University of Lethbridge Board of Governors recently convened and approved a number of faculty, staff and administrative appointments that are scheduled to officially take effect July 1, 2015.
Following is a summary of these appointments.
Vice-Provost & Associate Vice-President (Academic) - Dr. Lesley Brown
Dr. Lesley Brown has been appointed for a five-year term as the Vice-Provost & Associate Vice-President (Academic).
Currently the University's Interim Vice-President (Research) and a professor of kinesiology, Brown first came to the U of L in 1997 as an assistant professor in the department of Kinesiology and Physical Education following her post-doctoral studies at the University of Oregon. Brown's research portfolio has been focused on the aging process, balance, falling, fear of falling and Parkinson's Disease.
Brown was appointed Associate Vice-President (Research) in 2011 and served in that role until 2014 when she assumed responsibility as the Interim Vice-President (Research). She has led some very important initiatives while serving in that role, including being the driving force behind the development of AGILITY and its subsequent launch. Her passion for entrepreneurship and innovation will see her play a lead role in the continued development of AGILITY as the University moves forward.
Dean, Health Sciences - Dr. Christopher Hosgood
Dr. Chris Hosgood has been reappointed as Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences for a further five-year term.
Hosgood, the former Chair of the Department of History, will be taking on his third term as Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences as he presided over the transition of the Faculty from a School in 2009. He played a major role in the expansion of both student enrolments and Faculty programs, including the recent introduction of the Bachelor of Therapeutic Recreation program, and saw the Faculty through its move into Markin Hall.
A Co-Chair on the Health Sciences Placement Network Management Committee as well as a member of the Alberta SPOR Steering Committee, Hosgood was recently appointed to the Alberta Health Research Task Force.
Dean, Graduate Studies - Dr. Robert Wood
Dr. Robert Wood has been reappointed as Dean, Graduate Studies for a further five-year term.
Wood had served in the role of Dean since January 2011 and was previously the Interim Head of the School of Graduate Studies and Chair of the Department of Sociology.
A sociology researcher and faculty member since 2000, Wood is the author or co-author of two books and numerous research articles on gambling issues, and has recently produced a trio of journal articles examining various aspects of problem gambling. He is currently the President of the Western Canadian Deans of Graduate Studies, a post he accepted February 1, 2015 after serving the previous two years as the organization's vice-president.
Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Organizations, Culture, and Society) - Dr. Paul Vasey
Dr. Paul Vasey, a professor in the Department of Psychology, conducts cross-species and cross-cultural research to answer the question: If reproduction is the engine that drives evolution, why engage in non-conceptive sex?
For the past decade he has done research on the development and evolution of female homosexual behaviour in free-ranging Japanese monkeys at various sites in Japan. He also studies the development and evolution of male same-sex sexual attraction in humans at field sites in Samoa, Japan and Canada.
Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Organizations, Culture, and Society) - Dr. Claudia Malacrida
Dr. Claudia Malacrida is a sociologist and oral historian well-known for her investigations on power and the construction of difference historically and in the present. This focus has led to investigations of eugenics and institutionalization abuses in Alberta at the Michener Centre; comparative projects examining the challenges disabled women face in their sexual, relational and family lives; and, questions of power and medicalization in local childbirth practices.
In each area, she is concerned about how seemingly personal and embodied experiences are constrained and produced through public policy, social attitudes and professional practice.
Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Earth and Environment) - Dr. Larry Flanagan
Dr. Larry Flanagan, a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences, is being reappointed as a Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair. He gained international recognition for his contributions to addressing carbon cycling and climate change.
His research program involves applying a range of techniques from eco-physiology and ecosystem ecology to study how plants and ecosystems acclimate to environmental change. This includes field studies with plants growing in their native habitats, in addition to lab and controlled environment studies.
Understanding these fundamental processes provides the basis for modelling and predicting plant and ecosystem response to global climate change.
Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Healthy Futures) - Dr. Gerlinde Metz
Dr. Gerlinde Metz is a researcher in the Department of Neuroscience, and is being appointed as a Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Health Futures) for a period of five years.
Her research program focuses on the influence of experience and environment on behaviour and brain plasticity. Her work showed that stress affects motor system function, risk of Parkinson's disease and recovery from stroke. This research indicated that adverse experience at any time in life can become a predisposing or precipitating factor of disease. More recently, her laboratory has developed unique models to explore transgenerational inheritance of stress responses. Through transgenerational programming, experience in parents, grandparents and beyond can influence health and disease from early development to old age.
Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Origins and Explorations) - Dr. Stacey Wetmore
Dr. Stacey Wetmore is a recognized leader in computational chemistry, and has been appointed a Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair (Origins and Explorations) for the period April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2022.
She has successfully established a vigorous and prolific research program exploring the reactions between DNA and various harmful chemicals in order to understand how DNA is damaged, and how enzymes in our body repair DNA by chemically removing the damaged sections of DNA.
An understanding of DNA damage and repair processes in our bodies will aid the design of new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent disease. No other Canadian researcher is studying these important (health-related) areas using computational methods. The range of approaches, close collaborations with experimental labs, and systematic attack of entire classes of biomolecules has distinguished Wetmore's research on the international stage.
Assistant Dean, Northern Campuses - Lorne Williams
Lorne Williams has been reappointed to serve as the Assistant Dean (Northern Campuses) for a further three-year term.
A respected alumnus and member of the U of L Honour Society, Williams was first named Acting Assistant Dean (Northern Campuses) in 2012. He has more than 20 years of U of L experience, including more than a decade of work in the Calgary market as a director, instructor and co-ordinator at the U of L Calgary campus. During his time there, he has won six teaching awards.
Williams consults widely on team building, leadership and corporate culture for public, private and not-for-profit organizations of all sizes. In the past year, he has served as the opening speaker at both the Faculty of Management Student PD Conference and the Canada/China Trade and Investment Forum, and was invited to give the keynote address at the Keeping People Important - MacEwan University PD Day.
Associate Vice-President (Research) - Dr. Matthew Letts
Dr. Matthew Letts has been extended as the Associate Vice-President (Research) for a period of six months, June 30, 2015 to December 31, 2015.
A faculty member in the Department of Geography, Letts is an accomplished researcher who is currently working on two projects. One, sponsored by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) is studying plant physiological response to environmental stress in semiarid ecosystems. He is also part of the team that is currently working on Functional flows: a practical strategy for healthy rivers, as sponsored by Alberta Innovates - Environmental Solutions.
Chancellor Emerita - Dr. Shirley McClellan
The University's 12th Chancellor, Dr. Shirley McClellan was named Chancellor Emerita.
McClellan served as Chancellor from 2011 to 2015 and was a strong advocate for the University of Lethbridge over that time.
A veteran Alberta politician and former deputy premier of the Province of Alberta, McClellan had long been involved in bringing further education to rural areas, serving on the board of directors for the Alberta Association of Continuing Education and the Canadian Association for Continuing Education.