Research in Colleges: Challenges and Opportunities Policy Research Symposium

Mary Butler is the VP College and Community Development, New Brunswick Community College. Mary joined NBCC in 2011 bringing a unique blend of senior management, education and business experience to the College. Responsible for College and Community Development, Mary is conscience of the College’s place in the economic and social fabric of New Brunswick.  She works with a strong, award winning team of creative thinkers and innovators to provide leadership in advancing and promoting NBCC, and building the research and planning capacity of the College.  As part of the larger NBCC team, Mary is committed to developing a culture of leadership and innovation at the College and throughout New Brunswick.  Mary is an active volunteer with the Saint John Ambulance Therapy Dog Program and as a mentor with the Mentra. She is also a representative on the following Boards and committees: New Brunswick Health Research Foundation, Springboard Atlantic Network, Venn Centre, and the NSERC Atlantic Regional Advisory Committee, as well as excellence award committees for Colleges and Institutes Canada and the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce.

Linda Franklin is the president and CEO of Colleges Ontario. Linda Franklin joined Colleges Ontario as President and CEO in 2007. She has spearheaded a system wide marketing campaign on the value of college education, brought public attention to the impending skills shortage and led advocacy efforts to improve pathways for students. Previously, Linda was CEO of the Wine Council of Ontario.  There, she worked with government on legislation that dramatically improved the economics of the industry, allowing the number of wineries to rise from 20 to almost 200 today. Linda’s early career included time as a partner in a consulting company, the head of communications for a regulatory body and for government MPPs, and Chief of Staff to an Ontario cabinet minister.   She has an MA in journalism from Western University.

Norman Gray AM is the CEO of the Box Hill Institutue Group, Australia.  Norman has completed a long and distinguished career in the Department of Defence.  He served in The Royal Australian Air Force, having held several significant leadership positions and rising to the rank of Air Vice Marshal. Positions held include Deputy CEO Defence Materiel Organisation; Head, Airborne Surveillance and Control division; Director General Aerospace Development.  Norman’s exceptional service was recognised in June 1993 when he was made a Member of the Order of Australia. He was also awarded the Australian Service Medal South East Asia and Australian Service Medal Irian Jaya.  More recently, Norman was the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of Network Operations of Public Transport Victoria, a State Statutory Authority.  In this role he was accountable for the business relationship with, and performance of, all contracted public transport operators in Victoria.  Norman is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Master Project Director of Australian Institute of Project Management and was a Member of the Business Council of Australia (2006-2008).

Dr. Glen A. Jones is the Ontario Research Chair in Postsecondary Education Policy and Measurement and Professor of Higher Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.  Glen’s research focuses on higher education policy, governance, academic work, and administration. He is a prolific contributor to the Canadian and international literature on higher education and a frequent public speaker and commentator on higher education issues. He was Chair of the Department of Theory and Policy Studies in Education at OISE from 1998-2001 and Associate Dean of OISE from 2003-2011. He received the Research Award from the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education in 2001, and their Distinguished Member Award in 2011.

Dr. John Lea  has worked in a number of roles throughout UK adult, further and higher education over the last thirty years. Until recently he was Head of Academic Professional Development at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK, and is now the Director of the HEFCE/AoC catalyst funded project centred on enhancing scholarship in College Higher Education in England. From 2005-2011 he was Vice-Chair, then Chair of the Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET) Post-16 Committee, and from 2010-2013 he was a co-opted member of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) Executive Committee, as an adviser on HE in FE. He is a fellow of SEDA, and a principal fellow of the HEA.

His main research interest is in developments at the FE/HE interface and he has written widely on this subject, including two recent research reports for the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and most recently Supporting Higher Education in College Settings (SEDA, 2014). He is also the author of Working in Post-Compulsory Education (Open UP, 2003), Political Correctness and Higher Education: British and American perspectives (Routledge, 2009), and 77 Things to think about…teaching and learning in higher education (CCCU, 2012).  His latest book, Enhancing Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: engaging with the dimensions of practice (Open UP, 2015), will be published in August 2015.

Stella Mbubaegbu CBE has been Principal & Chief Executive at Highbury College in Portsmouth since 2001 and was awarded a CBE by Her Majesty the Queen in January 2008 for her services to further education.  She is the first black female principal of a further education institution in the UK, and  has led Highbury College – which has more than 16,000 students – to become an exemplar in the sector, judged outstanding by Ofsted. And Highbury College is now winning international contracts, including a £75 million contract to run a women-only vocational training centre in Saudi Arabia.

Chris Monahan is the Acting Assistant Deputy Minister of the Strategic Policy and Programs Division at the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. As the Director of the Research and Planning Branch in the same division, Chris is responsible for a number of key postsecondary education files, including capacity planning, tuition policy, enrolment demand forecasting, labour market and research strategies, and the extension of the use of the Ontario Education Number. He has worked at the Ministry since 2005, and previously held positions at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade as Director of the Business Cluster Policy Secretariat and in the Fiscal Planning Branch at the Ministry of Finance.  Through an executive exchange, Chris also had a temporary assignment as Executive Director, Office of the Principal at Queen’s University at Kingston. Chris is a graduate of the University of Toronto and Yale University.

Dr. Lucia Padure is currently the Research Coordinator at the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) with the Research and Planning Branch, Strategic Policy and Programs Division. Previously she acted as a Senior Policy Advisor in the same division in the Strategic Program Initiatives Branch. She received her PhD from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education at University of Toronto (2009) and her Master of Public Administration from Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (2003). Lucia’s research interests include higher education policy, differentiation, quality assurance and comparative education.

Dr. Otte Rosenkrantz, PhD, has been teaching at Fanshawe College for the past 17 years primarily in the Corporate Communications and Public Relations Graduate Certificate program. For the past eight years he has served on the College Research Ethics Board, the last four years as the Chair. His research interests lie in the area of the evolving roles of college faculty, research ethics, and the corporatization of Ontario colleges. Otte is a graduate of OISE’s PhD Community College Leadership cohort in the Higher Education program.

Jodi Schmidt is the Chief Executive Officer of TAFE Queensland. Her priorities include the overall leadership of TAFE Queensland as an independent statutory body and ensuring it is developed into a flexible and responsive organisation that works closely with industry and the community to meet the needs of stakeholders in a commercially viable way.  Jodi has been part of the VET sector since 2005 and has shown strong commitment to the sector both in Queensland and Nationally. Prior to her current role Jodi was Deputy Director-General, Training and Employment within the Department of Education, Training and Employment with overall responsibility of the state’s training and employment portfolio, which included directing $1b plus government investment in vocational education and training each year. Her extensive VET experience includes, Acting Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Commercial Strategy for the former Southbank Institute of Technology. Jodi has also held various senior positions in Australia and the UK in health, local government and in the private sector and holds qualifications in Marketing, Accounting and Market Research.

Dr. MaryLynn West-Moynes is Georgian College’s President and CEO.  She has served as Vice President of External Relations at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), President of Mohawk College, and in numerous senior leadership roles at both UOIT and Durham College.  MaryLynn received her PhD from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Her research examined organizational culture and leadership skills. She holds an MA in adult education from Central Michigan University and a BASc from the University of Guelph.

Dr. Leesa Wheelahan holds the William G. Davis Chair in Community College Leadership. Her research interests include community colleges; tertiary education policy; student equity, student pathways, qualifications frameworks and credit transfer in tertiary education; the role of theoretical knowledge in curriculum; community college teacher development; and, the relationship between education and the labour market. She has led many national projects and published widely on these issues in Australia and internationally.

Dr. Richard Wiggers, PhD (Georgetown) is the executive director of research and programs at HEQCO.  In addition to past positions with the federal government, he has worked for two private sector education organizations.  Before arriving at HEQCO in 2009, he worked with the New Brunswick government in the Post-Secondary Affairs Branch and as the Manager of Innovative Learning and Professional Development with the Department of Education.  In his role at HEQCO, Richard is responsible for managing more than 60 research projects dealing with Student Services, Teaching and Learning and Learning Outcomes, and he oversees all research projects and policies at HEQCO. He is leading a major research project on Work Integrated Learning that involves 14 Ontario colleges and universities, and he also serves on the Editorial Board of the Canadian Apprenticeship Journal, as an External Associate with the University of Waterloo’s Centre for the Advancement of Co-Operative Education, and as a Faculty Advisor with Humber College’s new Research Analyst Post-Graduate Program.