UNews - Cathy Campbell

O'Dea's contribution to Education a lasting legacy

trevor.kenney — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 21:44:54 +0000

Finding a way to coax Dr. Jane O'Dea to talk about herself as she reflects on her 10 years as dean of the Faculty of Education is a lesson in futility. Only within the context of describing the faculty's achievements will she discuss her stewardship, and even then, she'll deflect credit away from the individual to that of the collective.

"It's not so much what I achieved over the 10 years, rather it's what we all achieved together," says O'Dea.

"I'm tremendously proud of the things we accomplished because they were achievements that involved every single faculty member and all of our support staff."

Recognizing she was inheriting a faculty with a long and proud tradition, and balancing that with a need to create new and innovative programming that would reflect emerging educational challenges was a juggling act that O'Dea mastered.

"I was tremendously fortunate to become dean of a faculty that has a fabulous tradition of collaboration and partnership with the professional community," she says of the faculty relationship with Alberta Education's Zone 6 schools and teachers. "That isn't something I brought about, that's something the founding members of the faculty created. It was my privilege to come in both as a faculty member and later as dean, become familiar with those structures, realize how important they were and then use that as a foundation to work with our faculty in moving forward."

One of the great legacies of O'Dea's leadership is the establishment of First Nations programming, specifically through the creation of the Niitsitapi Teacher Education and the First Nations, Metis and Inuit (FNMI) graduate programs.

"She made First Nations education one of the priorities of her deanship," says Education faculty member Dr. Cathy Campbell. "She succeeded in developing relationships with the Blackfoot speaking nations, initiating collaborative work and programming with Red Crow College, and bringing issues in First Nations education to the forefront of discussions at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and in the province."

Campus Kudos - June

trevor.kenney — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:54:51 +0000

Dr. Heidi MacDonald (History) received an award for the best English-language academic article deemed to make an original and scholarly contribution to the field of women's and gender history by the Canadian Committee on Women's History. Her article, Who Counts? Nuns, Work and the Census of Canada, was published in a recent issue of Histoire Sociale/Social History. Reviewers indicated that MacDonald produced "…an impressive and insightful piece of work on the various ways in which women religious (nuns) have been excluded or significantly undercounted in the Canadian census."

Taras Polataiko's (Art) painting was on view at the National Museum of Ukraine in Kyiv. The work was part of an international exhibition curated by Kateryna Botanova.

Annie Martin's (Art) installation Untitled (horizon) was exhibited in the PAVED Arts main gallery in Saskatoon. A critical text was also commissioned to accompany this exhibition.

Dana Cooley (New Media) has a video work in the group show, A Century of Artists' Films, at the Theatr Mwldan in Wales. Curated by Mike Cousin in partnership with Oriel Mwldan, the show runs until July 2.

Three ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge teams recently walked to raise money to End MS, totalling an impressive $6,762.05 that was donated to the fight against Multiple Sclerosis. The team from the Faculty of Education, captained by
Dr. Cathy Campbell, and consisting of Dr. Robin Bright, Dr. Noella Piquette-Tomei and Dr. Cynthia Chambers raised $2,935. The team from Administration, captained by Dr. Mike Mahon, and consisting of Maureen Mahon, Laurel Corbiere, Trish Jackson, Virginia Wishart and Robin Hopkins raised $2,725. The team from the Faculty of Management, captained by Dr. Lori Kopp, and consisting of Dr. Robert Ellis, Dr. Sameer Deshpande, Dr. Brian Dobing, Dr. Pam Loewen, Joan Kendall, Diane Boyle and Steve Craig raised $1,102.05.

Pictured left to right are iGEM team members Harland Brandon, (fourth-year Biochemistry), Justin Vigar, ( fifth-year Biochemistry) and MSc candidate Lisza Bruder, BSc ’11.

Clark Ferguson, the U of L's chief information officer, presented the keynote address at the Futures in it – Collaboration Western Canada Academy Conference in Calgary recently. Ferguson's address was titled Business Experience – Applied to Post Secondary at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Dr. Austin Mardon (BA'85) received an honorary doctor of laws from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta at its Spring Convocation ceremonies. Mardon, an inspiring advocate for the mentally ill, is a member of the Order of Canada and a past recipient of the CM Hincks Award, the highest award given by the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Three members of the U of L iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machines) team are travelling to Stanford ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in California to attend the 5th International Meeting on Synthetic biology. The sold-out conference attracts researchers from around the world who are working in the growing field of synthetic biology.

Dr. David Clearwater's (New Media) essay, What Defines Video Game Genre? Thinking about Genre Study after the Great Divide, was published in the Spring 2011 issue of Loading... (a Canadian journal covering videogames and interactive entertainment).

Dr. Josephine Mills (director/curator U of L Art Gallery) has recently been named president of the Canadian Art Museum Directors' Organization.

Dagmar Dahle's (Art) work was included in the exhibition ANIMAL, appearing at Museum London in Ontario.

Loralee Sand Edwards' (BFA '05) exhibition iGallery: curated auto-paparazzi (Self-Portraiture in a Digital Age) is in the Main Gallery of the Bowman Arts Centre until July 10.

This story first appeared in the Legend. For a look at the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Honouring long service

trevor.kenney — Tue, 17 May 2011 21:24:26 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ held its annual Long Service Awards and Retirement Recognition Ceremony recently, honouring 116 employees who have completed 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 years of service. A total of 23 retiring employees were also honoured.

Following is a list of honoured employees.

RETIREES

Art Aitken, Dayna Daniels, Richard Epp, Rex Forsyth, Eldon Gardner, Wolfgang Holzmann, Bill Hudgins, Joan Kendall, Leslie Lavers, Lucie Linhart, Gerald McConaghy, Linda McLeod, Ken Nicol, Seamus O'Shea, Doug Parker, Ramrattie Ramtej, Donna Seyed Mahmoud, Ches Skinner, Philippe Teillet, Linda Van Esch, Wendy Vogel, Nick Wade and Ian Wells

LONG SERVICE RECIPIENTS

40 Years | Maria Draper

35 Years | Chris Charles, Bryan Kolb, Peter McCormick and Gerda VanderFluit

30 Years | Jane Allan, Cheryl Calver, Dayna Daniels, Gayle Durand, Rex Forsyth, Laurel Hamilton, Jay Johnston, Linda Kucheran, Greg Martin, David Naylor, Shari Platt and Leanne Wehlage-Ellis

25 Years | Shamsul Alam, Lana Barton, Bryson Brown, Cathy Campbell, Patricia Chuchryk, Leslie Gatner, Allan Gergel, Nancy Grigg, Tyler Hayward, Mary Anne Hellinga, Wolfgang Holzmann, Bill Hudgins, Margaret Joblonkay, Kas Mazurek, Alice Miller, Richard Mrazek, Thomas Robinson, Doug Ross, Jadranka Smiljanec, Brian Sullivan, Richard Tedesco, David Townsend, Sandy Wiest and Joan Zimmer

20 Years | Patti-Jo Aiken, Linda Anderson, Roberto Aragon-Garcia, Jochen Bocksnick, Carl Budny, James Byrne, Peter Dibble, Deborah Grant, Bill Halma, Andrew Hurly, Janet Macdonald, Karen McCallum, Louise Miller, Al Mueller, Claudia Notzke, Sergio Pellis, Dwayne Pepin, Vern Peterson, Maria Quinteros, Kathy Schrage, Colleen Sullivan, Brian Titley, Donna Townley and Mark Walton

15 Years | Doug Berry, James Dobbie, Jackie Edwards, Lance Grigg,
Michelle Hogue, Marie Matkin, Ian McAdam, Gerald McConaghy, Chris Moroz, Jeff Oliver, Derek Peddle, Michael Perry, John Poulsen, William Ramp, Keith Roscoe, Elizabeth Schultz, Ivan Townshend and Kenneth Vos

10 Years | Louise Arsenault, Stella Baah, Brenda Bell, Donald Birchfield, Ryan Buckman, Jill Cassidy, Lorena deLange, Christopher Epplett, Margaret Forgie, Don Gill, Bill Glaister, Val Hill, Patricia Horrocks, Nancy Hosgood, Frank Huss, Deborah Jarvie, Helen Kelley, Carol Knibbs, Keith Knowles, Josh Korthuis, Christopher Kukucha, Greg Lacey, Corie Lazenby, Wayne Lippa, Karen Mahar, Jeremiah Merkl, Josephine Mills, Joy Morris, Chris Nicol, Chris Picken, Jeremy Pierson, Mike Pinder, Catharine Reader, Michael Robinson, Victor Rodych, Tammy Rogness, Mark Sabo, Robin Schafthuizen, Shelley Scott, Behnam Seyed Mahmoud, Gerry Ste. Marie, Robert Sutherland, William Tietz, Raquel Trillia, John von Heyking, Kevin Ward, Katherine Wasiak, Robert Williams, Barbara Williams, Jim Wishloff, Robert Wood and Jing Zhu

To view the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

O'Dea's contribution to Education a lasting legacy

trevor.kenney — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:09:01 +0000

Finding a way to coax Dr. Jane O'Dea to talk about herself as she reflects on 10 years as dean of the Faculty of Education is a lesson in futility. Only within the context of describing the faculty's achievements will she discuss her stewardship, and even then, she'll deflect credit away from the individual to that of the collective.

"It's not so much what I've achieved over the last 10 years, rather it's what we've all achieved together," says O'Dea, who will step away from the role of dean at the end of June and return to the faculty ranks, where she started at the U of L 20 years ago.

"I'm tremendously proud of the things we've accomplished because they were achievements that involved every single faculty member and all of our support staff."

Dr. Leah Fowler echoes that assessment, saying O'Dea personifies the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's ideals of accessible education.

"With the Niitsitapi teacher education cohort, and the current masters' cohort, she opened wide the door at the Faculty of Education to restorative education for First Nations, Metis and Inuit students," says Fowler. "That has meant that we all have positively revisited education practice and teacher preparation."

Her personable approach is highly respected by her peers, but O'Dea gives credit to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ for fostering an atmosphere that embraces one-on-one learning.

"One of the things that really impressed me when I first came here was I felt this was a place where they really care about students," says O'Dea. "Here you're not just a number, you actually matter, and people care about the instruction you get. I think that is absolutely tremendous. I have always loved this place."

She speaks glowingly of the collaborative nature of her faculty, crediting their willingness to work collectively in developing niche graduate offerings such as literacy, information technology leadership and inclusive education and neuroscience topics.

"These special niche structures are really quite extraordinary but they take an incredible amount of work, time and administrative finesse," says O'Dea. "I am extremely fortunate to have amazing people working in the offices here and faculty members willing to try out these new programs all the time."

She also trumpets the research portfolio the faculty has developed over her tenure.

"It's a challenge to maintain a proper balance between graduate and undergraduate teaching, all the while factoring in quality time for research," says O'Dea. "That is by no means easy to achieve but it is essential.

"We know what draws students to us is the quality of our programs, and we can't afford to just go down the research route and ignore teaching. On the other hand, to simply concentrate on teaching is to become more like a college and we're not that, we're part of the comprehensive ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and proud to be so."

GET THE FACTS

• O'Dea's undergraduate degree is in music and she is an accomplished recital piano player. "There's one recital that I haven't done that I'd really like to do and when I get time to practice I think I might like to go back and do that. I won't share that yet, I'm just playing with it right now."

• O'Dea is excited about the opportunity to teach again, saying, "I have a lot of ideas for interesting courses both at the graduate and undergraduate level that I think would be of real interest to students today."

• Over O'Dea's tenure, the faculty boasted a 97 per cent rate of employment within one year of graduating

• Despite stepping away from the dean's position, O'Dea has no plans to leave the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. "Absolutely not, I think this is a tremendous ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. I love its size, I love its entrepreneurial innovative spirit, and its emphasis on community and student engagement."

A legacy of collaboration

trevor.kenney — Wed, 05 May 2010 17:24:23 +0000

"I'm tremendously proud of the things we've accomplished because they were achievements that involved every single faculty member and all of our support staff."

Dr. Leah Fowler echoes that assessment, saying O'Dea personifies the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's ideals of accessible education.

Her personable approach is highly respected by her peers, but O'Dea gives credit to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ for fostering an atmosphere that embraces one-on-one learning.

She also trumpets the research portfolio the faculty has developed over her tenure.

GET THE FACTS

• Over O'Dea's tenure, the faculty boasted a 97 per cent rate of employment within one year of graduating

UNews - Cathy Campbell

O'Dea's contribution to Education a lasting legacy

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