People at Laurier

Vice-President of Finance and Administration Jim Butler will be retiring on Aug. 31, at the conclusion of his third term at Laurier. Since joining the university in 2002, Butler has successfully managed the university’s finances during ongoing fluctuations in provincial funding and a serious market downturn in 2008-09. Among many other accomplishments, he has played a lead role at the provincial level in addressing university pension challenges.

Men’s basketball coach Peter Campbell retired following the conclusion of the 2015-16 season. Campbell joined Laurier in 2000 following an immensely successful run at Laurentian University and in 2006 led the team to its lone appearance at the national championship in the past 38 years. Campbell leaves Laurier as the university’s all-time leader in wins as a coach.

Dean of Social Work Nick Coady will be retiring following the conclusion of his current term and associated administrative leave. Coady, who will complete his first term as dean on June 30, joined the Faculty of Social Work in 1994, serving both the faculty and university in a number of administrative roles before being appointed dean in 2011. He led the faculty’s expansion to Brantford and into undergraduate education with the launch of the Bachelor of Social Work degree.

Joan Norris, dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, will be retiring in June. Norris came to Laurier in 2006 from the University of Guelph and has since led the expansion of disciplinary and interdisciplinary graduate programs and graduate student enrolment numbers in all faculties. This graduate expansion has been a critical component of Laurier’s progression from a “primarily undergraduate” to a “comprehensive” university within the Ontario post-secondary education system.

Global Studies Professor Timothy Donais has been appointed interim coordinator of the new Canadian Association for Peace and Conflict Studies, which is devoted to creating a united voice for peace and conflict studies in Canada. As an expert in peace studies, Donais’ research is focused on post-conflict peacebuilding. He has recently completed a multi-year research project, funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, examining issues of “local ownership” in peacebuilding processes and policy implementation in contemporary Bosnia, Haiti and Afghanistan.

James Orbinski, a professor of Health Sciences at Laurier and CIGI Chair in Global Health Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, has won the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada’s Teasdale-Corti Humanitarian Award, one of Canada’s most prestigious medical prizes. A distinguished doctor and humanitarian, Orbinski is the former international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and has front-line experience in complex humanitarian emergencies, from Rwanda to Somalia, Zaire and Afghanistan. Orbinski joined Laurier in 2012.

Rebecca Wickens has been appointed Laurier’s university secretary. In this role, Wickens will be responsible for coordinating and facilitating the activities of the Board of Governors and the Senate and their various committees to ensure the efficient and effective operation of the university’s bicameral system of governance. A member of the Law Society of Upper Canada, Wickens spent the past six years at the University of Waterloo as associate university secretary and, since 2014, as associate university secretary and legal counsel.

Psychology Professor Anne Wilson has been appointed a Fellow in the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Successful Societies program. As a member of the program, Wilson joins other leading academics in sociology, political science, political philosophy, history and economics, who are interested in addressing societal inequalities. Wilson also holds a Canada Research Chair in Social Psychology and is a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists at the Royal Society of Canada.