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Dear OISE Community,

As we move into the heat of summer, I hope that you are planning to spend some time relaxing after a challenging academic year.

This is my last note to the community as Dean of OISE. I want to thank all of you for your hard work and your tremendous contributions to the OISE community. I am extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish together over the last six years, and I know that Professor Normand Labrie, as Interim Dean, will provide thoughtful leadership until a new Dean is appointed. I have had a unique opportunity to work with an outstanding leadership team, and with faculty and staff who are extraordinarily dedicated to our research and teaching mission and to the success of our students. It has been both an honor and a pleasure to work with all of you. Our international reputation will continue to be strengthened by the amazing accomplishments of our excellent students and alumni.

I am looking forward to taking a break over the next few months before returning to the (virtual) classroom in the fall. I have a number of research projects under way, and will be able to devote time to a number of new initiatives when I begin an administrative leave in January of next year. I am looking forward to a new phase in my academic career after almost 18 years in administrative roles.

Here is a very important update regarding faculty renewal.

 

New Faculty Appointments

 

1. Continuing Appointments

I am very pleased to announce that six of our 2020-21 faculty searches have successfully concluded and that six exceptional individuals will soon be joining or returning to OISE in tenure stream or continuing teaching stream faculty positions. My gratitude goes out to the Chairs, members, and support staff of these search committees for the hard work and vital expertise that has gone into the search process.

Developmental Psychology and Education
Dr. Anne-Claude Bedard begins a continuing teaching stream appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in the Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, effective July 1, 2021. Dr. Bedard received a PhD in Medical Science from the University of Toronto’s Institute for Medical Science and Collaborative Program in Neuroscience in 2007.  Her research focus is in the area of impaired cognition in childhood mental disorders, with special expertise in interventions for individuals with ADHD across the lifespan. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Department of Psychology at Queens College (CUNY), Dr. Bedard joined APHD in a CLTA appointment in 2015, and has since become an indispensable member of the faculty. An accomplished scholar who has collaborated on more than 40 refereed publications, Dr. Bedard has increasingly applied her expertise to teaching, developing several new courses and an MEd Research Practicum for the Developmental Psychology and Education program. Since 2019, Dr. Bedard has served as Program Coordinator for the MEd in DPE, where she has worked to improve the curriculum and student experience.

Critical Adult Education
Dr. Katherine Entigar begins a tenure stream appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, effective July 1, 2021. Dr. Entigar earned a PhD in Urban Education from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2021. Her doctoral research draws on practical and scholarly work she has done with adult migrant learners in New York City. Dr. Entigar has published several peer-reviewed journal articles based on her research on adult immigrant and multilingual education. Alongside her graduate research, she has been involved in adult literacy coalitions and served as a research consultant for the Wallace Foundation, providing expertise on qualitative and mixed research method projects. Dr. Entigar has extensive teaching experience, having taught a number of graduate courses on teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students, and is also a certified, experienced TEFL teacher and proficient in Spanish/English language interpretation.

Educational Leadership, Policy and Social Diversity
Dr. Whitneé Garrett-Walker begins a tenure stream appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, effective July 1, 2021. Dr. Garrett-Walker earned an EdD in International and Multicultural Education from the School of Education at the University of San Francisco in 2021. Her research interests include Black Feminist Thought, Critical and Intersectional Leadership, Critical Race Theory in Education, and Teacher Leadership. Dr. Garrett-Walker has developed and authored numerous presentations and articles focused on Black Queer feminism and school leadership, in particular issues faced by Black woman school leaders. Dr. Garrett-Walker is a scholar-practitioner with significant teaching experience both at the university and K-12 levels, including a decade of K-12 leadership experience in Oakland and San Francisco, featuring appointments as Assistant Principal, School Re-Design Facilitator, History Chair, and Restorative Justice Coordinator.

Disability Studies in Education
Dr. Devon Healey begins a tenure stream appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Justice Education, effective July 1, 2021. Dr. Healey received a PhD in Social Justice Education from OISE in 2019, and from 2019 to 2021 has been a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design. The focus of Dr. Healey’s research is disability studies in education and research-creation, which she complements with dramatic and critical work on disability in theatre. Dr. Healey’s publications include a number of peer-reviewed articles and a recently released book, Dramatizing Blindness: Disability Studies as Critical Creative Narrative (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). Dr. Healey also has significant experience as a playwright and actor, and recently received funding from the TD Forward March Program to write and perform in a play, Rainbow on Mars, a reclamation of blindness in contemporary Western thought. She brings with her significant teaching experience in disability studies as a sessional lecturer in SJE and the Critical Studies in Equity and Solidarity program at New College. Dr. Healey is President-Elect of the Canadian Disability Studies Association.

Clinical and School Psychology: Anti-Black Racism in Mental Health and Education
Dr. Linda Iwenofu begins a tenure stream position at the rank of Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, effective July 1, 2021. Dr. Iwenofu received her PhD in School and Clinical Child Psychology from OISE in 2019, and has since been in practice as a registered psychologist at EveryMind Mental Health Services and Sick Kids’ Boomerang Health, serving diverse communities of children, youth and families. Dr. Iwenofu has a decade of clinical assessment and intervention experience with marginalized and at-risk communities in such settings as Pikangikum First Nation Eenchokay Birchstick School, CAMH, TDSB, and Pathways to Education Canada-Regent Park. Her doctoral thesis on improving reading achievement in language minority and disadvantaged youth won a Certificate of Academic Excellence from the Canadian Psychology Association. Dr. Iwenofu is currently working on a new program of research that draws upon her experience with community-based youth intervention and educational outcomes to analyze the impact of anti-Black racism on mental health and educational outcomes in Black communities.

Inquiry and Research Practice in Teaching and Teacher Education
Dr. Angela Vemic begins a continuing teaching stream appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, effective July 1, 2021. Dr. Vemic received a PhD in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development from OISE in 2013. After contributing to OISE teacher education programs as a sessional lecturer, Dr. Vemic was appointed to a CLTA teaching stream position in CTL in 2015. Since then, she has made enormous leadership contributions to the Master of Teaching program as MT Research Coordinator and Chair of the MT Research Committee. From 2017 to 2020, she also served as Director of the Eureka! Research Institute at University of Toronto Schools, further developing her expertise on teacher research development. Dr. Vemic has a stellar reputation both as a teacher, evident in her winning OISE’s Award for Excellence in Initial Teacher Education in 2016, and as a scholar, having held a SSHRC Insight Development Grant and produced numerous peer-reviewed publications focused on citizenship education and teacher knowledge and practice.

The 2020-21 search process for an Associate or Full Professor of Black Studies in Education has not yet concluded, and an update will be provided at a later time. The search for a tenure stream Associate Professor of Higher Education Leadership and Administration will continue in 2021-22.

 

2. CLTA Appointments

In addition to the continuing appointments described above, I am pleased to announce that five new or returning faculty members will begin full-time contractually limited term appointments this year:

Dr. Lisa Fiksenbaum begins a CLTA appointment as Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in the Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. Dr. Fiksenbaum (PhD, York University, 2012) is an experienced sessional and clinical lecturer, statistician, and researcher in psychology. She fills the department’s position in Practice-based Research in Mental Health.

Dr. J. Garrett-Walker begins a CLTA appointment as Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2024. Dr. Garrett-Walker (PhD, CUNY Graduate Center, 2011) is a developmental psychologist whose research focuses on multiple identity development for Black LGBTQ2S+ emerging adults. She was an Assistant and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of San Francisco from 2012 to 2021.

Dr. Ellen Gutowski begins a CLTA appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2024. Dr. Gutowski (PhD, 2021, Boston College) is a scientist-practitioner whose research and clinical practice focuses on the mental health and career development of survivors of intimate partner violence and other marginalized groups. From 2018 to 2020 she was a Clinical Fellow at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Alexandra Makos begins a CLTA appointment as Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in the Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2024. Dr. Makos (PhD, OISE, 2017) is well-known as a sessional lecturer in APHD and CTL who has demonstrated leadership in integrating and applying tools in online learning environments. She fills the department’s position in Online Pedagogy in Psychology and Education.

Dr. Shakina Rajendram begins a CLTA appointment as Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2024. Dr. Rajendram (PhD, OISE, 2019) is an experienced instructor in the Language and Literacies Education program, elementary teacher, language instructor, and curriculum developer. She will provide teaching and leadership in the LLE program’s new MEd field in Language Teaching.

Please join me in congratulating all of these outstanding colleagues on their new positions!

 

Take care,

 

Glen A. Jones, PhD
Professor and Dean
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University of Toronto