Jan Nolan worked in Canadian universities for 28 years prior to retiring in 2012. She was involved in faculty recruitment for more than 15 years, most recently as the Director, Faculty Renewal and Academic Leadership Initiatives at the University of Victoria. She worked with academic units to enhance their effectiveness in attracting and retaining talented faculty in a highly competitive market. In her previous role as Director, Faculty Renewal at the University of Toronto, Jan revitalized orientation and training programs for newly appointed academic administrators and coordinated the development of university-wide new faculty orientations. Jan has been active in several networks that deal with faculty recruitment and work/life balance issues in higher education in the U.S. and Canada.
David came to the Department of Geography in 2010 after working for 6 years as a research scientist and professor at the International Arctic Research Center/Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (2004-2010). Before that he held post-doctoral positions at Bedford Institute of Oceanography, focusing on environmental forcing of arctic coastal regions (2002-2004), and the University of Ottawa, focusing on high-arctic data issues and computer methods for hemispheric paleo-climate reconstruction (2000-2002). David's PhD (University of Ottawa, 2000) focused on high-arctic climate issues that included data rescue work (Polar Continental Shelf Project database), statistical analyses, and the development of a distributed surface air temperature prediction model.
Alexandra Branzan Albu holds a Bachelor's degree in Electronic Engineering (1992) and a Ph.D. degree (2000) in Electronic Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Romania. In 2001, she joined the Computer Vision and Systems Laboratory at Laval University (Quebec, Canada) as a postdoctoral researcher and became an Assistant Professor at Laval in 2003. She moved at the University of Victoria in 2005.
She is currently an Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and cross-listed with Computer Science. She also serves as Graduate Advisor for the Individual Interdisciplinary Programs (INTD) at the University of Victoria.
Her research interests are related to image analysis, computer vision, and visual computing. She works towards expanding her teaching style by exploring ways in which engineering course curricula can be designed for international audiences.
Stan Chung is an award-winning writer, and the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Camosun College. He was born in Seoul, raised in Williams Lake, and studied at UBC (BA Hons), University of Toronto (MA), and Simon Fraser University (PDP). Stan is well-known for his ability to provide visionary, consultative, and transformative leadership. His 20 years of experience in the BC college sector includes 6 years of senior experience as Director, Associate Dean, Acting Dean and Dean. In 2008 he was selected as one of 230 to attend the Governor General's Canadian Leadership Conference. A passionate advocate for innovation and learning, he speaks regularly on educational issues while pursuing scholarly interests in transformational learning, community leadership, and advocacy journalism.
Brian Thom is an assistant professor in the Anthropology Department at UVic. His research is focused on indigenous land rights and governance, particularly with Coast Salish communities. Prior to his appointment at UVic, Dr. Thom worked for over a decade as a negotiator, senior advisor, and researcher for several First Nations on Vancouver Island. In the fall of 2007 he started teaching one night course a semester at UVic as a sessional instructor which kept one foot in the academic world while pursuing a professional career.
Dr. Reeta Tremblay assumed the duties of Vice-President Academic and Provost at the University of Victoria on January 1, 2011. She previously served as Vice President (Academic) and Pro Vice-Chancellor, Pro Tempore at Memorial University in Newfoundland from July 1, 2009 to October 2010. Dr. Tremblay also served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Memorial from August 2006 to June 2009. Prior to her move to Memorial, she was a political science professor at Concordia University in Montreal and chaired the Political Science Department from 1998-2005.
Dr. Tremblay has an MPhil from the Jawharlal Nehru University India and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. Her areas of research include: Comparative Politics and Comparative Federalism, South Asian Political Economy, Nation-State and Secessionist Movements in India and Indian Popular Cinema. She is at present engaged in three projects: a) the relationship between the regime type of the kin state and the direction of a political insurgency in a neighbouring country in South Asia (SSHRC- funded project); b) negotiating and renegotiating citizenship by first and second generation immigrants in Victoria, BC (with Christien Lieb and Grace Wong Sneddon at the University of Victoria); c) race, class, gender, and attitudes about immigration: evidence from a survey experiment (with Amanda Bittner, Memorial University, NL).