EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP
PROVOST & VICE-PRESIDENT, ACADEMIC
The Provost and Vice-President, Academic, Dr. Craig Monk, is responsible for promoting a culture of academic excellence at MacEwan University and for maintaining the university’s reputation as a student-focused institution.
The provost and vice-president, academic oversees Academic Affairs, which facilitates and supports the thematic values of the university:
- The primacy of the learner and student engagement;
- The central importance of good teaching and its connection to interactive relationships within the learning experiences; and,
- The value of dynamic links to the larger social, economic and professional realities.
Within a shared governance framework, Academic Affairs is responsible for academic program development and delivery, scholarly activity, academic policies, enrolment management, educational technology, the Centre for Teaching and Learning and a number of supporting functions to support learner success and faculty engagement. In addition, Academic Affairs is accountable for the institutional and educational technology mandate at MacEwan as well as the requirements of Institutional Research.
About Dr. Monk
Dr. Craig Monk has been provost and vice-president, academic at MacEwan University since May 2018 and, in 2024, was reappointed to the role through 2030. He holds a concurrent position as professor in the Department of English, and he previously served a full term as dean of MacEwan’s Faculty of Arts and Science from 2013 to 2018.
In his current administrative role, he serves as the principal academic officer for MacEwan and leads a talented and dedicated team of deans and academic associate vice-presidents in the shared pursuit of an exemplary undergraduate experience for students. He has appointed or reappointed all ten members of this leadership team, bringing seven new leaders to MacEwan from institutions across Canada. Dr. Monk is committed to encouraging diverse perspectives across the academy and is proud of the further dedication our institution has made to tenure and to academic freedom in our Collective Agreement as we established ourselves as an “undergraduate university” under Alberta’s Post-Secondary Learning Act. He wrote and received unanimous approval across campus for MacEwan’s “Statement on Free Expression,” the first such original statement adopted in the province, and he remains the sponsor for our “Free Expression on Campus” policy. He is dedicated to helping grow an institution that both reflects and engages the community it serves. Dr. Monk participated proudly in the development of Teaching Greatness: Strategic Vision 2030, a growth framework for MacEwan that honours our place in O-day’min. Over the past decade, he has been involved directly in the recruitment of hundreds of new faculty colleagues across every academic department at MacEwan, and he oversaw the growth of additional teaching and research support for the academy. He also implemented a new structure for student services, including a hub-and-spoke advising model, as we seek to expand our student numbers beyond 20,000. He completed the university’s first mandate renewal in a decade and helped establish our first General Faculties Council, the foundation for our collegial governance, and served as its first chair during twelve months of transition. He works now with the president by co-chairing, with faculty colleagues, council standing committees focused, amongst other things, on quality assurance.
Born in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Dr. Monk received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Memorial University, an M.A. from Western University, and M.St. and D.Phil. degrees from Oxford University, where he held a Rothermere Fellowship at Linacre College. He was awarded further research fellowships from Indiana University, the University of Texas, and Yale University. His research, dealing with topics in American literature, autobiography, modernism, and publishing history, has twice been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He is author of Writing the Lost Generation: Expatriate Autobiography and American Modernism (University of Iowa Press) and he completed a five-year term as co-editor of the journal of record in his field of scholarly expertise, American Periodicals: A Journal of History, Criticism, and Bibliography (Ohio State University Press).
He was previously professor of English at the University of Lethbridge, where he was appointed first as assistant dean (Students) and, then, as associate dean in its Faculty of Arts and Science. He served as the founding chair of the steering committee of its Centre for the Advancement of Excellence in Teaching and Learning and as founding coordinator of its Academic Writing Program. He received their Distinguished Teaching Award in 2007.
Deans
Dr. Melike Schalomon
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science, and Vice-Provost
Professor, Department of Psychology
Dr. Melike Schalomon has extensive experience as an academic leader and educator. She served as MacEwan’s inaugural chair of the Animal Research Ethics Board, chair of the Department of Psychology and associate dean prior to her appointment as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science in 2020. Her academic background is in behavioural neuroscience, and she continues her engagement in neuropharmacological work with zebrafish and active supervision of students. Her academic background as a woman from a STEM discipline teaching in the Social Sciences aligns well with leadership of a Faculty of Arts and Science with an emphasis on liberal arts and interdisciplinary collaborations.
Most importantly, Dr. Schalomon’s work focuses on providing academic leadership to build and promote excellence in faculty, staff and students. She continually strives to ensure that the learning experience for students in the Faculty of Arts and Science is engaging and invigorating and that students acquire the skills needed to find success after graduation.
Deric Olsen
Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts and Communications
Professor Deric Olsen was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Communications on July 1, 2024. He brings collaborative, compassionate leadership to MacEwan along with extensive administrative experience in student recruitment and retention, program development and quality assurance. Before his appointment at MacEwan, he was interim dean and associate dean in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lethbridge.
Professor Olsen holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Lethbridge and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Regina’s Department of Film. For over 20 years, he has taught courses in digital media, design and narrative filmmaking at institutions in Canada and the US.
For his creative work, Professor Olsen has won several prestigious awards including the Les Kimber Award for Best Direction from the Directors Guild of Canada Alberta District Council.
Dr. David Danto
Dean, Health and Community Studies
Professor, Department of Public Safety and Justice Studies
Dr. Danto's academic career has provided him with experience across a variety of community and health contexts including hospitals, federal corrections and community-based services including services within Indigenous communities in the far north.
Dr. Danto takes an applied, community and health-related approach in his work, bringing with him invaluable experience in areas such as curriculum development (including microcredentials, study-abroad opportunities and experiential learning), expanding student funding opportunities and developing partnerships with international universities.
Dr. Christy Raymond
Dean, Faculty of Nursing
Professor, Department of Health Systems and Sustainability
Dr. Christy Raymond is an experienced educator, researcher and administrator, having worked in various areas of nursing post-secondary education for over 25 years. She has taught extensively in continuing, baccalaureate and graduate nursing education, supervised graduate students and mentored numerous educators over her career. With a special interest in the implementation of nursing education, Dr. Raymond has delivered various keynote addresses and published articles and books in the topic area.
Dr. Raymond has a dual-focused research program, exploring the contextual factors impacting both nursing education and the clinical workplace where nurses practice. She is engaged in CIHR- and SSHRC-funded work studying nurse staffing and its impact on care outcomes, as well as innovating nursing education practices to increase the learning of future nurses. Dr. Raymond also actively engages in scholarship of teaching and learning projects specific to nurse educators’ abilities to create meaningful learning environments for students in clinical learning environments.
Throughout her administrative experience, Dr. Raymond has led various nursing programs spanning different institutions, demonstrating expertise in academic program development, implementation and evaluation. Practicing from a relational and caring approach, she has received a number of awards for her teaching and leadership, recognizing her outstanding abilities and commitment to excellence in creating inclusive, student-centered nursing education.
Dr. Richard Perlow
Dean, School of Business
Professor, Department of Management and Organizations
Dr. Richard Perlow has over two decades of experience in higher education. Before joining MacEwan as the Dean of the School of Business, Dr. Perlow worked at the University of Lethbridge in the Dhillon School of Business where he taught courses in human resource management and organizational behaviour. From 2006 to 2015 he served as the School’s associate dean. Dr. Perlow has also held appointments at the University of Manitoba, Clemson University and Auburn University.
Dr. Perlow has taught courses at the undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels. His teaching interests are in human resource management and organizational behaviour topics such as staffing, training and job performance. He has applied experience in job analysis, recruiting, selection, training and performance management.
Dr. Perlow's research interests include personality and other individual differences in performance, counterproductive behaviour and employment discrimination. He has published his research in journals such the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business and Psychology, and Human Performance.
Dr. Lisa Rochman
Dean, School of Continuing Education
Professor, School of Continuing Education
Dr. Rochman was appointed Dean of the School of Continuing Education on June 5, 2023. Before joining MacEwan University, she held the positions of vice dean and associate dean in the Faculty of Skills and Foundational Learning at NorQuest College. Dr. Rochman has a doctorate and master’s degree in linguistics from Ben Gurion University in Israel, as well as an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
With a focus on both credit and non-credit education and skills training, Dr. Rochman is an advocate for impactful and accessible education. She places great value on collaboration and partnerships with community organizations and post-secondary institutions. Her recent initiatives have centered around developing customizable educational pathways aimed at upskilling and empowering participants to obtain employment commensurate with their skills and experience.
As Dean of the School of Continuing Education, Dr. Rochman holds the responsibility of shaping the academic and administrative direction of continuing education. This encompasses engaging in collaborations with internal and external stakeholders, conducting needs assessments, establishing strong partnerships with community and industry and implementing processes that empower students and promote engagement and success.
Karen Keiller
Dean, Library
Librarian, John L. Haar Library
On Leave
Karen Keiller was appointed Dean of the Library on July 1, 2019. Before she came to MacEwan University, she was the University Librarian and Vice-Provost (Teaching and Learning) at Lakehead University, Director of Information Services and Systems at the University of New Brunswick (Saint John) and held positions at the University of Manitoba, University of Winnipeg and Red River College.
As Dean of the Library, she strives to make a positive impact, to advocate for openness and to find creative and innovative solutions to ensure that MacEwan University Library is regarded for its creative, collaborative approaches and solutions to providing a transformative education.
Karen holds a M.L.I.S. from Western University in London, Ontario, and B.A. (Hons) from the University of Winnipeg.
Dr. Eva Revitt
Interim Dean, Library
Dr. Eva Revitt provides MacEwan Library with leadership and direction, and she oversees its operations. Dr. Revitt brings 25 years of experience as an academic librarian and administrator. She has held a variety of appointments including subject librarian, library chair, interim director for the Office of Teaching and Learning Services and associate dean, Library. Dr. Revitt teaches courses in research methods and guest lectures on library management, leadership and governance.
Dr. Revitt holds a Master of Library and Information Science and a Doctorate in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Alberta. Her dissertation, The Academic Librarian as the Subaltern: An Institutional Ethnography of a Feminized Profession, won the Association of Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Competition.
Dr. Revitt’s research interests include feminized professions, academic governance and leadership, research method, and students’ information seeking practices including issues of information literacy, ethics, justice and copyright.
Associate vice-presidents
Dr. Craig Kuziemsky
Associate Vice-President, Research
Professor, Department of Decision Sciences
Dr. Craig Kuziemsky was appointed associate vice-president, research, at MacEwan University on September 1, 2019. Dr. Kuziemsky also holds the rank of professor in the School of Business. He graduated from the University of Alberta with a B.Sc. in Medical Laboratory Science and a Bachelor of Commerce with Distinction. He received his doctoral degree in Health Information Science from the University of Victoria in 2006.
Prior to joining MacEwan, Craig was a full professor and University Research Chair in Healthcare Innovation in the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. He also served as director of the M.Sc. in Health Systems program (2010-16) and the Master of Health Administration Program (2017-19). Craig was also awarded the University of Ottawa 2013 Young Researcher of the Year Award in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Craig’s research has developed innovative approaches to model collaborative health care delivery to support the design of information and communication technology (ICT) to support different contexts of collaboration. His studies of collaboration have used approaches such as complexity theory to understand the nature of collaborative interactions in different healthcare settings such as clinical health care and public health for disaster management.
As associate vice-president, research, Craig provides leadership in developing and nurturing the research enterprise at MacEwan. Internally, he is responsible for the overall leadership and management of the Office of Research Services and its responsibilities, including developing and interpreting research policy and protocols, grant administration, facilitating collaboration across MacEwan’s various faculties and promoting MacEwan’s research excellence and impact. Externally, Craig engages with the community, industry partners, different levels of government, granting councils and other research institutions and universities to create a dynamic research atmosphere for MacEwan’s faculty, staff and students. Craig also provides executive leadership for MacEwan International and Careers and Experience.
Julie Green
Registrar & Associate Vice-President, Strategic Enrolment Management
Julie Green was appointed Registrar & Associate Vice-President, Strategic Enrolment Management on March 1, 2024. She has B.A. and M.Ed. degrees from Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Prior to joining MacEwan, Julie served as a senior consultant with Academica Group. She also spent eight years as the Registrar at the University of King’s College with an expanded portfolio including recruitment, financial awards, and enrolment management. She has worked in roles of successive responsibility at Carleton University, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Dalhousie University, and the University of King’s College. Julie is committed to participating fully in the registrarial profession through her work with the Association of Registrars of the Universities and Colleges of Canada (ARUCC). She is currently Past President of the ARUCC after serving as Chair and President (2021-22).
Throughout her career working with university leaders, faculty, staff, and students, Julie has excelled at building relationships with colleagues to support students, the academic mission, and enrolment goals. She has presented at national and international conferences on registrarial and enrolment management topics, and her work is grounded in her M.Ed. which focused on research in the areas of student retention and enrolment management in Canada.
Dr. Edvard Lorkovic
Deputy Provost (Interim)
Dr. Edvard Lorkovic earned his PhD in philosophy from the University of Alberta in 2003 and later taught at Boston University and Concordia University. In 2006, he began teaching and conducting research at MacEwan. He is an associate professor in the Department of Humanities and previously served as the interim dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science and chair of Humanities.
Dr. Lorkovic’s research focuses on the history of philosophy and political thought with a current emphasis on leisure and the nature of philosophy in Plato and Josef Pieper. He co-leads an ongoing reading group that he created with another faculty member to spur student discussions of Plato’s work and create a sense of community.
Terri Cardinal
Associate Vice-President, Indigenous Initiatives and Engagement
Terri Cardinal, from Saddle Lake Cree Nation, joined MacEwan in 2017 as manager of kihêw waciston Indigenous Centre and moved into the director, Indigenous Initiatives role later that year. She was instrumental in developing the Centre as a way to create welcoming spaces on campus for Indigenous students, ensuring they see themselves reflected at the university. Cardinal has helped create important initiatives and policies such as Indigenous language courses, Knowledge Keeper roles and the university’s unique Ceremonial policy.
On April 1, 2024, she became the first associate vice-president, Indigenous Initiatives and Engagement. Cardinal brings deep Indigenous knowledge, strong connections to Indigenous communities and a clear understanding Indigenous students’ needs to her work. Cardinal is also a sessional instructor in the Faculty of Health and Community Studies. Her research focuses on nêhiyaw traditional end-of-life practices and love structures. She sits on the Deans’ Council and the Provost’s Group. In her spare time, she is co-host and co-creator of 2 Crees in a Pod, a podcast that amplifies and honours Indigenous voices and knowledge.
Office of the Provost contacts
Greg Alstad
Manager, Academic Affairs Administration
7-210C, City Centre Campus
780-497-5630
alstadg@macewan.ca
Kit Anderson
Academic Affairs Governance and Administration Lead
7-210A, City Centre Campus
780-497-5420
andersonk248@macewan.ca
Christie Bonanni
Executive Assistant to the Provost
7-210H, City Centre Campus
780-497-4556
christie.bonanni@macewan.ca
Breanna Kruger
Communications Specialist, Academic Affairs
7-252O, City Centre Campus
780-497-4330
krugerb5@macewan.ca
Stacey Martin
Senior Manager
7-252N, City Centre Campus
780-633-3624
stacey.martin@macewan.ca