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SRP Advisory Committee

Robert Haché

Robert Haché is York’s vice-president research & innovation and serves as Chair of the Strategic Research Plan Advisory Committee.  He most recently served as the associate vice-president research at the University of Calgary.  Haché has also held academic appointments in the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy in the Faculty of Medicine, and in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Faculty of Science.   A renowned molecular and cellular biologist and biochemist with a substantial record of publications, Dr. Haché has made invaluable contributions to the understanding of how steroid hormone signaling takes place in cells and how cells respond to DNA damaging agents.  He holds a BSc (biochemistry) from McGill University and a PhD (biochemistry) from Queen’s University.

Walter Tholen

Walter Tholen is an Associate Vice-President Research and the Vice-Chair of the SRP Advisory Committee. Tholen, who received his PhD from the University of Münster and his Habilitation four years later from Fernuniversität Hagen, Germany, has held a number of appointments at York. He has served as associate dean of research and faculty affairs and interim dean in the Faculty of Science & Engineering and is a former chair of the Department of Mathematics & Statistics. Tholen is an internationally-acknowledged expert in category theory. His work is published in some 120 research articles and is supported by the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Celia Haig-Brown

Celia Haig-Brown is a Professor in the Faculty of Education. She is a former Chair of Senate of York University, of Senate’s Academic Policy and Planning Committee and the Senate Committee on Research. She has also served as Graduate Program Director in Education. Her last two SSHRC Standard Grants have focused on protocol for work between universities and Indigenous communities. She is currently a co-investigator on a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant focused on rights of Aboriginal people with disabilities.  Recent work includes a documentary film Pelq’ilc (Coming Home) included in the 2011 New York Smithsonian’s Native American Film Festival. She teaches courses in research methodologies and community and adult education. Her doctorate in the Social Foundations of Educational Policy was issued by the University of British Columbia.  She is the author of numerous journal articles, book chapters and books.

Thaddeus Hwong

Thaddeus Hwong is an associate professor at LA & PS. Cross-appointed to School of Administrative Studies and School of Public Policy and Administration, he models interactions between tax law and social policy that affect the financing of a more equal society and inform his teaching in income tax, public finance, social policy as well as law and politics. His current empirical research projects explore costs and benefits of progressive income taxation and tax expenditures amidst globalization as well as attitudes towards taxpaying and redistribution. He directs the Social Policy Ideas Lab, which is designed to encourage undergraduate students to examine critical issues of our times by conducting collaborative empirical research on social policy challenges.

Rhonda Lenton

Rhonda Lenton is the Vice Provost Academic and was previously the Dean of Atkinson Faculty.  She oversaw substantial program development and enrolment growth in the Faculty, spear-headed an experiential education initiative and introduced various supports for research resulting in a three-fold increase in research productivity during a five year period.   A sociologist by training, her expertise includes research methods and data analysis, gender and familial violence.  She has published in numerous academic journals and is the principal investigator on a SSHRC-supported survey on marital conflict in Canada as well as a HEQCO project investigating the impact of community based learning on student learning.

Mark Lievonen

Mark Lievonen is President of Sanofi Pasteur Limited, the Canadian vaccine division of Sanofi.  Mr. Lievonen is a director of Oncolytics Biotech Inc., the Public Policy Forum, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and York University.  He is Co-Chair of the Ontario-Quebec Private Sector Advisory Committee (PSAC), a member of the Ontario Investment and Trade Advisory Council and is Chair of the Markham Stouffville Hospital Foundation Board and a director of Markham Stouffville Hospital, Rx&D and BIOTECanada.   

Doug Lindeblom

Doug Lindeblom is Director of Economic Strategy and Tourism at the Regional Municipality of York. He has 30 years of experience in economic development with both the public and private sectors, most of which has been gained in and around the Greater Toronto Area.  In September of 2010, Doug joined York Region where he currently holds the position of Director of Economic Strategy.  His focus has been on helping drive economic growth through innovation, and he is currently leading the creation of a new Economic Development Action Plan that will position York Region as a leading global innovation hub.  Doug also represents the Region on the board of directors of ventureLAB. 

Janine Marchessault

Janine Marchessault is Professor in the Department of Film, Faculty of Fine Arts and Canada Research Chair in Art, Digital Media and Globalization.  She is the director of the Visible City Project and an online archive which brings together over fifty interviews with artists, filmmakers, designers and urban planners to talk about space/place. She is a past president of the Film Studies Association of Canada and a founder of York University’s Future Cinema Lab which is devoted to ‘new stories for new screens’. As a member the 3D Film Consortium (3DFLIC), she is investigating the new aesthetic grammars of S3D media. Her on-going research into public space and creative urban environments is reflected in recent large scale site-specific exhibitions which she has curated. She is also co-editing a forthcoming book on 3D cinema and media.

Gary Miller

Gary Miller is the President of Personal Success Coaching and an Instructor in the MBA program at York University’s Schulich School of Business, as well as at the Schulich Executive Education Centre. Gary has more than 25 years experience coaching individuals and teams to develop confidence and competence as leaders skilled at driving business results.  Gary uses his coaching and facilitation skills to help organizations hone their people management expertise. He creates a comfortable, collaborative and positive learning environment, which allows individuals and teams to reach their full potential.  Gary is the Strategic Research Plan Facilitator.

Tim Moore

Tim Moore is Professor of Psychology at Glendon College where he has been chair for 16 years.  He is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters; his research has been supported by grants from SSHRC and from the Ontario Bar Association.  He has served as a consultant or expert witness in dozens of criminal trials in both Canada and the U. S. on issues related to memory, language comprehension, child witnesses, suggestibility, police investigative practices, and interrogations.  Recent publications are in The Criminal Law Quarterly.  Professor Moore is a  frequent participant in various legal educational programs, including the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, Osgoode’s Professional Development series, and the National Judicial Institute.   

David Mutimer

David Mutimer is Director of the York Centre for International and Security Studies and Associate Professor of Political Science at York University.  His research considers issues of contemporary international security through lenses provided by critical social theory, as well as inquiring into the reproduction of security in and through popular culture.  Much of that work has focused on weapons proliferation as a reconfigured security concern in the post-cold war era, and has tried to open possibilities for alternative means of thinking about the security problems related to arms more generally.  He is presently leading a collaborative project on arms export controls, and is the founding editor of the journal Critical Studies on Security.

Joanna Pearce

Joanna Pearce is a Ph.D. student in history specialising in disability in 19th century Canada. She most recently presented her research on taxation and education for blind children in Nova Scotia at Congress in Waterloo.  She has previously participated as the graduate student representative on the Faculty Review Committee at Dalhousie University where she learned a great deal about the difficulties facing researchers in academia outside of her specialization. 

Martin Singer

Martin Singer, a veteran academic administrator, committed teacher and scholar of Chinese history, is the inaugural dean of York University's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS). Created in 2009, LA&PS is one of Canada’s largest faculties with more than 27,000 students and a wide variety of programs that encompass the humanities, social sciences and related professional fields.  Dr. Singer came to York from Montreal's Concordia University where, in addition to being a professor from 1972–2009, he served as Concordia’s Provost and Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. At LA&PS, he has led strategic growth in student enrolment and spearheaded a range of initiatives to enhance teaching effectiveness, transformative changes in research and the expansion of international collaboration and recruitment activities.

Joan Steigerwald

Joan Steigerwald is associate professor in the Department of Humanities and Science and Technology Studies Program, and the Graduate Programs in Humanities, STS and Social and Political Thought.  Her current research focuses upon the relationships between science, philosophy and aesthetics in the late Enlightenment and early Romantic periods, particularly in the German lands. More generally, her research interests lie in German idealism and Romanticism, the history of the life sciences, figural representations of nature, and the epistemology of experiment and technology. In a new research project, she is examining entanglements of instruments and media in investigating organic worlds.

Jim Whiteway

Jim Whiteway is Canada Research Chair in Space Engineering and Atmospheric Science and associate professor of Space Engineering in the Faculty of Science & Engineering.  He is also the Director of York’s Centre for Research on Earth & Space Science (CRESS).  Whiteway specializes in the development and application of laser remote sensing technology for atmospheric research.  He was the Principal Investigator for the LIDAR instrument on the NASA Phoenix Mars mission, and his research also involves studies of the Earths atmospheric climate.

Laurie Wilcox

Laurie Wilcox is a Professor of Psychology, and member of the Centre for Vision Research at York University, Toronto. In addition to basic research on stereoscopic 3D she has been actively involved in understanding the factors that influence viewer comfort and satisfaction when watching S3D film. Her research has been supported NSERC, the Ontario Centres of Excellence, and most recently through a New Media Initiative (partnership between NSERC and Canada Council of the Arts).

Daniele Zanotti

Daniele Zanotti has been Chief Executive Officer of the United Way York Region since 2007.  After years of community work at Rexdale Community Health Centre, Daniele joined the Region of York’s Community Services and Housing Department where he played a catalyst role in pioneering initiatives including YorkLink, All Our Kids AOK (the Early Years Pilot) and the Region’s first Homelessness Task Force.  He has also served as CEO of Family Day Care Services, founding President and CEO of Villa Charities Foundation and most recently, President of Safe Communities Canada. 

Georg Zoidl

Georg Zoidl is professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Engineering.   He is also the Canada Research Chair in Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience.  His research examines the functions of nerve cells in the brain and the visual system as a means to understanding overall brain activity in health and disease. The research explores the communication processes in the brain that contribute to disease-causing conditions.