NewsFlash

WHAT’S NEW ON CAMPUS AND IN THE StFX COMMUNITY

KIKNU “OUR HOME” – INDIGENOUS STUDENT CENTRE OPENS HELPING STUDENTS SUCCEED: MARANGONI FAMILY DONATE $100,000

L-r, Mi’kmaw Elder and StFX Knowledge Keeper Kerry Prosper ’09 and StFX President Dr. Andy Hakin

Kiknu, meaning ‘our home’ in English, is the name of StFX’s Indigenous Student Centre, o cially opened on campus on Feb. 26, 2021. Mi’kmaw Elder and StFX Knowledge Keeper Kerry Prosper ’09 and StFX President Dr. Andy Hakin joined together to unveil the centre’s name during a ceremony in Dennis Hall. “I give thanks for this,” said Elder Prosper as he shared an honoured, traditional welcome. e Indigenous Student Centre, he said, is a safe spot for students, their families, and for all Indigenous people who come here. “We have lived here for thousands of years, but today we struggle to nd safe spots in our homeland,” he said. “We will always remember this day.” “It’s a special moment in StFX’s history,” Dr. Hakin said as he recognized honoured guests and thanked the community for allowing StFX to have this moment. “I’m excited about the possibilities that Kiknu brings us.” Dr. Hakin says the name speaks to what this place can be and should be—our home. He says he sees Kiknu as a place that will bring people together, where peer mentoring and learning happen organically, a place that promotes the success of students, that promotes friendship and helps in the truth and reconciliation journey. It will be a place of growth, a place to amplify Mi’kmaq culture in our daily lives and provide learning opportunities to all. “I’m so glad that this is happening,” said StFX Faculty of Education professor Michelle Sylliboy, who thanked Terena Francis ’01 ’20, StFX Coordinator, Indigenous Student A airs, for her e orts to make this day possible. Prof. Sylliboy was involved in asking Elders, including StFX alumni, their input on the name. Kiknu was suggested: “It’s a home away from home for these students.” Jeneva Dennis ’21, a graduating BA student, emceed the event. She spoke about the space’s importance. It’s a place where she can come to study, to talk to people, and to hold her culture close. StFX Vice-President Students Elizabeth Yeo, who gave a Territory Acknowledgement, said while StFX recognizes there is work to do, today is a meaningful step forward, celebrating the naming of this space, and creating a space with the hopes it ensures that Indigenous students feel safe, welcomed and honoured. StFX science students will have even more opportunity to participate in undergraduate research and learn new skills thanks to a generous gi of $100,000 the university has received from the Marangoni Family, which includes longtime StFX chemistry professor Dr. Gerry Marangoni. e donation to the Chemistry Department will be used to create a fund to support student research, capital equipment acquisition, and to create an endowment for future needs. “ ank you to you and your family,” StFX President Dr. Andy Hakin said during the March 29, 2021 announcement. “It’s a game-changer, Gerry.” Bringing students into the game is what we do at StFX, Dr. Hakin said, and this donation will help provide even more opportunities to involve students in research. Dr. Marangoni said the gi is about supporting the department, helping enable even more student research, and helping provide equipment and an endowment for future needs. Honours chemistry students Nicole MacNeil ’21 and Taylor Doucet ’21, who’ve worked as research assistants in Dr. Marangoni’s lab, and emcee Shannon MacLellan, a 2019 chemistry graduate and current second-year education student, spoke on a personal level about what the donation will mean to students and the invaluable experience it will provide. e donation will also help fund crucial new equipment for the department, including a Benchtop NMR. Dr. Marangoni’s long relationship with StFX Chemistry spans back to 1992. Along with his teaching and research, he is founder and scienti c advisory board member of SONA Nanotech, a nanotechnology life sciences rm. He is also founder, with Dr. Kulbir Singh, of GMS Surface Tech, a company creating environmentally friendly cleaning products.

Dr. Gerry Marangoni delivers remarks

EXCELLENCE IN BUSINESS STUDIES: TWO SCHWARTZ SCHOOL STUDENTS RECEIVE $30,000 FRANK H. SOBEY AWARDS

L-r, Victoria Morley and Patti-Anne Tracey

StFX Gerald Schwartz School of Business students Patti-Anne Tracey ’21 of Antigonish, NS, and Victoria Morley ’21 of Collingwood, ON, have been recognized as exceptional business students and future leaders. ey are among nine business students, studying at Atlantic Canadian universities, to receive the $30,000 Frank H. Sobey Awards for Excellence in Business award this year.

Ms. Tracey graduated from StFX with a BBA with a major in management and leadership. She was also a member of X-Women hockey, part of the StFX Athletics Leadership Academy as an elite leader and co-chaired the Student-Athlete Advisory Council. rough support from the Wallace Family Entrepreneurship Fund, she, along with a teammate, created an educational training platform about sexual violence in athletics. eir website provides sexual violence prevention materials and training resources to Canadian sport organizations and coaches. She helped develop the concept of the X-Connects podcast to help people cope with the isolation that resulted from COVID-19. She was a student volunteer for three years at L’Arche Antigonish and was program director of a four week Social Innovation Bootcamp (supported by Enactus StFX). She is a threetime U Sports Academic All-Canadian and is a Schwartz Women in Business Recognition Award recipient. Ms. Tracey has been accepted and will pursue a Corporate Residency MBA at Dalhousie University.

Ms. Morley graduated with a BBA honours in enterprise systems. She served for the past three years in three di erent positions on the Schwartz Business Society executive, including as president. She also served on the executive of Best Buddies Society at StFX and was a Best Buddy herself. She is passionate about raising awareness for services for grieving youth. Her honours thesis leveraged data analytics to understand the prevalence of childhood bereavement in Canada. In October, she plans to travel to Nepal to climb to Mount Everest base camp as part of a fundraising campaign that will bene t Season’s Centre for Grieving Children in honour of her late brother. Since age 18, she has backpacked 12 countries. She’s received an Alumni Recognition Award, a Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Scholarship, the EDC International Business Scholarship Award, and the Tanenbaum Canada-Israel Exchange Scholarship. She represented StFX twice at the Model United Nations Conference in New York City, and competed at four case competitions across Canada. She plans to complete a master’s degree abroad.

BRIAN AND MILA MULRONEY AWARDED HONORARY DEGREES FOR FIVE DECADES EXEMPLARY SERVICE

Congratulations to e Right Honourable Brian Mulroney ’59 LLD ’78 and Mila Mulroney LLD ’04 honoured with the degree Doctor of Laws honoris causa from Ontario Tech University. Brian and Mila Mulroney received the degrees June 25th in honour of their economic and environmental leadership, for their support for scienti c research, and for their service to Canada, and the world. “For over ve decades, Mr. and Mrs. Mulroney have made Canada a better place, through their political leadership, their international pro le and as champions of charitable causes,” a release from the university says. Mr. Mulroney served as Canada’s 18th prime minister from 1984-93. Mrs. Mulroney has served as a national chair of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Canada and has held other leadership roles in charitable organizations. Both Mr. and Mrs. Mulroney also hold honorary degrees from StFX.

DR. LACE MARIE BROGDEN APPOINTED DEAN OF EDUCATION STFX WELCOMES BRIAN SCRIVER AS ASSOCIATE REGISTRAR–RECRUITMENT

CONGRATULATIONS TO DR. KEVIN WAMSLEY

Dr. Lace Marie Brogden

StFX Academic Vice-President & Provost Dr. Kevin Wamsley is pleased to announce Dr. Lace Marie Brogden has been appointed Dean of Education, e ective July 1, 2021. Dr. Brogden is an experienced, fully bilingual, academic leader having served as the inaugural Dean, Faculty of Education at Laurentian University when the combined French/English program was created in 2016. As Dean, Dr. Brogden developed skills and insights related to strategic planning, university advancement, and managing organizational change. Dr. Brogden’s role as Dean helped her to develop core competencies in building bridges between and among diverse stakeholders, including with international partners. It has also helped her understand the importance of patience and humility in advocating for what she believes to be right to time, place, and context. Dr. Brogden’s research and scholarship interests include language teacher education, negotiating subjectivities, social justice in education, and autoethnography. She has contributed to several journals and is currently writing a book on the challenge of and importance for French-language teachers to learn about Treaty Education. Dr. Brodgen has taught in public schools, served at the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education, and has occupied roles as a faculty member and now academic leader in the post-secondary context. Dr. Brogden has also been the Acting Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies since November 2020. e academic units she has led have seen enrolment growth, faculty renewal, and program improvement. Dr. Brogden is a Member-at-Large elected in 2016 and 2018 to the Ontario Association of Deans of Education Executive, was elected to the Executive Committee of the Association of Canadian Deans of Education in 2018 and is the current presidentelect. She also serves as International 1st Vice-President, DKG International for the 2020-22 term. Dr. Brogden engages in international service work promoting the personal and professional development of women educators; and has served as a faculty mentor. As part of her work in two demographically and geographically disparate universities over the past 10 years, Dr. Brogden has engaged with issues related to Indigenizing and attending to the rights, needs, and perspectives of Indigenous students and communities within the context of Treaty, ceded and unceded territories, and Truth and Reconciliation. StFX is pleased to welcome Brian Scriver who joined the campus community April 12, 2021 in the position of Associate RegistrarRecruitment, StFX Academic Vice-President & Provost Dr. Kevin Wamsley announced. Mr. Scriver comes to StFX from Brock University where he was most recently the senior relationship manager in the International Market Development Department. In this role, he managed a team of international student recruitment o cers and communications assistants and held responsibility for relationships with stakeholders such as high school counsellors, recruitment agencies, applicants, and key internal partners. Before this, he worked in the university’s Student Accounts and Financial Aid Department where he managed their awards portfolio. He also spent 15 years in sales and leadership roles at RBC Royal Bank. “Brian is excited to make the move to Nova Scotia, which he describes as feeling like a second home because of its way of life, its beauty, and the kindness of its people,” says Dr. Wamsley. “He relays that he is particularly excited to join the StFX community to help share its rich history and outstanding opportunities for academic, research, and personal success with prospective students.”

Brian Scriver

StFX extends its congratulations, thanks and well wishes to Dr. Kevin Wamsley who takes on a new role as President and Vice-Chancellor of Nipissing University, beginning August 1, 2021. Dr. Wamsley joined StFX in 2015 as Academic VicePresident and Provost. Under his

Kevin B. Wamsley leadership, the university launched new undergraduate and graduate programs, including the very successful BASc Health. He also contributed greatly to StFX’s e orts around equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), supporting marginalized and underrepresented students and faculty, and actively participating in decolonizing the academy. Dr. Wamsley stepped in as Interim President, leading the university during one of the most tumultuous times in its history as the COVID-19 global pandemic was unfolding.

DR. BRENDAN MURPHY HONOURED WITH NATIONAL CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD BUILDING ROBOTS: THESIS LOOKS AT RELATING HUMAN INTERACTION TO ROBOT ACTIONS

Dr. Brendan Murphy

National honours for his exemplary career has been bestowed on Dr. Brendan Murphy, Senior Research Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, who’s received the 2021 Career Achievement Award from the Volcanology and Igneous Petrology Division of the Geological Association of Canada. “Dr. Murphy has had an exceptional career with extensive contributions to our understanding of igneous petrology and igneous relationships to tectonism. His impressive career spans 40 years and has yielded more than 325 refereed publications and numerous Canadian and international awards and research grants,” says the award announcement. “His knowledge and expertise have been transmitted to thousands of students in dozens of mineralogy and petrology course deliveries, the writing of two textbooks and the supervision of research students. His many editorships/associate editorships/guest editorships, memberships on dozens of national and international scholarly organizations, and hundreds of reviews for journals, books and grant committees demonstrate he is an international scienti c ambassador for igneous petrology and Canadian geoscience.” Dr. Murphy says he is also the bene ciary of the wonderful geoscience culture in Atlantic Canada and a strong research culture in StFX’s Earth Sciences Department. “Generations of students have also been a major stimulus and inspiration. Among many things, they taught me that learning is a two-way street. I would not be receiving this, or any other award, without them. To see many of them have successful careers a er graduation is something that gives me the greatest satisfaction as I begin to navigate through my dotage,” he says. For almost six months, Noah Barrett ’21 of Tatamagouche, NS, who recently graduated with an honours computer science degree, has been building a pair of robots from the ground up as part of his honours thesis, working with his supervisor, computer science professor Dr. James Hughes. He’s had to engineer the robots and build parts with a 3D printer in Dr. Hughes’ Convergence Lab, code them, and add algorithms. As the project developed, so too did his interest in seeing how we can relate human interactions to actions the robots are taking. “I was interested in looking at relating how people interpret di erent behaviours in robots to the speci c actions those robots were taking,” he says. “With the growing presence of robots in our day-to-day lives, it is becoming increasingly important that we ensure we have a rigorous understanding of human interpretations of robots and the level of trust we associate with them.” In the end, he says they couldn’t nd statistically signi cant results, but a moderately-sized data set was produced, which could potentially be used for further insight. Dr. Hughes says the robots are elaborate little things. However, what makes them particularly fascinating is that they learn. “ ey learn with a special type of Machine Learning & Arti cial Intelligence how to navigate their world. Long story short, the robots are turned on, they have no idea what they are or what they can do, but over time they learn to (a) move, (b) observe features in their environment, and (c) how to navigate their environment without crashing into things, although, sometimes they fail miserably.” Mr. Barrett will continue his studies in arti cial intelligence, taking a master’s degree in computer science at Dalhousie University. StFX, he says, has been ideal to complete his undergraduate degree. “It’s community-centred and you’re able to have tight-knit relationships with professors. Even this opportunity, I doubt I would have had at a larger school. I feel really grateful.”

Noah Barrett ’21

INTERESTED IN BECOMING INVOLVED AND VOLUNTEERING WITH YOUR LOCAL ALUMNI CHAPTER?

The following chapters are looking for new executive members: Truro, NS; Moncton, NB; Edmonton, AB; Northern New Brunswick and Montreal, QC. If you’re interested, please email Maddy Horne, Alumni Programs Coordinator, at mhorne@stfx.ca

Dr. Mary Lou Smith ’76

DR. MARY LOU SMITH

HONOURED FOR CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE FIELD OF EPILEPSY

Dr. Mary Lou Smith’s ’76 impact in the eld of epilepsy has earned international honours as she was awarded the 2020 Fritz E. Dreifuss Award recognizing mentoring and clinical research excellence. e award is selected by the president of the American Epilepsy Society.

Dr. Smith, a professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, and a Senior Associate Scientist in the Neurosciences and Mental Health Program of the Research Institute at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, was acknowledged at the American Epilepsy Society’s AES2020, a virtual gathering that o ered education and scienti c exchange for epilepsy professionals, held this past December.

“I was surprised,” Dr. Smith says on her reaction as she remembers feeling gobsmacked when she rst heard the news. “But, boy, I am honoured.”

Dr. Smith has been conducting research and clinical work with both children and adults with epilepsy for over 35 years. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and has led seminal studies of the roles of the frontal and temporal lobes in memory, and her current research examines the cognitive and behavioural co-morbidities associated with pediatric onset epilepsy.

Dr. Smith says her major contribution in the eld of epilepsy has been in her research program, which addresses the long-term cognitive and psychosocial outcomes of epilepsy surgery in childhood, and the key psychosocial, family, cognitive and neurological variables that determine quality of life in children with epilepsy.

ACTIVE MENTOR

roughout her career, Dr. Smith has also been an active mentor. She spent many years teaching undergraduate and graduate students, supervising PhD students and post-doctoral fellows, as well as working at Sick Kids Hospital, where she had opportunity to do some teaching and training.

Mentoring has brought many rewards.

“It’s like discovering the joy of science over and over again,” she says, noting how satisfying it is to see students formulate their own ideas, progress through research and learning, and to watch them advance through their own careers.

She said she’s also bene tted from many great mentors, starting during her time at StFX.

INSPIRING PROFESSORS

Dr. Smith’s career path can be traced back, in part, to her student days at StFX.

She started at StFX as a biology student but switched in her second year into honours psychology to follow her interest in human behaviour. Still, she was drawn to the biological side of the eld.

“I had many great professors at StFX. Two who really inspired me were Drs. Murray Schwartz and Peter Henke.”

From them, she learned a lot about the brain. She decided she would make her career in neuropsychology, which deals with the brain and behaviour.

At graduate school at McGill University, she worked with the world-renowned cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Brenda Milner, where she rst began working in the eld of epilepsy.

MANY CONTRIBUTIONS

Dr. Smith is active in advocacy, education and professional service in the eld.

She’s participated in committees and task forces for the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), the American Epilepsy Society, and the Canadian League Against Epilepsy (CLAE). She’s currently a member of the ILAE Neuropsychology (Diagnostic Strategies Commission), Pediatric Psychiatry (Commission on Pediatrics) and Pediatric Epilepsy Severity Scale Task Forces and is the secretary of the ILAE committee for the North American region. She is on the CLAE Board of Directors and is a member of the executive committee of the Canadian Pediatric Epilepsy Network.