Maple League of Universities

MAPLE LEAGUE OF UNIVERSITIES

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Dr. Jessica Riddell assumed the role as the Executive Director of the Maple League of Universities on July 1, 2018.

The Maple League is a consortium of four universities – Bishop’s, Mount Allison, Acadia, and St. Francis Xavier – that shares a focused commitment to quality undergraduate education. The Executive Director (ED) is an entrepreneurial academic leader, responsible for translating a bold academic vision of inter-institutional collaborations into high-impact initiatives, including those related to academic programming, research and innovation, teaching and learning, and educational leadership.

The ED works closely with the four university presidents to set Maple League strategy and objectives, building relationship-rich environments with internal and external stakeholders and partners to implement the Maple League strategic vision. The ED oversees complex strategic planning, identifies external funding opportunities, manages budgets and allocates funds, and supports logistics and planning for Maple League curricular and co-curricular programming.

This work also requires the ED to engage with other sectors, including industry, community agencies, and government. Under the leadership of the ED the consortium coordinates research clusters and collaborations, experiential and work-integrated learning, supports inclusive pedagogies and high impact practices, and designs programming to enhance excellence in undergraduate education across the four universities.

A number of signature initiatives – including a Maple League Social Innovation Incubator, a Maple League Resilience and Retention Project, and a series of EDI-focused programs – position the Maple League universities as leaders in conversations around quality undergraduate education in Canada and internationally.

Learn more

WHAT IS THE MAPLE LEAGUE OF UNIVERSITIES?

MAPLE LEAGUE FELLOWSHIP
PAST FELLOWS

FULL-TIME POST GRADUATE FELLOWS

As the Maple League Post-Graduate Fellow, Lauren worked closely with the Executive Director to support the running of the consortium, assist in advancing Maple League academic activities, promote and maintain member-institution cooperation, and monitor the Maple League 5-year strategic plan.

Lauren leads the Maple League communications by ensuring that all communications plans are aligned with the Maple League focus statement and key messaging in order to scaffold communications and monitor strategy. Lauren also played a large role in coordinating Maple League educational activities for Maple League Shared Courses.

As the Maple League Research Fellow and Strategist, Tiffany was hired to study high impact educational practices (HIPs) through faculty and students' perspectives across the Maple League campuses. Tiffany helped conduct interviews on HIPs, analyzed qualitative data from the interviews and produced reports from the HIP findings.

Tiffany also completed the first semester of an Open Educational Resource (OER) Fellowship with SPARC, sponsored by the Maple League.She has collaborated with Dr. Riddell on a co-authored chapter in the forthcoming Taking Stock 2.0 edited collection (forthcoming 2022).

Lauren Boultbee

Tiffany MacLennan

PART-TIME POST GRADUATE FELLOWS

Rebecca Mesay

Rebecca was the Maple League Post-Graduate Fellow in Governance,

and focused on formalizing the Maple League Student Fellows Program and explored funding for student leadership through the Canada Summer Jobs Program.

Summer-Joy Upshaw

As Post-Graduate Fellow in Retention, Summer reviewed relevant literature in efforts to better understand the overall initiative behind the research being conducted around retention within our institutions.

Summer completed a short 8 week research placement with the mandate to conduct an environmental scan to get a better sense of the factors affecting retention.

MAPLE LEAGUE STUDENT FELLOWS

Georges-Philippe Gadoury-Sansfaçon

As the Stephen A. Jarislowsky Research Fellow and a Maple League student fellow, Georges collaborated with the Athletic Directors of the Maple League institutions, and their communications teams, following his report on Maple League Student-Athletes Support Structures and Success (2020). Georges co-created the Bishop’s Online Learning and Technology Consultants program with Dr. Riddell and Scott Stoddard. His involvement as a Maple League fellow allowed him to ongoingly apply his skills to foster change within and beyond his university. He was awarded the 3M National Student Fellowship in 2021 in recondition of his student advocacy and leadership

Sally Cunningham

As the Tomlinson Intern – Maple League Student Fellow of Community Networks, Sally worked on several projects with the goal of increasing community across our four institutions. Following up with her work connecting researchers across the Maple League, Sally collected mid-term progress reports from funded projects and shared them as interview blog posts to the Maple League website. Sharing these nine projects across the Maple League channels helped to demonstrate the progress we are capable of as we work together, and our capacity for resilience through changing times. Sally also published testimonies and blog posts highlighting the Communities of Practice across the four schools. Finally, Sally is part of the team that participated in the Business and Higher Education Roundtable’s Canada Comeback Challenge, proposing ways to amplify equity, diversion, and inclusion in online learning as well as solutions for fears of cybersecurity in a digital learning environment.

Frédérique Larouche

As the Maple League Fellow for Digital Communications and Design, Frédérique collaborated with members of the team on various projects. Frédérique supported the Student-Athlete project for which she created promotional flyers and videos. Moreover, she worked closely with Dr. Riddell on various academic and leadership initiatives. Finally, Frédérique edited and posted the videos from the Better Together series, held by the Maple League Teaching and Learning Centre in 2020.

Nathaniel Benjamin

Nathaniel was a Maple League Student Fellow in Teaching, Learning & Athletics. He worked to amplify our work on teaching and learning for faculty, and on student success for student affairs teams.

Tanisha Campbell

Tanisha Campbell worked alongside Tiffany MacLennan on a High Impact Practice Spotlight Series. Through this series, Tanisha used her certificate in Knowledge Mobilization to mobilize knowledge around exceptional teaching practices by professors of the Maple League.

Lara Hartman

As the Indigenous Student Fellow focussed on reconciliation and decolonization, Lara Hartman hosted two major events for the Maple League: the Sisters in Spirit Vigil and Maple League Hosts: Truth, Reconciliation and Decolonizing Higher Education with Dr. Pamela Toulouse from Laurentian University. She worked closely with Tanisha Campbell on communicating Calls to Action to decolonize our four institutions. She focussed on decolonizing the institutions and is dedicated to making the Maple League a safe and inviting place for all Indigenous Peoples who come to our campuses.

Dr. Jessica Riddell Jarislowsky Chair of Undergraduate Teaching Excellence