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J. Peter Meekison, O.C., Ph.D., is serving as Acting Vice-President Academic and Provost at Royal Roads University until a national search is concluded. Dr. Meekison is a member of the RRU Board of Governors and previously served as Vice-President Academic at the University of Alberta and more recently as the Public Administrator of Okanagan University College during its transition. He holds the title University Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Alberta. Dr. Meekison replaces Dr. Angelo Belcastro, who had to return to New Brunswick for family reasons.
 
Building on the university’s commitment to innovative learning and to fostering regional cross-sector networks of inspired leadership, Royal Roads is hosting ALIA (Authentic Leadership in Action) May 19 – 22, featuring best-selling author Peter Block. The course follows the same design as the acclaimed Shambhala Summer Institute in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Block will lead one of the plenary sessions based on his new work in empowerment, stewardship, chosen accountability, and the reconciliation of community

Dr. Brian White, director of RRU’s school of tourism and hotel management, received high praise and a prestigious award in front over 500 tourism professionals on February 12, 2009. The occasion was the tenth annual British Columbia Tourism Industry Awards night. With co-winner Terry Hood, general manager of Link BC, White received the William Van Horne Visionary Award for his leadership in educational programming, commitment to innovative teaching and unwavering tenacity in helping populate British Columbia’s tourism industry with the “best of the best”.

Would you like help with a business challenge? Victoria-area working professionals are invited to e-mail annette.siewertsen@royalroads.ca if they would like to take part in a free executive coaching session March 25 or 26, 2009 at the Laurel Point Inn, Victoria, B.C. At the same time as coming away with a solution or two, participants will be helping learners in RRU’s Executive Coaching Graduate Certificate program. “Coaching skills learned over a six-month course of instruction must be demonstrated before a faculty panel,” says Annette Siewertsen, program coordinator at the Centre for Applied Leadership and Management.

The Canadian Federation of University Women Victoria is enjoying a year of centennial celebrations, including an all-day symposium on the Quarterdeck at RRU on Saturday, March 28, 2009. Women as Agents of Change promises to be a thought-provoking day with CBC’s Sheryl MacKay moderating three panels featuring the Hon. Anne McLellan, Chief Judith Sayers, Anne Lindsay, Lara Lauzon, Charlotte Gray and Denise Chong. Tickets are $75 and price includes a buffet lunch.
 
Look around Victoria or Vancouver and you’re bound to see them. Large and small posters are popping up in transit shelters, on the back of double-decker buses and in Skytrain stations. A large mural-size poster is up at the Waterfront Station in Vancouver where the Skytrain, Westcoast Express commuter train, Seabus, and Helijet converge. This is the first time RRU has done such a comprehensive campaign in Victoria and Vancouver at the same time. The campaign confirms RRU’s position as “Canada’s university for working professionals”.

Faculty member Audrey Dallimore, who was awarded a five-year Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) in April 2008, has also recently received an NSERC Ship Time grant worth $62,435 to support seven days of ship time - essential in conducting her research on the paleoclimatic, paleoceanographic and paleoseismic history of the northern Pacific coast of British Columbia. Results will contain insights into the causes, dynamics, critical thresholds and past impacts of natural rapid climate changes, as well as seismic activity along the B.C. coast, on time scales of human interest.

A photo by BSc Environmental Management learner Morna Hussey was one of three chosen to represent Canada in the 2008 international Mensa Photo Contest. “I was at Royal Roads for three weeks in May 2008 working on my degree and liked to stroll through the gardens as a form of stress-relief. On the morning I took this photo, it all appeared so serene. The spring had been cool so everything was late blooming and, coming from the prairies,  the coastal beauty was amazing."

Watching Giants: The Secret Lives of Whales is the name of a new book by associate faculty member Dr. Elin Kelsey of RRU's MA in Environmental Education and Communication Program. It's a first-hand look at the incredibly productive waters of the Gulf of California and beyond, told in the first-person from Kelsey's rich, often humorous, everyday experiences as a mother, a woman, and a scientist. Reviewed in The Economist, the book is available from the University of California Press.

Canadian Humanitarian Worker Security: Whose Responsibility is it? is the title of an article by Gordon Smith, Allen Kanerva, and Frans Barnard which appears in the winter 2008 edition of The Dispatch, a newsletter produced by the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute. It’s a piece that was inspired by close friend and colleague, Shirley Case, whose life was cut short while in unselfish service to Afghani children. “Gordon proposed that we write this joint article and use the money earned in memory of Shirley. We all agreed! By October 2006, I had moved to Dubai, so the article was created using the gift of the internet and leveraging the time zones to get it done – me in Dubai, Frans working in Kenya as the Security Advisor for the Horn of Africa to the Danish Refugee Council and Gordon from his home in Victoria or wherever our e-mails found him on his Blackberry,” says Kanerva who now lives in Nairobi. Money earned was donated to the Shirley Case Memorial Fund at Royal Roads University.

Wendy Drummond was featured in the Goldstream News Gazette not long ago following an announcement from the provincial government that it would continue to fund her role in an innovative partnership between Royal Roads University and the Yekooche First Nation. Established in 2006, the Yekooche Learning Centre is a ground-breaking collaboration that has resulted in the creation of an online distance learning environment. Yekooche members are using the Learning Centre to upgrade education and employment skills. At the same time, managing the centre imparts equally valuable skills in administration, leadership, and governance—skills that will be critical to Yekooche’s success in a post-treaty future. 

Interested in the who, what and how of executive coaching?  Continuing Studies is offering an introductory seminar on Tuesday, March 24, 2009. The all-day session will focus on communication skills, leadership skills and coaching principles that are immediately applicable in the workplace - a perfect sampler for those interested in taking the Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching. Cost is $375 + GST. Please register by Tuesday, March 10, 2009.

We want to hear from you. Please send your stories, story ideas and notices of upcoming events to InRoads@royalroads.ca