Dean’s message to Alumni and Emeriti

Dear Alumni and Emeriti,

It has been my privilege to serve as your Dean for the past ten years. No other role could have tempted me away from my home and life in Halifax, but the opportunity to join and lead one of the largest and most distinguished faculties of education in Canada seemed like one I could not pass up. Thank you for the opportunity, and thank you for the trust you placed in me as your Dean.

This Faculty brings together an extraordinary team of students, scholars and professional staff, with wide-ranging experiences and scholarly interests. Our Faculty has a unique standing in the Province, with a longstanding commitment to teacher education, educational research, and education across the lifespan. Every program we offer is infused with and underpinned by scholarly work, much of it conducted by our own faculty members and graduate students. We have an exceptional record of success in Tri-Council funding. Each year, numerous faculty members receive external honours and recognition. It is no surprise to me that our Faculty of Education is now ranked tenth in the world—you deserve no less.

What has given me the keenest satisfaction over the past ten years is not the Faculty’s rankings, nor the opening of our new building, nor the steady increase in research funding. It is the relationships that we created and nurtured: with Musqueam, with the Syilx, and with the many other Indigenous communities who have hosted our NITEP field centres and our students; with schools and school districts across the province; with international scholars and learners who have visited our Faculty or invited us to work alongside them in their home communities, including locations such as the Dadaab refugee camp. These relationships have enriched our scholarship, our programs and our lives and have contributed in important ways to our Faculty’s work and mission.

I offer all of you—students, alum staff, and faculty members—my most sincere thanks for joining me on this ten-year journey. I would like to recognize, in particular, several people who have made my job as Dean much easier:

• The absolutely exceptional staff working on the Sixth Floor, especially Anna Bin, Clara Ng and Suzanne Scott, who have all served on my Senior Leadership Team; along with them I would like to recognize Michael Murphy. All four have worked by my side for years and have been instrumental in the advancement of the Faculty’s goals and priorities.
• My External Advisory Board, who continually challenged me to do better and reach further.
• All those who served on my Senior Leadership Team over the years, most especially my current associate deans Dr. Patsy Duff, Dr. Jan Hare, and Dr. Marianne McTavish.
• Dr. Mary Bryson, who provided such exceptional leadership across many of the portfolios that underpin our success: faculty affairs, equity and innovation. It would be impossible for me to overstate how much I have relied upon their expertise and advice for the past five years.
• Our many donors for their philanthropic interest in and support of the Faculty, and whose generosity supports so many students, programs and initiatives.
• Our current students and our alum community—I will watch your career paths and achievements with interest and hope to remain connected with you all.
• Our faculty emeriti, whose legacy remains foundational to the Faculty’s continuing success. I offer a special recognition of those faculty members who are retiring at the end of June 2021: Dr. Peter Crocker (KIN), Dr. Garnet Grosjean (EDST), Dr. Shelley Hymel (ECPS), and Dr. Richard Young (ECPS). I wish you all the best in this next phase of your lives.

I remain grateful to the leadership at the University, most especially Dr. David Farrar, Dr. Angela Redish, Dr. Andrew Szeri and Dr. Ananya Mukherjee Reed, who served as my Provosts, for their unflagging support of our Faculty. I also thank Dr. Martha Piper, Dr. Stephen Toope, Dr. Arvind Gupta and Dr. Santa Ono, who served in the role of President during my tenure as Dean and whose leadership was an inspiration to me. Finally, I note with gratitude with unflagging support and sage advice offered to me by many UBC colleagues, most especially my fellow Deans, Faculty Relations and the Office of the University Counsel.

Please know that I will forever be indebted to the entire Faculty of Education community for all the hard work, support and wise counsel that helped make my ten years as Dean a success. I hope you feel confident, as I do, that this exceptional Faculty stands well-positioned not only to endure but also to embark on an exciting new phase of its journey under the leadership of Dr. Jan Hare, your incoming Dean pro tem. I know I am leaving the Faculty in very good hands.

Best,

Blye