ATHABASCA – The times are a-changing over at Athabasca University, with Dr. Catherine Swindlehurst set to take over as the school’s chief academic officer, known as the provost.
Swindlehurst will start her new role April 14, when she replaces the outgoing provost and vice-president academic Dr. Matthew Prineas.
“Dr. Swindlehurst brings a notably rich depth and wide variety of university leadership experience to this pivotal and complex role,” said Dr. Alex Clark, AU’s president.
“She is the right person to lead collaborative work not only with our faculties but also across the university, and within the Athabasca region, as AU seeks to make its highest contributions in teaching, research, and community impact under a new academic plan and the Like No Other strategic plan.”
As provost, Swindlehurst will be responsible for overseeing the university’s research programs, academic programming, and helping to grow the student body. Part of her plan is to try and integrate research with rural communities like Athabasca.
“We’ve got a strong teaching and learning culture and we’ve got fantastic research happening, but we really need to think about how we grow our impact in terms of open knowledge and making knowledge more accessible for communities,” said Swindlehurst.
Healthcare is one field Swindlehurst feels would locally benefit from increased research at AU.
“Thinking about our nursing program, and our nurse practitioner program, on the learning sides its expanding access to healthcare for communities that struggle to attract practitioners. On the outcome side, looking at rural research; most healthcare research is based in urban centres for urban communities, and AU has a real opportunity to think about growing our impact for rural healthcare needs.”
Prior to stepping into the provost role, Swindlehurst worked as AU’s chief growth officer, where she was responsible for overseeing and helping to create the strategic plan. In her role as the growth officer, Swindlehurst said she made the commitment to have a meaningful presence in the community, and she plans on continuing in her new role.
“Lots of my community activity has been in that economic growth role, particularly with the Chamber (of Commerce) and thinking about housing and other developments.”
While she declined to call the new role a challenge, Swindlehurst said she was looking forward to the opportunities the role would bring. With post-secondary schooling in Canada facing challenges across the nation, including a decrease in international students, she said AU was in a strong position to continue to grow.
“It’s a learning opportunity; the university is at a really interesting stage, and a really exciting stage in terms of growing our impact,” said Swindlehurst.
“We’re seeing lots of budget cuts, we’re seeing the impacts of the international student caps, we’re seeing universities close down programs. AU is uniquely positioned within the Canadian context to grow our impacts.”
