EDI Committees and Networks

Dr. Aylin Atilla is an associate professor in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.  She was born in Montreal to immigrant parents. Still, She grew up around the world – Morocco, India, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as Zaire) until her family moved back to Canada and came to Medicine Hat in Alberta.   She pursued her undergraduate degree (BS - Cornell University) and graduate degrees (VMD - University of Pennsylvania, MS - Auburn University) and small animal veterinary surgery specialization in the United States.   

She worked in private practice before coming to the University of Calgary.  She teaches in all years of the veterinary curriculum and sees clinical cases in our DVLC partner clinics, and engages in clinical and educational research. She is a member of the Indigenous priority group and co-chair of the Wellness, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Task Force at the UCVM. 

Dr. Baetz holds a PhD (2000) from the University of Toronto in medical genetics and microbiology and a BSc Honours (1995) from Queen’s University in biochemistry. She currently sits on the board of Research Canada, a national, broadly based alliance dedicated to advancing health research through collaborative advocacy and is the former president of the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences, whose mandate is to advance and promote molecular biosciences in Canada. 

Dr. Baetz has served extensively as both reviewer and chair at many funding agencies, including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). In 2017, the CIHR College of Reviewers recognized her as an outstanding reviewer. 

She is passionate about science and delivering future-focused programs that will allow our graduates to not just participate in but drive the transformation of the Calgary and Alberta economy. Her guiding principle is that innovation and excellence are built on collaboration and diversity. She has a long-standing commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion and Indigenous engagement and looks forward to continuing her advocacy and reconciliation journey at UCalgary.

Dr. William Bridel specializes in sociocultural aspects of the sport, physical activity, and the body. Current projects include investigations of LGBTQI2S+ inclusion in sport and inclusion and safe sport policy. He is also interested in sport-related pain and injury, with a recent focus on athletes’ experiences of sport-related concussions.

Dr. Pamela Chu, MD, has been the associate dean of Professionalism, Equity and Diversity at the Cumming School of Medicine since 2019. Dr. Chu is a Gynecologic Oncologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology with a cross-appointment in Oncology.

Dr. Chu has spearheaded many EDI initiatives within the Cumming School of Medicine, including educational sessions, policy development, curriculum review, and a faculty EDI award.

Dr. Añiela dela Cruz holds a PhD in Nursing and an MSc in Health Promotion Studies (University of Alberta). She has over 20 years of professional experience in community and public health, health policy development, and health and program evaluation research. In her career, Añiela has worked with Alberta communities, provincial and federal government stakeholders, and non-government organizations focusing on areas of public health such as HIV/AIDS, chronic disease prevention, prenatal nutrition, and child and youth health promotion and illness prevention. She has worked extensively with diverse in Alberta and across Canada, including women, children, people living with HIV, marginalized immigrants, First Nations communities, urban Indigenous communities, and urban and rural populations.

Currently, Añiela chairs the Newcomer, HIV, Immigration, treatment Engagement and Stigma in Canada (NewHITES) Community-Based Research Team.  The team comprises community leaders, people living with HIV, government, AIDS Service Organizations (ASO), and community-based and academic-based researchers working together towards health and social equities within the intersections of HIV, stigma, migration and settlement.

Catherine Hamel’s interests are in the role of the designed environment as an instrument of change. Critical of exploitation, her focus is on the potential of productive modification. Her work focuses on forced displacement and the role of the built environment in mitigating adaptation. The themes investigated to date include identity and estrangement in post-war reconstruction and exile, architecture and justice, memory in the scarred body, and voicing political experiences in public space.

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, a city of hope and despair, she grew up in a space where the built and natural environment was never a neutral bystander. The outcome is a comfort in being poured back and forth between different cultures, projected sides, and languages.  An adjustment of perspective is never received as one of disregard. It is an adaptation and a necessary resilience. This fluctuation trains one’s attitude to focus and select what each context offers rather than reject what falls outside the habitual framework to stay in the prescribed and familiar.

Colleen Kawalilak, PhD, full professor and associate dean (international) in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, provides leadership in establishing sustained and reciprocal international partnerships and advancing internationalization at home (IaH) and in curricula (IoC). 

Colleen’s research, teaching, and graduate supervision span formal and informal adult learning in culturally diverse work and learning contexts; the power of dialogue; global engagement; advancing intercultural capacity to foster inclusive and diverse work and learning communities; lifelong learning; and relational epistemologies to inform teaching and learning.

Jennifer Koshan is a professor in the Faculty of Law, University of Calgary. Her research and teaching focus on equality, human rights, and legal responses to interpersonal violence. She is the Principal Investigator on a cross-Canada research project on domestic violence and access to justice funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Law Foundation of Ontario’s Access to Justice Fund. This project has resulted in several publications, most recently an eBook on domestic violence laws across Canada, available on Can LII.

She is also Chair of the Law Faculty’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. 

Dr. Aoife Mac Namara, PhD, was appointed dean of the Faculty of Arts on July 1, 2022.

Dr. Aoife Mac Namara’s decades of experience in academia — as a student, researcher, teacher and leader — span Canada and the globe, giving her a deep understanding of the complexities of university culture at home and abroad. She recently served as the president of NSCAD University in Halifax and, before that, as dean of Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology and as dean of Emily Carr University’s Audain Faculty of Visual Art + Material Practice. In London, England, Dr. Mac Namara served as director of Contemporary Art at the University of the Arts (Wimbledon College of Art) and as director of Programmes: Art and Design at Middlesex University.

Originally trained as an artist herself, Dr. Mac Namara holds a doctorate in art, design and the built environment from the University of Ulster in Belfast, pursued a doctorate in art education at Concordia University, and holds a master’s degree in the social history of art from the University of Leeds. In addition, she has a master’s in fine art from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.

Dr. Mac Namara is a dedicated champion for entrepreneurship, interdisciplinary collaboration, institutional transparency, decolonization and reconciliation, equity, diversity and inclusion. As president of NSCAD, she led the institution’s COVID-19 response and transition to remote learning and working — the success of which was recognized by the province’s post-secondary community and used as a model for developing Nova Scotia’s higher-education sector’s reopening framework. During this time, she also led the development of an anti-racist action plan for NSCAD, which received overwhelming cross-university support. Her reconciliation and anti-racism efforts include helping to secure support for the Institute for the Study of Canadian Slavery, a first-of-its-kind research hub, and, as part of SFU’s Aboriginal Reconciliation Council, advocating for changes to university policies to be more inclusive of Indigenous pedagogies.

As dean of UCalgary’s Faculty of Arts, she is committed to building meaningful relationships between the faculty — and the university as a whole — and its constituents, including students, staff, faculty, community members, industry, government and donors.

Dr. McCafferty is responsible for awards and scholarships made available to graduate students through the Faculty of Graduate Studies. These include the Killam and Vanier awards and Tri-Council scholarships offered through the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Graduate Awards Competition.

Dr. McCafferty is the FGS representative on the Associate Deans Research Committee, serves as the liaison with the Vice President Research office, and co-chairs the FGS EDI committee with Jaya Dixit (Graduate Academic and Intl. Specialist). 

Hieu Van Ngo, PhD is associate dean (teaching and learning) and associate professor in the Faculty of Social Work. As a person with intersecting identities, he has lived with and confronted many inequities facing immigrants, racialized people and GLBTQ+ members. 

Hieu has been involved in anti-racist and equity work since 1997. He has led over 15 collaborative initiatives that address systemic discrimination in education, health, and justice.  

Fouzia Usman, PhD, has spent the last ten years immersed in EDI as a researcher, educator, and consultant in an educational context.  Her educational development experience spans the K-12 and postsecondary contexts. Identifying as an "Anti-Oppression" educator herself, Fouzia has taught several courses in the Werklund School of Education, focusing on diversity for learning and learning theories. Fouzia’s doctoral research focused on inclusion within Dubai’s educational system, whereby she guided to reshaping of administrators’ and policymakers’ perceptions of inclusion practices for students with specific learning needs. She brings important international experience to the TI, working for the Higher Education Department for the Government of Dubai, supporting large-scale projects related to student engagement and satisfaction, and quality assurance processes across Dubai’s entire post-secondary sector. Within the community, Fouzia currently serves as a Calgary Police Services Anti-Racism Action committee member.

As an educational development consultant at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, Fouzia works to advance EDI initiatives across the university’s teaching and learning communities. She works with individuals and groups on incorporating EDI values and principles, including anti-racism practices, in postsecondary teaching and learning contexts. She also provides support as an academic staff member by facilitating programs related to the Taylor Institute’s Certificates in University Teaching and Learning. Fouzia is one of the primary contacts for inquiries related to EDI in teaching and learning and is excited to collaborate with members of the campus community to take this work forward. Fouzia is interested in promoting anti-oppression pedagogical practices at the postsecondary level. Her research interests include decolonizing curriculum, anti-oppression pedagogy, equity and inclusivity in teaching and learning, and intercultural competency among faculty members.

Sherry is a senior instructor and associate dean (undergraduate) at the Haskayne School of Business. She has been a faculty member in the Operations and Supply Chain Management area since 1999. She participated in doctoral studies at the Centre for Research in Healthcare Engineering (CRHE), University of Toronto. She has her CPIM designation as well as degrees in Business and Education. Before joining Haskayne, Sherry worked in government services, energy, transportation, education and the healthcare industries. Sherry taught for the Calgary Board of Education and University of Toronto Schools before joining Haskayne.

Sherry has been in various administrative roles at Haskayne for over the past decade as Assistant Dean Student Leadership and Associate Dean Teaching & Learning before her recent position. Sherry serves as a co-chair for various committees across campus, including GFC Calendar and Curriculum Subcommittee, HSB Undergraduate Review Committee and the HSB EDI Committee.

Svetlana Yanushkevich, PhD, is the associate dean (equity, diversity and inclusion, and research) at the Schulich School of Engineering. She is also a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Software Engineering and holds a Dr. Habilitated in Tech. Sci. from the Technical University of Warsaw (1999).

She joined the University of Calgary in 2001. Svetlana founded (2003) and directs the Biometric Technologies Laboratory at the University of Calgary. She and her team conduct research in machine learning and probabilistic reasoning, biometric data processing, and biometric-enabled decision support systems for security and healthcare applications. She is a Senior Member of the IEEE and co-chairs the Biometric Taskforce in the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society.