It is with mixed feelings that I advise the Sheridan community that Dr. Mary Preece, Provost and Vice President, Academic, has announced her intention to retire in December, 2016.
Mary joined Sheridan as Vice President Academic in 2008, and quickly set to work in engaging the Sheridan community to work together to lay the foundation for Sheridan’s future academic direction, resulting in the Academic Innovation Strategy (AIS), released in September 2010. This groundbreaking document crystallized Sheridan’s identity as the Creative Campus, and laid out our commitment to unleashing the creative potential of all our students through an education and experience enriched by creativity and innovation.
The AIS contained specific recommendations related to student success, access, creative campus, applied research, digital learning, experiential learning, cultural competency, interdisciplinary education, and sustainability, among other themes. Under Mary’s passionate and dedicated leadership, we have made tremendous strides towards achieving the initiatives outlined in the AIS.
Mary’s leadership has also been integral to Sheridan’s journey to become a university. She helped establish a new governance model with the creation of the Senate, of which she has ably served as Vice Chair for the past three years. Mary shepherded the development and approval of 12 new degrees in what is a complex and challenging regulatory environment. She has also built an exceptional team of academic leaders in our Deans, along with a dynamic Centre of Teaching and Learning that promotes and supports academic rigor and excellence.
I am particularly grateful for the wise and trusted counsel that Mary has provided to me and the Board of Governors as our senior academic advisor. More personally, I will miss Mary’s humor, her sparkling smile and her friendship.
Someone with Mary’s depth of experience and strength of character will be extremely difficult to replace. However, I certainly understand and respect her decision to retire, and offer her every good wish for a long and fulfilling retirement.
We will begin the process of recruiting a new Provost and Vice President, Academic early in 2016. I am thankful that Mary will continue to provide her consistently outstanding leadership for another year.
Dr. Jeff Zabudsky
President and Vice-Chancellor
Sheridan College