Centre for the Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Centre Associates

• Janice Waddell RN,  PhD
• Pamela Robinson B.A.H., M.PL., Ph.D.
• Judy Britnell, RN, MS, MEd
• Linda Cooper RN, PhD
• Jacqui Gingras, RD, PhD
• Cathy McCarthy BAA, MSW
• Beth Swart, RN, B.Sc.N., M.S.E.

Janice Waddell
jwaddell@ryerson.ca

Janice Waddell is currently an Associate Dean in the Faculty of Community Service and Associate Director in the School of Nursing at Ryerson University.  Her educational research foci include career planning and development for nurses, with a particular emphasis on student nurses, faculty development in support of student engagement through career planning and development, and nursing alumni mentoring students.  The Canadian Nursing Students Association has adopted Janice's work in career planning and development for students as a national strategy. Janice's clinical practice research includes the experience of children who have witnessed family violence and aggressive Girls' Health. The latter project is a part of a larger CIHR NET Grant project entitled, "Interventions for Women and Girls Exposed to Violence".  Janice has chaired the Faculty of Community Services Learning and Teaching Committee since its inception in 1999.

Pamela Robinson
pamela.robinson@ryerson.ca

Pamela Robinson is an Assistant Professor in the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Ryerson University, Toronto Canada. Pamela is also a practicing professional urban planner. In 2004 she received the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Award for Teaching Excellence for her teaching in urban sustainability. Her scholarship of teaching and learning has investigated the use of salon discussion groups in urban sustainability curriculum and new mechanisms for structuring successful student learning outcomes in community-based research projects. Dr. Robinson's other active research explores the delineation of new roles for citizens in planning and design processes. She is an editorial board member of Planning Theory and Practice and was recently appointed to the Board of the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation.

Judy Britnell
britnell@ryerson.ca

Judy Britnell seconded from the School of Nursing, is the Director of Ryerson's Learning and Teaching Office; an office that supports and promotes the professional development of faculty members.  She has been involved in several innovative university initiatives; the J.W. McConnell Foundation project on Transformative Learning Through Innovative Community Experience, chaired the Student Success and Retention Task Force, contributed to the running of the Annual Charrette, is a member of the current National Survey of Student Engagement Advisory Committee and is a member of the Faculty Course Survey Review Committee.  She has participated in research in the areas of: English as a second language student needs, suspended students, and is currently collaborating on a study of immigrant professors to Ontario Higher Education. She is a past member of the executive of the Society of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, the coordinator of the Southern Ontario Educational Developer's Group, a member of an ad hoc group of the Ontario Council of Academic Vice-Presidents and serves as the member at large nursing education for the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario.  She is actively engaged in supporting opportunities for learning at Ryerson specifically related to the SOTL.

Linda Cooper
lcooper@ryerson.ca

Linda Cooper is a Professor, School of Nursing, Ryerson University in Toronto. Linda has held several positions in clinical practice and education. Her current responsibilities include teaching in the collaborative baccalaureate degree program at Ryerson University, curriculum development, contributing to the development of and teaching in the Masters program in nursing at Ryerson, research, and involvement in the nursing honour society, Sigma Theta Tau International.  Current research projects include a study examining the mental health needs of street youth, with a focus on exposure to violence, an intervention study examining alumni mentoring senior students, and the Coat of Arms Project. 

Jacqui Gingras
jgingras@ryerson.ca

Jacqui Gingras is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nutrition at Ryerson University. Her research program involves identifying and acknowledging the social, cultural, and economic determinants of health, which includes a theoretical exploration of knowledge and what 'counts' as knowledge in nutrition and food education and practice. She has a particular interest in how nutrition knowledge is created, legitimized, and communicated to Nutrition students. She is currently working on phenomenological inquiry entitled, "Coming and Going: First- and Fourth-Year Nutrition Students' Experiences" to identify what expectations Nutrition students bring to their undergraduate program, the process of professionalization that occurs during their education, and expectations graduating students hold of practice. Another teaching and learning related project is the Scholarly Salons where second- and third-year Nutrition students have come together to share their experiences of student engagement and  communities of learning.

Catherine McCarthy
cmcarthy@ryerson.ca

Catherine McCarthy is an Associate Professor and former Associate Director in the School of Social Work. She is a past winner of the FCS Teaching Award and was the FCS McConnell Fellow on the Transformative Learning Through Innovative Community Experience Project. Catherine was also a past coordinator of the FCS Interdisciplinary Studies Program, co-ordinator of the Ryerson Interdisciplinary Charrette and co-ordinator of the Interpersonal Skills Teaching Centre. She is currently co-coordinating the development of international field placements in the School of Social Work and her current research is the impact of students learning experiences of undertaking an international placement. Catherine is interested in experiential and innovative, transformative learning and has been involved in a variety of research projects that are student focused.

Beth Swart
bswart@ryerson.ca

Beth Swart is a long-time tenured faculty member at Ryerson, who is committed to teaching excellence and strives to enhance the scholarship of teaching as well as to support faculty in their teaching practice development. Beth has taken on a leadership role in developing and implementing a variety of innovative approaches to online learning for the post-RN and the basic degree nursing courses using WebCT and BlackBoard.  Beth is a past winner of the FCS Teaching Award and is currently the Teaching and Learning Faculty Associate for the Faculty of Community Services.