The Learning & Teaching Office

Meet the LTO Team:

Maureen Reed, Interim Director

Maureen Reed, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Ryerson University.  She received her MA and PhD in Experimental Psychology at York University in 1991. 

She has expertise and interest in higher education and methods to improve student success. In addition, she studies the impact of vision losses on everyday activities. She has recently published a series of articles examining the impact of student resourcefulness on academic success in students with and without disabilities. She was recently funded by the CNIB to study access to and success in higher education for students with visual impairment and blindness in Canada and is currently writing papers of these outcomes.   She co-authored a textbook entitled “The post-secondary learning experience” (Thomson-Nelson Publisher).  Maureen has been a long time member of the Senate Teaching and Learning Committee and served two years as the Faculty Associate for Arts at the LTO.

Judy Britnell, LTO Director (On Sabbatical 2010 - 2011)

416.979.5000 x6943
britnell@ryerson.ca

Judy Britnell is seconded from the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing to be the director of the Learning and Teaching Office; the office responsible for facilitating the professional development of faculty across Ryerson University. Judy has consistently been an advocate for educational practices that are relevant and innovative; practices that keep pace with the changing cultures and contexts.

Judy completed her Masters' degree at Columbia University in psychiatric and community mental health nursing and in adult education at the Ontario Institute for studies in Education. She has also completed the doctoral course work in curriculum studies at UT/OISE. She has served as chair of the Mental Health Nurses Interest Group and has been active in the Clinical Nurse Specialists and Provincial Nurse Educators Interest Groups.  Her career experience includes work as a psychiatric clinical nurse specialist, a psychogeriatric nursing consultant, a school nurse in Tokyo, Japan, and a teacher and administrator in the Basic Degree Program at Ryerson University, Toronto. Judy, a nurse for over 30 years, was recently inducted into the RNAO Quarter Century membership club.

Dalia Hanna, LTO Program Coordinator

416.979.5000 x6598 
dhanna@ryerson.ca

Dalia Hanna is the LTO Program Coordinator. She coordinates all the office programs including the Faculty Conference, the New Faculty orientations, workshops and external conferences. Dalia is responsible for the operational management of the office and for designing and producing the flyers and promotional materials including the LTO Exchange Newsletter. She maintains and monitors the office budget and administers the project budgets. Recently Dalia coordinated the 2010 Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Conference in Toronto.

Dalia's experience is in program administration and project management and she has a significant training and educational history in management and communications. Among her awards and commendations, Dalia has received a Special Performance Award from the American Embassy. She was awarded a certificate from the State Department/Foreign Service Institute, Washington D.C. on office communications. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). 

Paola Borin, Curriculum Development Consultant

416.979.5000 x2629  
borin@ryerson.ca

Paola Borin is a specialist in curriculum development with over 20 years of experience in public and private education and training. She has degrees in Psychology and in Education, and completed a graduate degree in Curriculum Design from Stanford University.

Paola has professional experience in the development and delivery of software, in usability and information architecture in new media, and in the application of new media to education. Paola joins us from McMaster University where she worked as and Educational Consultant for ten years teaching and working with departments and faculty members engaged in diverse departmental and faculty curriculum projects and professional counselling. Paola is passionate about education, interested in program development and interested in helping others develop skills to build dynamic and effective programs.

After six months, Paola has helped develop two long term developmental programs through the Learning and Teaching Office and is currently working with a number of departments and schools in helping them to articulate and refine their curriculum. Paola works closely with Judy and the whole Learning and Teaching Office team and is delighted to be working in such a dynamic environment.

Michelle Schwartz, Online Resources Developer

416.979.5000 x2094
michelle.schwartz@ryerson.ca

Michelle Schwartz is the Online Resource Developer at the Learning and Teaching Office. She updates and annotates the resources available on the LTO website, and produces the Best Practices monthly newsletter, highlighting timely topics in education.

Michelle has a BA in Art History from New York University and received her MLIS from Long Island University, where she specialized in archives and records management.

Before coming to Ryerson, Michelle spent six years working in a variety of academic libraries, museums, archives, and special collections. She has worked for three years as a writer, editor and fact-checker for a travel website, although she has never gotten paid to travel anywhere. In her free time, she volunteers as an archivist for the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives. Her interests include information architecture, usability, and following the arrow of each and every Discovery Trail sign she can find in Toronto, no matter where they lead.

John Paul Foxe, Educational Developer

416.979.5000 x6570
johnpaul.foxe@ryerson.ca

John Paul Foxe, PhD, is an Educational Developer in the Learning and Teaching Office. He is primarily responsible for supporting TA, GA and graduate student professional development in teaching. John Paul has a number of years experience working with TAs/GAs and has completed graduate courses in University Teaching and Learning and a University Teaching Professional Development Program. He is particularly interested in developing the Graduate Student Professional Development in Teaching program at Ryerson.

Coming from a biology background, John Paul holds a Bachelor’s degree in genetics from Trinity College Dublin. He earned both his MSc and PhD from York University in Toronto.

Teaching Chairs:

Elaine Frankel, Community Services

416.979.5000 x6306
efrankel@ryerson.ca

Dr. Elaine Frankel has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in the School of Early Childhood Education for over 25 years.  Her primary areas of teaching and research are in the fields of early intervention and inclusion, educational systems change, and interpersonal communication.  As coordinator of the Ryerson Interpersonal Skills Teaching Centre from 1996-2000, Elaine developed, trained facilitators and researched the Structured Simulation Training Method (SSTM) to enhance student learning of interpersonal and teaming skills.  She has used simulated client experiences to deliver pre-service and in-service training to diverse groups including teachers, family support professionals, public health nurses, social workers, geriatric caregivers, university administrators and business teams. Elaine is delighted to be a part of the Learning and Teaching team to promote communities of learning at Ryerson.

Don Kinder, Library

416.979.5000 x6899
dkinder@ryerson.ca

Don Kinder is the Teaching Chair of the Library at Ryerson University and the Health Sciences librarian. Don acted as conference coordinator for the Ontario Library Association’s Super Conference for 2003 and 2004. In February 2005 he was named Academic Librarian of the Year by the Ontario College and University Library Association. Don has been involved in developing and delivering student success courses on campus and has been a member on the University’s Learning and Teaching Committee for a number of years. He has also served on Ryerson’s Task Force on Student Retention.

LTO Associates:

Debbie Chant, LTO Teaching Awards Coordinator

416.979.5000 x2516
dchant@ryerson.ca

Gosha Zywno, LTO Associate

416.979.5000 x6382
gosha@ee.ryerson.ca

Gosha Zywno is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, a 3M Teaching Fellow (the highest academic teaching award in Canada and the first-ever for Ryerson), and a winner of the provincial (OCUFA) and Ryerson teaching excellence awards. As an LTO faculty associate, Gosha's focus is on faculty development, instructional design and the use of educational technology. Gosha's professional interests are in control theory and in engineering education, particularly in the use of instructional technology. She has published extensively and conducted seminars and workshops at universities in Canada, Europe and the USA. Her research and educational leadership has been recognized by several international best paper and achievement awards from ASEE, iNEER, UICEE and ACC. Gosha holds an M.Eng. degree from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. from Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland, U.K. She is a Professional Engineer, Senior Member of IEEE, and a member of SLTHE and ASEE.