Academic Leadership At A Glance
Faculty of Social Work
Dean of Social Work
Ellen Perrault
Dr. Perrault leads the strategic direction of the largest school of social work in Canada to ensure program and academic excellence, effectively deploy resources and inspire colleagues. As the chief advocate for the Faculty, the Dean is responsible to build meaningful relationships with community partners, government, members of the profession, key stakeholders and donors.
Senior Associate Dean
Jessica Ayala
As the Senior Associate Dean of the faculty, Jessica Ayala provides academic leadership in the design, development, implementation and evaluation of strategic plans to advance academic, research and service excellence.
Dr. Ayala collaborates with the Dean to provide insight and leadership, including quality assurance and evaluation, alignment of academic programs, complement/staff planning, space planning, budgets, fund development planning, alumni engagement, relationship to profession and community, communications and marketing, and Information Technology.
Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning
Hieu Ngo
Dr. Ngo supports the Associate Deans, Undergraduate and Graduate, and ensures academic policies, procedures, programming are in place for high quality academic programming and cohesiveness across the province. He also supports excellence in teaching and learning development across the faculty, ensuring resources, such as technology coaches are effectively deployed. His responsibilities include supporting and hiring of exceptional and diverse sessional faculty and working closely with our office of Field Education providing support and leadership and collaborating on field education curriculum and practicum placements within and outside the province.
Associate Dean, Undergraduate
Gail Zuk
Dr. Zuk is responsible for the undergraduate program, linking with the BSW Director and the Coordinators of the Virtual Learning Circle and our campuses across Alberta. Oversees quality of the BSW curriculum, program, student satisfaction, orientation, convocation, and student recruitment. To enhance students’ experiential experiences Gail collaborates with the Field Director and the Associate Dean (Research & Partnerships) to incorporate and integrate research and scholarly productivity into academic programming across the province.
Associate Dean, Graduate
Anne-Marie McLaughlin
Dr. McLaughlin is responsible for the graduate program, linking with the Coordinators of our MSW program Specialization leaders on program quality, student satisfaction, orientation, convocation, and student recruitment. She is responsible for the curriculum, cohesiveness, and overall functioning of graduate programs including master’s and doctoral programs.
Associate Dean of Research and Partnerships
David Nicholas
Dr. Nicholas promotes the Social Work profession, working to build and maintain, partnerships across the province through research and professional development. To ensure success for colleagues and graduate students, Dr. Nicholas mentors scholars and develops, secures, monitors, and advocates for support and resources for academic staff to promote their research, scholarship, and knowledge engagement activities. Connecting academic staff with funding opportunities, and ensuring faculty are aware of the full range of funding possibilities, e.g. Research Services, SSHRC, CIHR and other federal and provincial funding bodies is a priority.