StFX Academic Vice-President & Provost Dr. Kevin Wamsley is pleased to announce that Dr. Lace Marie Brogden has been appointed the Dean of Education at St. Francis Xavier University, effective July 1, 2021.
Dr. Brogden is an experienced, fully bilingual, academic leader having served as the inaugural Dean, Faculty of Education at Laurentian University when the combined French/English program was created in 2016. As Dean, Dr. Brogden has developed skills and insights related to strategic planning, university advancement, and managing organizational change. Dr. Brogden’s role as Dean has helped her to develop core competencies in building bridges between and among diverse stakeholders, including with international partners. It has also helped her understand the importance of patience and humility in advocating for what she believes to be right to time, place, and context.
Dr. Brogden’s research and scholarship interests include language teacher education, negotiating subjectivities, social justice in education, and autoethnography. She has contributed to journals such as Qualitative Inquiry and La revue Canadienne des Langues vivantes/Canadian Modern Language Review. She is currently writing a book on the challenge of and importance for French-language teachers to learn about Treaty Education. Dr. Brodgen has also taught in public schools, served at the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education, and has occupied roles as a faculty member and now academic leader in the post-secondary context.
Dr. Brogden has an impressive track record of success as a university administrator. In addition to her position as Dean, Faculty of Education, Dr. Brogden has also been the Acting Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies since November 2020. The academic units she has led have seen enrolment growth, faculty renewal, and program improvement. Dr. Brogden is proud to have mentored faculty members engaged in meaningful work in their teaching, research, and service, while championing them with both internal and external stakeholders.
Dr. Brogden is a Member-at-Large elected in 2016 and 2018 to the Ontario Association of Deans of Education Executive, was elected to the Executive Committee of the Association of Canadian Deans of Education in 2018 and is the current president-elect. She also serves as International 1st Vice-President, DKG International for the 2020-22 term. Dr. Brogden also engages in international service work promoting the personal and professional development of women educators.
As part of her work in two demographically and geographically disparate universities over the past 10 years, Dr. Brogden has engaged with issues related to Indigenizing and attending to the rights, needs, and perspectives of Indigenous students and communities within the context of Treaty, ceded and unceded territories, and Truth and Reconciliation. She believes the academy should strive to lead – in both philosophy and practice – by addressing complex issues associated with establishing and maintaining healthy communities. COVID-19 has amplified the need to address inequities on campuses and communities and to work toward a post-colonial Canada.
