Western Provost & Vice-President (Academic) Janice Deakin, one of the longest-serving provosts among Canada’s U15 universities, will step down from her role July 31, 2018, Western President Amit Chakma announced today.
Western’s Board of Governors will begin its search for the institution’s next provost immediately with an eye toward filling the post by Aug. 1, 2018.
Since coming to Western in 2010, Deakin has earned a reputation among campus community members and peers at other leading Canadian research-intensive universities “as an insightful, energetic, ambitious and decisive academic leader who is passionately dedicated to helping Western achieve its strategic goals,” Chakma said.
Over the course of her two terms, Deakin led the development of Western’s strategic plan – Achieving Excellence on the World Stage – and helped build an exceptionally strong senior academic leadership team with the recruitment or renewal of 12 deans, as well as the addition of a new Vice-Provost & Chief Librarian. She also led the creation of two new portfolios – Western International and Student Experience – both of which have contributed to the success of the university’s international strategy while strengthening its brand for delivering Canada’s best student experience.
She served one year as Acting Vice-President (Research) and played an instrumental role in developing several important campuswide initiatives, including Western’s Clusters of Research Excellence Program, the Western Research Chair program, and the Scholars in Residence Program. More recently, she led the development of Western’s first Strategic Mandate Agreement with the Ontario government (with the process to renew the mandate currently underway); led a comprehensive review of the university budget model; and has been a strong champion for supporting the development and implementation of recommendations outlined in Western’s newly adopted Indigenous Strategic Plan.
In 2014, the Board of Governors unanimously re-appointed Deakin to a second five-year term, ending July 30, 2020.
Deakin plans to return home to Kingston, Ont., where she is looking forward to taking some time to reflect and spend more time with her partner, family and friends.
“I will make a decision about the future within that context,” Deakin noted. “We’re blessed with a strong academic leadership team at Western, and I will be focused on helping my colleagues across campus achieve their goals.”