I am pleased to announce that, following a national search, Eileen DeCourcy has been appointed to the position of Associate Vice President for Teaching and Learning.

Eileen’s career has included a variety of senior positions, primarily focused on training and development. Earlier in her career, as Director of the Simcoe County District School Board’s Centre for Training and Development, she was responsible for high school credit programming, adult and continuing education programs, military education contracts, as well as pre-apprenticeship programming. Later, Eileen managed client services for the Schulich School of Business Executive Education Centre, providing customized training solutions for a client base that included Purolator, AMEX and AECL. Following that, she was responsible for leadership development at Cara Operations, a premier Canada-wide food services organization with 40,000 employees.

Over the course of her career, Eileen has had many concrete successes, including: written proposals for and been awarded more than $5M in training contracts; developed and implemented highly successful “change programs” for at-risk students; created and executed innovative evidence-based learning paradigms; taught for six years as an adjunct professor in Brock University’s Bachelor of Education program; lectured on Curriculum Design for Executive Education at the Academy of National Economy, Moscow; presented on faculty engagement to League for Innovation members in San Diego; and completed certification in Leadership Development, NQI Framework of Excellence, Gallup’s StrengthFinder, and Situational Leadership. Eileen’s academic preparation includes undergraduate degrees from Guelph University as well as Brock University, and graduate completion at Central Michigan University.

Since joining Humber in 2009, Eileen has served as Director of Professional Development, with broad responsibilities for the support and development of full- and part-time faculty. During the past three years, she has developed strong and effective relationships across Humber’s Schools, significantly expanded the programs associated with the Centre for Teaching and Learning, and greatly increased faculty engagement in the expanded roster of professional development activities.

Key responsibilities of the Associate Vice President, Teaching and Learning, include: faculty professional development initiatives; e-learning and the Open Learning Centre, including on-line learning development and delivery; institutional participation in teaching and learning conferences; college-level articulation arrangements along with transfer programs; student feedback initiatives; a visiting professor program; the development of Humber Press; and corporate oversight for Continuing Education. In addition, Eileen will work directly with the Dean of Research on applied research as this relates to teaching and teacher development; act as the key academic representative on student engagement and success activities, particularly where these involve national and international studies; and take the academic lead on major institutional partnerships working, where appropriate, with the Dean International. In this role Eileen will be responsible for ensuring Humber is recognized as a preeminent teaching and learning Institute.

Please join me in welcoming Eileen to her new role.


Michael Hatton
Vice President, Academic