Learning Opportunities

Dr. Holli-Anne Passmore is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Psychology at Concordia University of Edmonton (CUE) in Alberta, Canada. She is also Director of the multi-university Nature Meaning in Life (NMIL) Research Lab, an Editor of the International Journal of Wellbeing, and Science Chair of the Spirituality and Meaning Division of the International Positive Psychology Association. She collaborates with researchers around the globe primarily focusing on the development and validation of practical interventions to enhance well-being through noticing and engaging with everyday nature close to home. Holli-Anne’s academic research articles and book chapters have been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and publications. and featured in various media including The Guardian and CBC’s The Current. She regularly presents her research findings and speaks at national and international conferences, as well delivering keynote talks and workshops at local community- based organizations' events.

Dr. Kevin Jones is an interdisciplinary social scientist researching adaptations to the social and environmental challenges which increasingly define today’s world. His research explores pathways to transformative change focusing on processes of institutional and governance innovation. A central element of this work involves the role of public expertise and citizenship engagement as prompts for reflexivity and for opening-up risk issues to more robust governance approaches.

Dr. Jones is the ALES co-chair of the University's Environmental Studies program: https://www.ualberta.ca/agriculture-life-environment-sciences/programs/undergraduate-programs/degree-programs/environmental-studies/index.html

Dr. Marleny Saldana is a Professor in the Agriculture, Food & Nutrition Science department. Her research focuses on emerging processing technologies and the use of near-critical and supercritical water and carbon dioxide to treat biomass and agricultural materials for use in nutraceutical, food and industrial applications. Her research team has worked on protein, and starch processing. Main areas include: Sub/supercritical fluid processing (supercritical CO2, subcritical and supercritical water, pressurized fluids for extraction, fractionation, reaction and particle formation); Ultrasound processing (extraction, homogenization, emulsion, reaction, etc); High Pressure Processing and High Pressure Processing assisted by Temperature to treat crops and food products.

Dr. Patricia Dolez’s research is focused on protective clothing/ personal protective equipment (PPE) and industrial applications, as well as knowledge transfer to the next generation and the industry. Her research is rooted in an interdisciplinary approach that involves collaborations across multiple disciplines and partnerships with the industry and end-users. What motivates Dr. Dolez is sharing her passion for innovation and team work.

Dwayne Donald was born and raised in Edmonton and is a descendent of the Papaschase Cree. His Blackfoot named is Aipioomahkaa (Long Distance Runner). Dwayne is the son of Allen and Darlene, husband to Georgina, father to Kesho, and uncle to Taryn, Taylor, Kennedy, Kristofer, Sarah, Marshall, Breanne and Lauren.

Dwayne has earned the following academic degrees: Bachelor of Arts (Alberta), Bachelor of Education (Calgary), Master of Education (Lethbridge), and PhD (Alberta). His Master’s thesis work at the University of Lethbridge was done under the supervision of Dr. Cynthia Chambers. The manuscript, titled Elder, Student, Teacher: A Kainai Curriculum Métissage, can be accessed via the following link: http://www.uleth.ca/dspace/bitstream/10133/147/3/MQ83749.pdf

Dwayne’s doctoral dissertation work at the University of Alberta was done under the supervision of Dr. David Geoffrey Smith. The manuscript, titled The Pedagogy of the Fort: Curriculum, Aboriginal-Canadian Relations, and Indigenous Métissage, focuses on the fort as a mythic symbol deeply embedded within the story of Canadian nation and nationality that teaches and naturalizes a divisive and dispiriting civilizational divide separating Aboriginal peoples and Canadians. Dwayne’s central argument in the dissertation is that that universities, schools, classrooms, curriculum scholars, educators, and curriculum documents typically replicate these fort teachings when considering the possible significance of Indigenous peoples and knowledge systems to contemporary educational contexts.

Dwayne’s career as an educator began in the Mathare Valley slums of Nairobi, Kenya. He had the privilege to work alongside Kenyans with the Mathare Youth Sports Association while living in Nairobi. After returning to Canada in 1993, Dwayne began teaching social studies and English at Kainai High School on the Kainai (Blood) Reserve in southern Alberta. This experience changed his life. The opportunity to learn from Kainai Elders and community leaders has had a tremendous influence on Dwayne’s interests and commitments as a curriculum thinker. In 2003, Dwayne and family moved back home to Edmonton to begin doctoral studies at the University of Alberta. He accepted an academic position in the Faculty of Education in 2007.

Rebecca Purc-Stephenson, PhD, is an Applied Social Psychologist and professor at the University of Alberta's Augustana Campus. She studies stressors and resilience in rural and farming communities, turning research into practical programs to support the mental health and well-being of those working in the agricultural industry. She is the provincial lead researcher of the Agricultural Wellbeing in Alberta (AgWellAB) program, and was a co-founder of AgKnow, the Alberta Farm Mental Health Network.

Dr. Jenna Butler is an acclaimed poet and essayist (Seldom Seen Road, A Profession of Hope: Farming on the Edge of the Grizzly Trail; Revery: A Year of Bees), and a scholar whose research into endangered environments has taken her from America’s Deep South to Irelands’ Ring of Kerry, and from Tenerife to the Arctic Circle, exploring ways in which we impact the landscape we call home. Dr. Butler is the 2025 Writer in Residence at MacEwan University.