August 15, 2023 – Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ont.

Dr. Glenda Tibe Bonifacio will join Lakehead University as the new Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities on November 1, 2023.

"I’m very pleased to welcome to the Lakehead University community Dr. Bonifacio, an internationally recognized scholar with a history of community-engaged research that makes a real impact," said Lakehead's Provost and Vice-President (Academic), Dr. David Barnett. "She is an experienced leader with a proven commitment to her team and a focus on student success."

Dr. Bonifacio is currently Professor in the Department of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Lethbridge and a research affiliate of the Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy. She completed her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts at the University of the Philippines and earned her PhD from the University of Wollongong in Australia.

“Lakehead University is one of the top universities in the world with a progressive outlook,” explained Dr. Bonifacio. “Lakehead has made incredible gains in Indigenizing the academy, internationalization and integration of diverse students from around the world, and equity and social justice. I’m truly inspired by the intentional collaborations across departments and faculties to make a difference in the lives of the students we serve and the communities on campus and beyond.”

In addition to holding several administrative and governance roles at the University of Lethbridge, Dr. Bonifacio is a community-engaged scholar working in local and global contexts. Her research centres on the intersections of gender, migration, and disaster in island countries in Asia and the Pacific region. She is a Visiting Scholar with the University of the Ryukyus, an Honorary Research Fellow of the Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability (NERPS) hosted by Hiroshima University, and the recipient of the 2022 international research fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). She is also a member of the International Advisory Board of the Small Island Cultures Research Initiative (SICRI).

“As an immigrant in Canada, the emblematic idea of the 'North' with a global role in contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, local engagements, and critical scholarship and praxis are a few reasons I was attracted to the role of Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities,” she explained. “My work and community practice embrace and share the same aspirational values to deliver emphatic leadership across the disciplines.”

During her time at the University of Lethbridge, Dr. Bonifacio has been involved in the work of institutional transformation around issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion on campus. She is an elected member of the faculty association’s Gender, Equity and Diversity Committee and in 2016 she co-founded the Support Network for Academics of Colour Plus (SNAC+) composed of diverse students, staff, faculty, and community members to promote equity, racial justice, and inclusion on campus and beyond. She also served as a racialized member of the Equity Committee of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT).

“I look forward to working with my esteemed colleagues, staff, and students in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities on the Orillia and Thunder Bay campuses,” she said. “They are amazingly delivering programs and services I look forward to participating in with collegiality and accountability.”

Orillia was the first place she visited in Canada as a member of the Task Force for Youth Concerns of the Asia Alliance of YMCAs for the International Youth Year over 30 years ago.

Dr. Bonifacio succeeds Dr. Betsy Birmingham who has served as dean since July 2018.

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Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Jaclyn Bucik, Media, Communications and Marketing Associate, at 705-330-4010 ext. 2014 or mediarelations@lakeheadu.ca.

Lakehead University is a fully comprehensive university with approximately 9,700 full-time equivalent students and over 2,000 faculty and staff at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead has nine faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, Science & Environmental Studies, and Social Sciences & Humanities. Lakehead University’s achievements have been recognized nationally and internationally, including being ranked in the top half of Times Higher Education's 2023 World Universities Rankings for the fourth consecutive year, and the number one university in the world with fewer than 9,000 students in THE’s 2023 Impact Rankings (which assesses institutions against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals). Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.