Senior leadership team

Alex Clark

Alex Clark is an internationally known administrator, researcher, and advocate for well-being and effectiveness in academic work and workplaces. A complexity theorist and researcher of psychosocial aspects of heart disease, he has worked in post-secondary education for 20 years in Alberta. He has held faculty and executive roles at the University of Alberta for more than a decade, and, most recently, was dean of Health Disciplines at Athabasca University. He is past chair of the International Institute of Qualitative Methodology (2011-18), and co-authored How to be a Happy Academic (SAGE, 2018). He was designated a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader / Young Scientist for his contributions to mentorship and leadership in academia.

Matthew Prineas

Dr. Matthew Prineas joined Athabasca University in early September 2017 and is in his first term as provost and vice-president academic.

Before assuming his current role as provost at Athabasca University, Prineas served in a variety of influential leadership roles at the University of Maryland University College. As provost and vice president, academic, he has a broad and deep mandate to lead, champion, and advance AU’s academic mission.

As the university’s chief academic officer, he is responsible for creating and elevating academic excellence and quality, including academic programs, research, academic policy, accreditation, and learner services. The office combines and balances academic leadership with leadership on institutional planning, budgeting, and resource allocation.

Prineas works closely with the AU president to deliver academic and administrative excellence across the entire institution, in large part by leading and supporting the implementation of AU’s strategic plan, Imagine: Transforming Lives, Transforming Communities .

Prineas holds a PhD in English from the University of Rochester and has an extensive academic record.

Priscilla Campeau

Priscilla Campeau is Cree – Saulteaux. She is a member of Muskowekwan First Nation in Saskatchewan and has been a visitor on Treaties 6 and 8 territories for the past 25 years. She has been with AU, working in such disciplines as criminal justice, governance, law and management, and Indigenous Studies. She is currently the lead of Nukskahtowin (Meeting Place), a centre that integrates Indigenous knowledge within the university structures in the areas of program and course development. Priscilla is also the chair of Indigenous studies and teaches an undergraduate course entitled “Indigenous Women in Canada” and a graduate course entitled “Indigenous Knowledge and Education.” Her research interests include Indigenous women, Indigenous knowledge, and the intersections of Indigeneity within the various disciplines, and the inclusion of Elders within those spaces.

Shawn Fraser

Dr. Shawn Fraser is the dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and is a full professor of Health Studies. He previously served as associate dean, teaching and learning in the Faculty of Health Disciplines and as the Master of Health Studied/Master of Nursing graduate program director. He studies health behaviour change and mental stress responses in cardiac rehabilitation patients and also belongs to the learning analytics research group at Athabasca University. He has been involved in graduate programming, teaching, and administration since joining Athabasca University in 2006.

Megan Hall

Megan Hall joined AU in 2012 as a member of Athabasca University’s innovative open-access scholarly publishing house, AU Press. In 2019, Megan became the director of AU Press. Since then, she has worked on numerous boards and committees in the university press and publishing community, including recently as the president of the Association of Canadian University Presses. Megan often presents on AU Press’s innovative publishing model and speaks to the value and sustainability of open-access publishing programs, and has worked with government agencies to explore funding pathways for open access.

David Head

David Head joined the AU team in 2013 as the director, strategic initiatives and performance services, overseeing the university’s enterprise risk management, emergency management, facilities, procurement and contract services, and strategic initiatives. He previously served as interim vice-president finance and performance services and chief financial officer on multiple occasions over this period.

Before coming to AU, he was the director, enterprise risk management at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

David has been actively engaged in key strategic and operational transformation initiatives across AU and brings over 20 years of senior and executive level post-secondary experience in budgeting, auditing, strategic and operational planning, as well as enterprise risk management, internal audit, policy development, and project management.

He earned a Master of Business Administration, a Bachelor of Commerce, certified risk management designation and a diploma of Public Administration, all from Memorial University.

Manijeh Mannani

Dr. Manijeh Mannani (she/her) is a full professor of English and comparative literature. Since joining Athabasca University in 2007, she has led and co-led several major faculty and university-wide initiatives and served in various academic administrative roles. A staunch advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion, she believes in respect, collegiality, and transparency informing all levels of decision-making. She is keen to enhance what has been working well in the faculty and to introduce and implement new ideas, in line with the mission of the university. She has a distinguished record of scholarly publishing in the areas of classical Persian literature, poetry, and life narratives and has supervised dissertations in a wide range of disciplines within the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Alain May

Dr. Alain May joined AU in 2006. Her research interests are enterprise systems, system implementation, and gender and information technology; she has also done work around user competency and IT outsourcing. She is currently researching the implementation of an electronic health record system in Kibera, Africa’s second largest slum, located in the heart of Nairobi. Alain obtained both her BsC (Computing Science) specializing in software design and her MBA from the University of Alberta. She obtained her PhD in Business (Management Information Systems) from the University of Calgary in 2007. She has taught MBA and undergraduate courses at both Athabasca University and the University of Calgary in all areas of management information systems and organizational behaviour.

Gilbert Perras

Gilbert Perras joined Athabasca University in March 2019, as the chief of staff, Office of the President. Gilbert began his career at AU over 30 years ago holding various positions within the IT department and the Office of the Registrar. While working full-time he also completed his master of education at AU in 2001. In 2006, he left the role of registrar at Athabasca University to take on a new challenge as director of student services and registrar at Keyano College. After living in Fort McMurray for three years and working at the college, Gilbert moved back to Edmonton to take on a manager role within the Advanced Education department of the Government of Alberta (GOA). Gilbert spent 10 years with Advanced Education and the GOA first as a manager, then as director in the apprenticeship division, and finally as an executive director. In March of 2019 he moved ‘back home’ to Athabasca (and Athabasca University) undertaking the role of chief of staff.

Andrew Perrin

Our culture, society, and communities need discoveries that matter, ideas designed for impact, creations that inspire, and innovations that go beyond the imaginable. As associate vice-president, research, Dr. Andrew Perrin is committed to cultivating a thriving research community at AU, leading research strategy and opportunity development, and overseeing the Research Office team. Andrew is an internationally recognized scholar of cultural studies, a past Canada Research Chair, and fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He lives and works on Treaty 7 territory.

Melissa Sadownik

Melissa Sadownik is the director of policy, privacy, and records management, acting for the chief governance officer and general counsel. Melissa joined Athabasca University in 2018, providing strategic leadership and guidance for AU’s access and privacy, policy, and records and information management programs. Before joining AU, Melissa was a teacher in secondary education in Alberta, and then went on to practice law. She also worked for the provincial government, developing expertise in public and private sector access and privacy law, providing training and awareness to internal and external stakeholders, and developing policy for Alberta’s public bodies and private sector organizations to support compliance with Alberta’s privacy legislation. In her acting role, she provides leadership to the Office of the Chief Governance Officer and General Counsel supporting the bicameral governance bodies at AU and Ombuds program.

Sara Kunto

Sara Kunto joined AU in August 2021 in the inaugural role of Chief Governance Officer and General Counsel, leading a team of seasoned professionals in the Office of the Chief Governance Officer and General Counsel, responsible for providing legal, compliance, privacy, records management, and governance expertise to the university.

A bilingual lawyer and senior executive with over 12 years of experience in the Ontario post-secondary sector, Kunto has a B.A. (Hons) from Laurentian University of Sudbury and an LL.B. from the University of Ottawa’s French Common Law Program. She was called to the Bar of Ontario in 2006 as well as to the Bar of Alberta in 2021, and is a member in good standing of both the Law Society of Ontario and the Law Society of Alberta.

Jennifer Griffin Schaeffer

Jennifer Griffin Schaeffer joined AU in November 2017 and leads the talented folks in the cloud business, digital strategy and digital security offices of AU’s IT division. During her leadership, the AU IT team has led AU’s digital transformation to become the first university in Canada to move its entire operations into its secure cloud, launched AU’s integrated learning environment, and launched IDEA Lab, a complete turn-key solution for cloud research computing by AU researchers and students. Internationally recognized for digital product and service innovation, Jennifer is a founder of Onlea Enterprises, Inc. and has led academic and business digital transformation teams in Canada and the United States for over twenty years.

Pauline Smeltz

Pauline Smeltz joined Athabasca University in 2019 as the deputy chief human resources officer and assumed the position of interim chief human resources officer in Dec. 2022.

She has been actively engaged in key strategic initiatives and operational transformation efforts to accelerate growth and strengthen our values-based culture, both internally within HR and across the organization.

She brings over 20 years of experience leading HR efforts in public, private, and not-for-profit sectors where she specialized in organizational and workforce transformation, organizational culture, labour relations, and change management to improve performance and growth.

Smeltz holds a bachelor of arts and a master of arts from the University of Bombay, and a master of business administration in human resources from Royal Roads University.

Bailey Sousa

Bailey Sousa, MA(HEAL) PMP, is passionate about higher education as an administrator, change agent, and advocate for excellence and inclusion in academic work and workplaces. Previously director of operations at the Peter Lougheed Leadership College, University of Alberta, she was most recently on a secondment to the Government of Alberta’s Ministry of Advanced Education to set up the new Minister’s Advisory Council on Higher Education and Skills and the Premier’s Council on Skills and their Secretariats. Bailey has focused her leadership on managing complex projects and teams, and leading change and operations in a variety of entrepreneurial ventures, and roles in corporate, social enterprise, and academic settings. Co-founder of The Effective, Successful, Happy Academic, and co-author of "How to Be a Happy Academic" (Sage: London, 2018), Bailey’s research and contributions relate to aspects of academic work including: workplace and academic effectiveness, incorporating values, successful failure, growth mindset, leadership, strategic planning, qualitative methods, and team¬work in complex settings. She writes, speaks, and has facilitated workshops all over the world in these areas. Bailey has been recognized with the ‘Excellence in Leadership’ Award from the University of Alberta and as one of Edmonton’s Avenue Magazine’s ‘Top 40 Under 40’ for her contributions in her work and to her city.

Lisa Watson

Dr. Lisa Watson (she/her) is dean and associate professor of marketing. She taught her first university course at the age of 25 at Carleton University before spending 5 years in Australia pursuing her doctorate. Upon her return to Canada, she spent 16 years working on Treaty 4 land at the University of Regina as a faculty member and then associate dean before joining AU in 2022. She is a consumer psychologist who studies decision-making and behaviour change in order to identify ways to help people make healthier and more sustainable choices.

Kristine Williamson

Kristine Williamson joined Athabasca University in October 2018 as the vice-president, University Relations. A recognized leader in fundraising, communications, marketing, and alumni relations for more than 20 years, Kristine has an extensive background in building effective and productive relationships in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.

Kristine came to AU from the Alberta College of Art and Design (now Alberta University of the Arts), where she served as the vice-president, engagement, leading the rebranding and renaming project for the university. She previously was the associate vice-president, development, at the University of Calgary.

Kristine has an MBA from Royal Roads University and a bachelor of science from the University of Saskatchewan.

Shauna Zenteno

Dr. Shauna Zenteno is the dean, Faculty of Science and Technology, and an associate professor, Biology at Athabasca University. She is the former program director for the BSc Human Science program and the former chair, Centre for Science. In her 18 years at AU, she has also held the roles of vice-dean, operations in the Faculty of Graduate Studies. She participates in a number of external partnerships and is the Athabasca University representative on the NSERC leader’s network. Shauna is a member of the Athabasca River Basin Research Institute. Her research is focused on the metagenomics of microbial communities in northern Alberta water as a determinant of aquatic system health, in collaboration with Bigstone Cree Nation and researchers at AU and the University of Calgary.