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Alan Shepard (born c. 1962)[1] is an American-Canadian academic and the current and 11th president and vice-chancellor of Western University in London, Ontario, effective July 2019. He previously served as the president and vice-chancellor of Concordia University in Montreal.
Alan Shepard | |
|---|---|
| 11th President of the University of Western Ontario | |
| Assumed office 1 July 2019 | |
| Chancellor | Kelly Meighen |
| Preceded by | Amit Chakma |
| 4th President of the Concordia University | |
| In office 1 August 2012 – 30 June 2019 | |
| Chancellor | L. Jacques Ménard Jonathan Wener |
| Preceded by | Judith Woodsworth Frederick Lowy (interim) |
| Succeeded by | Graham Carr |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c.1962 (age 61–62) Iowa, U.S. |
| Citizenship | Canadian, American |
| Education | St. Olaf College (BA) University of Virginia (PhD) |
| Occupation | University academic and administrator |
| Academic background | |
| Thesis | Marlowe's anatomy of desire (1990) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | English literature |
| Sub-discipline | Early Modern English literature |
| Institutions | |
Shepard was born in Iowa, and is a dual citizen of both Canada and the United States.[2] He has a background in Early Modern English literature. He received a B.A. in English literature from St. Olaf College in 1983[3] and received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia in 1990.[2][4]
Shepard served as the chair of the English department at Texas Christian University from 1998 to 2002.[2] He moved to Canada in 2002, where he began working as a visiting research fellow at the University of Toronto.[2]
Shepard was hired as an associate vice-president academic at University of Guelph in 2005.[2] In 2007, Shepard became the provost and vice-president academic at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University), where he worked until 2012.[2] At Ryerson, Shepard led the development of a business incubator called the Digital Media Zone.[5]
In August 2012, Shepard became the president and vice-chancellor of Concordia University in Montreal.[6][7] His two predecessors, Judith Woodsworth and Claude Lajeunesse, were both removed midway through their terms due to scandals.[8][9]
In November 2018, Shepard announced he would be leaving Concordia on 30 June 2019 to become the president and vice-chancellor of Western University in London, Ontario.[7][8] In July 2019, Shepard replaced Amit Chakma to become the 11th president of Western.[5][10] In December 2022 he was reappointed to a second term as President.[11]
Shepard has served on the board of directors at Universities Canada, Stratford Festival, and the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal.[12] He is currently chair of the Canadian Research Knowledge Network.[4]
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