Laurentian University names new interim president and provost

On Wednesday morning, Sudbury’s Laurentian University announced a new interim president and provost, while a national search is undertaken for permanent leaders.

Sheila Embleton is the new interim president. Currently, she is a professor at York University and says she has extensive experience in senior academic administration.

She told CTV News that she is looking forward to her new position at Laurentian and sitting down and listening to see what the staff, faculty and students are feeling.

“Learning more about Laurentian and the community is very, very important, especially at the beginning,” said Embleton.

“There will be a lot of listening, as well as meeting people, learning about everything from them and how they feel about things and where they see the path forward … The goal is to right the ship and get it back on course.”

Her priorities include keeping the university running and improving its reputation as LU emerges from its recent financial difficulties.

“There’s various milestones to meet in the exit plan, and they cannot be missed and so making sure that the target for those are met is extraordinarily important,” said Embleton.

“So I really have to learn what those are and get the right team in place to make sure all those milestones are met.”

Brenda Brouwer will also be joining LU as interim provost. She said as part of her new role, she will be exploring where the university is now and what can be implemented moving forward.

“Doing a bit of a deep dive into where is Laurentian in terms of their enrolment and their programs,” said Brouwer.

“They’ve got a unique opportunity with the tri-cultural and bilingual mandate, how does that get incorporated? They’re known for their interdisciplinary, are we really taking advantage of that, are there things we can implement, new initiatives to pursue?”

Both Embleton and Brouwer will begin their new roles at Laurentian on Jan. 1.