Meet your 2011-2012 Graduate Student Association Council (GSAC) here!

The GSAC Office is location in Andersen Hall in AH112.

Executive Council

Paul Walz (President)

Email: president@ulgsa.ca

Office: AH112

My name is Paul Walz and I am in my final year of my MSc., and continuing into a PhD at the UofL.

Originally, I am from a small Northern Ontario city called Sault Ste. Marie, where I received my first opportunity to be a part of a student governing body as a member of the Graduating Students Council. For my undergraduate studies (Hon. Spec. Biological Science), I attended the University of Western Ontario, where I also became involved in the governance of the student body. I became part of the Science Students Council (SSC) and later developed my skills on the University Students Council (USC) as a Commissioner of Student Services. The responsibility of the position allowed myself to represent the entire student body and the services that the USC provided (such as Student Health, EnviroWestern, PRIDE Western, Office of International Students, Centre for New Students, Campus Rec, FootPatrol/WalkSafe, Women’s Issues Network, Student Development Services, as well as the USC itself on many public occasions and debates).

As president of the GSA, I will use my skills and past experiences to help develop and expand the reaches of our graduate council and our graduates here at the UofL. I will be the liaison between students, faculty, and administration.

My duties are to:

1. Assist in the development and management of graduate student institution;
2. Assist in the development and enforcement of a system of a graduate student law;
3. Promote the general welfare of graduate students and the furtherance of graduate education at the University of Lethbridge; and
4. Ensure the protection of the joint and several rights of Graduate Student’s Association members.

On my spare time, I can be found hiking the beautiful landscapes of Alberta, fishing, camping or just tossing a ball around campus with some friends. Please contact me any time to ask questions, leave comments or to arrange a meeting.

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Sam Dawson (Vice President Internal)

Email: vp.internal@ulgsa.ca

Welcome to the University of Lethbridge Graduate Students’ Association! My name is Samantha

Dawson and I am currently completing the second year of my MSc in Psychology. I work with Dr. Martin Lalumière studying sex differences in human sexual arousal patterns.

As your VP Internal for the 2011-2012 year, I am responsible for creating a positive and supportive atmosphere where graduate students from all disciplines have the opportunity to socialize and escape the stressors that arise from our curricular responsibilities. I am here to represent you and advocate your needs as a graduate student at the university administrative level and to organize our internal programs and events.

I look forward to meeting and getting to know you at one or all of our events this year. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have an issue in need of advocacy, if you have ideas for social events, or if you just want to say hello. I am here to serve and support you during your time as a graduate student in any way that I can.

Dan Rutledge (Vice President External)

Email: vp.external@ulgsa.ca

Alex Lemnaru (Vice President Finance)

Gillian Ayers (Master of Arts/Fine Arts Representative)

Email: ma.rep@ulgsa.ca

My name is Gillian Ayers and I am a M.A. student in Sociology, studying with Dr. Claudia Malacrida. Currently, I am completing a qualitative study on women who are childless by choice. Through analysis of their narratives I hope to explore issues of gender, choice, and citizenship. In particular, I seek to understand the experiences, beliefs, motivations, and perceived costs and benefits of women who are childless by choice in a North American context.

Not only am I the M.A./M.F.A. representative on the Graduate Students’ Association Council, but I am also the current graduate student representative on the Lethbridge Public Interest  Research Group (LPIRG) Board of Directors. As such, one of my goals for this year is to enhance and facilitate communication between these two bodies in order to better serve graduate students.

When not in school I spend my time playing soccer, running, camping, and sewing. I am excited to be part of the GSA 2011-2012 and I look forward to working closely with the students, executive, and the other council members this year. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me at ma.rep@ulgsa.ca or come chat with me at a GSA event!

Miranda L. Abild (Masters of Science of Representative)

Email: msc.rep@ulgsa.ca

Website: mirandaabild.com

Hello fellow graduate students!  My name is Miranda Abild and I am in my second year of a MSc. in Psychology. I am currently work in the Vasey Lab studying psychological mechanisms that may have acted to perpetuate the genetic component of male homosexuality over evolutionary time.

I am born and raised in a small town in Southern Alberta (High River) but when I was 19, I immigrated to Denmark where I lived, worked and studied for about 5 years. While there, I obtained my International Baccalaureate, travelled to Italy and Germany, and learned Danish. I also lived in Greenland for a stint and learned a littler of their native tongue. In the summer of 2007, I moved to Vancouver to obtain a BA in Psychology at the University of British Columbia. It is here I discovered my passion and interest in human sexuality and gender and I have specialized in these areas ever since. Between my BA and MSc programs, I didn’t have time to take a year off so I moved to Mexico for a few months instead. Here I was able to exercise my passion for the water and further honed my skills as an Open Water SCUBA diver.

Masters of Health Science Representative – *vacant*

Michelle S. Wehbe (Masters of Science Management Representative)

Email: msc.mgt.rep@ulgsa.ca

Hello Everyone!

My name is Michelle Sami Wehbe and I am the Management representative. I am in the first year of the Msc. Management program and I am majoring in Marketing. I have a Lebanese background and have lived in     several countries around the Middle East, before I came back to Canada. Being exposed to various cultures, helped me value the different ways people see and interact with the world. Understanding hidden meanings in advertisements and the way that consumers process them is my passion. In my free time, I love to play the piano, cook, and do yoga. I am very excited to be a part of the GSA. The work that the team does to make sure that each graduate student is well represented and happy is inspiring. On that note, if you have any questions or need anything, please do not hesitate to e-mail me.

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Dawn Beazer (Masters of Counselling Representative)

Email: mc.rep@ulgsa.ca

Subir Chowdbury (Masters of Education Representative)

Kim Dohms (Doctor of Philosophy [PhD] Representative)

Email: phd.rep@ulgsa.ca

Website: http://people.uleth.ca/~kim.dohms

Hello fellow graduate students! I am your PhD Representative for 2011-12. I’d like to extend my sincere appreciation to those who supported my second year on council. I am currently a PhD Student in my third year of the Evolution and Behaviour program. My work in Dr. Theresa Burg’s lab focuses on the role that dispersal barriers play in genetic patterns that we see in resident (non-migratory) birds, specifically two corvid species: Gray Jay and Clark’s Nutcracker.

I was born and raised in Saskatchewan and completed my BSc Hons and MSc in Biology at the University of Regina, spending four years as project manager for two species at risk outreach programs between my undergraduate and MSc degrees. Growing up in a farming community, my interests from a young age have been in avian conservation and anthropogenic effects on wildlife, as well as sustainable agriculture and living. My move to Dr. Burg’s lab for my PhD is providing genetic tools for me to address how our impact on the landscape influences gene flow and population connectivity.  When I’m not in the field or the lab for my project, you can find me camping, hiking, snowshoeing, on a yoga mat, walking my dog, curled up with a book, or at a live music show, theatre performance, or film screening somewhere in southern Alberta. Chances are I’ll have my camera in one hand and a cup of tea in the other.

As your PhD representative, my job is to represent you on the Graduate Students Association Council, my fellow PhD students. If you have any concerns, questions or constructive advice on how to make the most of our fledgling PhD program at the U of L, please contact me. In addition to those responsibilities, my main goals this year are to work with the VP Internal to improve our Graduate Student Conference through a newly created peer-review process for abstracts as well as work together with the rest of council to make our communication efforts and council initiatives reach all of our fellow graduate students.

Aaron Mullin (First Nations Metis Inuit [FMNI] Representative)

Email: fmni.rep@ulgsa.ca

I am an intrepid explorer studying in the Department of Geography. I have been elected by the Graduate Students Association as the First Nations, Inuit, and Metis (FNMI) Representative. As a representative of the fastest growing natural population in Canada I take this honour very seriously. Please contact me if you have issues that need championing.

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Chris Awagu (International Representative)

Email: int.rep@ulgsa.ca

Shah Mostaja Khaled (Off-Campus Representative)

Email: oc.rep@ulgsa.ca

I graduated from Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and did my first masters there. I am doing my second masters in Computer Science in UoL. This has been a great experience of graduate studies at UoL throughout the last year.

Looking forward to work with GSA and help all our off campus researchers.