Council 2019-2020

Members-at-large

Joost Blom - Member at Large (2019-2022) and Co-Chair Benefits Committee (2019-)
Email: blom@allard.ubc.ca

Joost Blom joined the Allard School of Law in 1972, served as Associate Dean 1982-85, and as Dean 1997-2003. His teaching subjects were Contracts, Torts, Conflict of Laws, and Intellectual Property. He became Professor Emeritus in 2017. He continues to teach at the law school part-time. He received the Faculty of Law Teaching Excellence Award 2005. He has been a Visiting Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School 1981, Part-time Lecturer at the University of Victoria 1979-81, Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Canadian Studies Centre at the University of Trier (Germany) 1996, and Senior Fellow, Faculty of Law, University of Melbourne 2006. Professor Blom's research and writing have been concentrated in the areas of Contracts and Torts, focusing on the relationship between them; and in Conflict of Laws (Private International Law).

Joost served as President of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers 1983-84. He was elected by the lawyers in Vancouver District as a bencher of the Law Society of BC for four terms 2004-11 and became a Life Bencher as of 2012. He is currently Chair of the Mackenzie King Scholarship Board of Trustees (since 1986) and a Titular Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law. He has also been Chair of the Board of Trustees of the UBC Faculty Pension Plan 2004-20. He was awarded the designation of Queen's Counsel (for B.C.) in 1985.

George Bluman - Member at Large (2019-2020)
Email: bluman @ math.ubc.ca

George Bluman is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics since 2014. He was born in Vancouver and graduated in Math and Physics, UBC 1964. After graduate and post-doctoral training in Applied Math (Caltech), he joined the UBC department in 1968. He has co-authored over 75 research papers and four Springer books in symmetries and differential equations and a new edition of his 2010 book. He was a founder of the Institute of Applied Mathematics, Head of Math (1997-2002), and VP of the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS). He initiated the UBC Math Workshop program for BC schools and founded the UBC HS Math Circle. In 2001 he received the CMS Adrien Pouliot Award for Math Education. He has served on the UBC Senate, the UBC Medical School Admissions Committee and the Faculty Associa- tion Executive. He has chaired the Vancouver Kristallnacht Commemoration Committee and is currently on the Board of Eagles of Tomorrow, a society for improving Indigenous math education. During WWII, his parents were saved by the heroic Japanese diplomat, Chiune Sugihara. He has given many public talks on Sugihara in Vancouver and Japan. George is currently co-writing a monograph on the effects of the deeds of Sugihara and the Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk (who issued visas to Curacao, enabling Sugihara to issue transit visas through Japan). George is a passionate gardener!

Sandra Bressler - Member at Large (2019-2021)
Email: sbressler@shaw.ca

Sandra was recently awarded Clinical Associate Professor Emerita status. She is recognized for her contributions to education, coordinating numerous students in clinical placements, directly supervising  students, and supporting supervisory staff. Sandra also taught multiple courses for the Online Master of Rehabilitation Science Program and the Master of Occupational Therapy, in addition to helping develop a postgraduate program for clinicians in British Columbia.

Sandra’s many contributions to her profession include an instrumental role in supporting the development of the College of Occupational Therapists of BC, where she served as a board member from its inception from 2000 to 2004 and member of the Inquiry Committee from 2001-2016. She served as President of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists and the President of the Canadian Occupational Therapy Foundation. After serving as CAOT Delegate to the World Federation of Occupational Therapists for nine years, she joined the Executive Management Team of the WFOT as Program Coordinator, Practice Development. Recognizing her long-standing contributions to the profession, Sandra was bestowed with the prestigious Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists Fellowship Award and received the Karen Goldenberg Award for outstanding volunteer achievement from the Canadian Occupational Foundation.

Margery Fee - Co-Chair of Communications Committee and Newsletter Editor (2019-2022)
margery.fee@ubc.ca

Margery Fee, PhD (Toronto), FRSC, Professor Emerita of English, specializes in Canadian, post-colonial and Indigenous literatures and Canadian English. She held the David and Brenda McLean Chair in Canadian Studies (2015-2017) to work on early Indigenous oral and literary production. In 2008, as a Distinguished Scholar in Residence, she worked on racialization and genetics at the UBC Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies. She edited the UBC journal Canadian Literature from 2007 to 2015.

With Jan McAlpine, she co-authored The Guide to Canadian English Usage (Oxford, 2nd ed., 2011), and, with chief editor Stefan Dollinger, edited DCHP-2: The Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles (2nd ed., online, 2017). Recent publications are Literary Land Claims: The “Indian Land Question” from Pontiac’s War to Attawapiskat (Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2015), Tekahionwake: E. Pauline Johnson’s Writings on Native North America (Broadview, 2016) co-edited with Dory Nason; Polar Bear (Reaktion, 2019) and an edited collection of Jean Barman’s essays, On the Cusp of Contact: Gender, Space, and Race in the Colonization of British Columbia (Harbour, 2020). With Daniel Heath Justice, she is co-investigator on the SSHRC-funded project, The People and the Text, led by Deanna Reder (thepeopleandthetext.ca). 

Anne Junker - Co-Chair Membership Committee (2019-2020)
ajunker@mail.ubc.ca

Anne Junker, Associate Professor Emerita of Paediatrics, is an Associate Professor and Associate Director, Faculty Affairs, UBC Department of Pediatrics. She is based at BC Children’s Hospital as a clinical immunologist specializing in genetic immunodeficiency disorders. She is Scientific Director of the Canadian national Maternal Infant Child & Youth Research Network (MICYRN), which connects 20 health research organizations based at teaching hospitals across the country.

Linda Leonard - Co-Chair Transitions to Retirement Committee (2019-2021)
linda.leonard @ ubc.ca

Linda Leonard is Associate Professor Emerita of Nursing. Prior to taking early retirement from the School of Nursing in 2003, my academic work centered on parent-infant and community/public health nursing. After retiring, she continued to practice nursing within the UBC Multiple-Births Support Program, a one-of-a-kind program which she developed in  the 1980’s. The program addressed the unique and unmet needs of expectant and new families with twins, triplets and more.This work involved intensive contacts with families in hospital and community settings, online consultations and engagement in scholarly and policy initiatives with Canadian and international organizations. She continues to publish an online resource guide www.nursing.ubc.ca/pdfs/twinstripletsandmore.pdf.

Michael MacEntee - Chair Finance Committee (2019-2022)
macentee@dentistry@ubc.ca

Professor Emeritus MacEntee is past-president of the Royal College of Dentists of Canada, the Geriatric Oral Research Group of the International Association of Dental Research, the International College of Prosthodontists, the Association of Prosthodontists of Canada, and the Vancouver Institute. He received in 2009 the Distinguished Scientist Award for his research in dental geriatrics, and in 2015 became an elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. From 2012-2018 he was editor-in-chief of Gerodontology (the international journal of dental geriatrics).  

John McNeill - Member at Large (2019-2020)
jmcneill @ mail.ubc.ca 

John McNeill is a Professor and Dean Emeritus in Pharmaceutical Sciences. He received his BSc and MSc at the University of Alberta and his PhD from the University of Michigan. He taught pharmacology for four years at Michigan State University before coming to the University of British Columbia as an Associate Professor in 1971. He became a Full Professor in 1975 and served as the Dean of the Faculty from 1985-1996. He retired in 2004 but has continued to teach and run his lab to the present time. His research work has dealt with the study of the prevention and treatment of the cardiovascular and metabolic changes produced by diabetes. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences. His work has been recognized around the world and he is one of the leading scientists in this area. He served on the Senate for more than 12 years. As Dean he increased enrol- ment, modified the curriculum and introduced the first post-baccalaureate Doctor of Pharmacy program in Canada. His greatest accomplishment, in his opinion, has been the training and development of his graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. He enjoyed teaching un- dergraduate students very much and received a Killam Teaching Award. He served on several national committees and granting agencies and was the president of several societies. He continues to work with the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation. He enjoys travel and reading history. He is pleased to be involved with the UBC Emeritus College during this period of time when it has grown and expanded its activities so greatly.

Herbert Rosengarten - Co-Chair Communications Committee (2019-2021)
herbert.rosengarten @ ubc.ca

Herbert Rosengarten is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Arts and former Head of the English Department at UBC. Educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, and Pembroke College, Cambridge, he joined the UBC English Department in 1965, and taught there until 1997, when he joined Dr. Martha Piper as executive director of the President’s Office. He held this position again 2015-17, first under Dr. Piper and then under Dr. Santa Ono. Since 2010 he has coordinated external Faculty reviews for the Provost.
Rosengarten’s record of service includes five years on the executive of the Faculty Association, including periods as Secretary and President (1987). He was a member of the UBC Vancouver Senate and chaired several Senate committees, including the Library Committee. From 1977 to 1984 he occupied the position of Associate Editor of the journal Canadian Literature. He sits on the President’s Advisory Committee on Campus Enhancement, and is the Past President of the Vancouver Institute. He also chairs the Legacy Project, which is striving to create an informal history of UBC through videotaped interviews, a print collection, and other memorabilia. In 2016 he received the Honorary Alumnus Award from the UBC Alumni Association.
His research interests lie in the literature of the Victorian period in Britain, and focus on the writings of the Brontë family.