Welcome

Media relations at Acadia University falls within our Communications & Marketing department.

We serve as the media’s direct point of contact for accessing accurate and compelling content about our university. Our responsibilities include:

  • Crafting, publishing, and sending announcements, updates, and stories of interest about the university
  • Providing official information and quotes to the media on behalf of the university
  • Arranging for interviews between the media and Acadia’s community members, specifically our faculty experts, researchers, and administrators
  • Arranging for special filming on campus. Please be aware that the university is private property.

Note: Requests regarding Acadia Athletics can be sent directly to Chris Cameron.

Our office is staffed weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

For the fastest and most efficient response, members of the media are asked to reach out via email: media.relations@acadiau.ca

Get in Touch with an Acadia Expert

Acadia University is home to experts in a variety of fields who can speak on a number of topics or comment on current affairs. Faculty members regularly share their expertise through interviews on television, radio, and online outlets. To see what’s making headlines, visit In the News.

The following Acadia experts can be approached directly by media, with our media relations cc’d in the request:

Dr. Alex Marland

Dr. Alex Marland

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  • Professor, Politics
  • Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership

Alex Marland researches the intricate dynamics of Canadian politics, focusing on the powerful forces at play behind the scenes. A regular media commentator, he has authored or edited over a dozen books. As Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership, he is developing programming at Acadia to prepare the next generation of political leaders.

Areas of expertise:

  • Political communication, elections and campaigning in Canada
  • Prime ministers, premiers, ministers, cabinets and political staff
  • Canadian legislatures, caucuses and parliamentarians
  • Political parties in Canada

Dr. Erin Crandall

Dr. Erin Crandall

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  • Professor, Politics
  • Law and Society Coordinator

Dr. Crandall received the Acadia Alumni Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2025. Her classes often include student-led learning activities, like model parliaments and first ministers simulations.

Areas of expertise:

  • Canadian politics and law
  • Constitutional law and politics
  • Judicial appointments
  • Election law, intergovernmental relations, and cabinet government

Dr. Chelsea Gardner

Dr. Chelsea Gardner

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  • Associate Professor, History & Classics
  • Coordinator: Classical Studies Program & Material/Visual Culture Minor
  • Evans Teaching and Learning Scholar

Dr. Gardner is Associate Professor in the Department of History and Classics at Acadia University; Research Associate, at Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago, IL); and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Classics, Memorial University. She is also Director of the Southern Mani Archaeological Project (SMAP) and the CART-ography Project.

Areas of expertise:

  • Mediterranean Archaeology
  • Greek and Roman art, architecture, and history
  • Archaeological Ethics and Pseudo-Archaeology
  • Religious Space in Antiquity
  • Public-facing scholarship, digital humanities pedagogy, academic podcasting

Dr. Nelson O’Driscoll

Nelson O'Driscoll

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  • Professor, Earth and Environmental Science & Coordinator of ENVS Programs

Dr. O’Driscoll is Director of the Mercury Lab, author of several Google Scholar journal articles, co-editor of “Wetland Restoration for Endangered Species Recovery: A Multidisciplinary Case Study of Big Meadow Bog, Brier Island, Nova Scotia” (2024); “Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology of Mercury” (2012); and “Mercury Cycling in a Wetland-Dominated Ecosystem” (2005)

Areas of expertise:

  • Mercury movements in ecosystems and bioaccumulation in food webs
  • Mercury speciation and photo-reactions

Dr. Laura Ferguson

Dr. Laura Ferguson

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  • Assistant Professor, Biology

Dr. Laura Ferguson is an integrative biologist interested in how host-microbe interactions shape insect resilience in our changing world. Her lab is currently focused on mosquitoes and ticks, working towards understanding how their ability to resist and transmit disease will shift with climate change.

Areas of expertise:

  • Ticks and their activity through the seasons; how ticks cope with winter
  • Mosquito populations in the Maritimes
  • Insect overwintering biology and responses to climate change

Dr. Kirk Hillier

Dr. Kirk Hillier

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  • Professor, Biology

Dr. Hillier is an entomologist and chemical ecologist. His research focuses on agricultural and forest innovation. He is director of the INSECTA research centre, the Agri-Tech Laboratory, and the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Biocontrol Facility.

Areas of expertise:

  • Sustainable insect management and chemical communication (pheromones, behavior, ecology)
  • Invasive forest pests and biological control (e.g., hemlock woolly adelgid).
  • Pollinator health, conservation and biodiversity

Dr. Mark Mallory

Dr. Mark Mallory

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  • Canada Research Chair Tier I
  • Biology Professor at Acadia University
  • Director of Research, K.C. Irving Environmental Science Centre

Dr. Mallory is the Director of the Mallory Lab, author of Common Birds of Nunavut; co-editor in chief of the scientific journal Arctic Science, associate editor of Arctic; Environmental Reviews, and a Fellow, Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

Areas of expertise:

  • Marine birds and waterfowl in eastern and Arctic Canada
  • Mercury, organic contaminants and plastic pollution in wildlife
  • Wildlife as biovectors of contaminants
  • Coastal habitats for wildlife