The Presidents of Acadia, Bishop’s, Mount Allison, and St. Francis Xavier Universities are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Katie Edwards as Executive Director for the U4 League – a strategic alliance between the four universities to promote and extend the institutions’ common objectives of providing students from across Canada and around the world with the highest quality undergraduate university education in a residential setting.

Dr. Edwards is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Arts (Department of English) at St. Francis Xavier University. She earned her PhD from the University of Edinburgh after graduating from Queen’s University.  Over the past three years, in addition to her academic work, she has created a world-class rowing facility in Nova Scotia that was the recent host of the Canadian University Rowing Championships.

“I am pleased to welcome Dr. Edwards to her new position with the U4 League,” said Ray Ivany, President and Vice-Chancellor of Acadia. “Katie’s credentials as a scholar and coach, coupled with her enthusiasm for the benefits of the small, residential undergraduate university model, makes her ideally suited to advancing the U4 League goals. She is particularly interested in models of student and faculty engagement that will highlight the distinctiveness of our institutions in Canada’s post-secondary landscape.”

Dr. Edwards will be responsible for ensuring the long-term success of the U4 League, an initiative that promotes and enhances the unique educational environment offered at our universities. The U4 presents a phenomenal opportunity for our students and faculty, and is poised to unveil a series of new endeavours in the 2016-2017 academic year.

“I’m eager to take on this new role,” said Dr. Edwards. “My experiences within academia and with large-scale project management will, I hope, enable me to help develop an organization that will be a model of collaboration and foresight. The U4 presents a phenomenal opportunity for our students and faculty.”