Staff Contacts

Marlies Rise, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice-President, Research Services
Email: marlies.rise@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-3859

Areas of responsibility:
• oversees ORS research processes and policies
• signs off on research funding applications and awards following review by ORS staff
• involved in major institutional applications
• liaises with Dal central units, hospital research offices and funding agencies
• undertakes institutional reporting.

Trevor Weissent, MBA
Managing Director, Research and Innovation
Email: trevor.weissent@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1743

Areas of responsibility:
• advises on and oversees Dalhousie Research and Innovation budgets
• advises on and provides financial oversight of Dalhousie’s large-scale institutional research projects
• oversees ORS post award processes and administration, information management, human resources, and facilities management.


Shelley Brown, Ph.D.
Director, Strategic Initiatives and Programs
Email: shelley.brown@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-8885

Areas of responsibility:
• oversees development of large-scale funding applications
• advises on and leads strategic developments in ORS
• oversees ORS pre-award processes and administration.
 

Ye Lin, MDes
Research Administrator, Analysis & Projects 
Email: ye.lin@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1738

Areas of responsibility:
• provides business and data analysis support to ORS
• leads and/or participates in process development, review, and improvement initiatives
• provides administrative and operational support to the AVPRS.

Ashiat Lawal-Bolaji, BL
Legal Advisor
Email: ashiat.lawal-bolaji@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-3431

Areas of responsibility:
• reviews legal agreements for ORS units related to research at Dalhousie including grants, contracts, transfer agreements, inter-institutional agreements, service agreements, sub-site agreements and other research matters
• provides legal advice on research-related issues through liaison with the Legal Counsel Office and provides advice on policies related to research.
 

Shehu Mustafa, LLM
Legal Advisor, Clinical Research
Email: shehu.mustafa@dal.ca  Phone: 902-431-0170

Areas of responsibility:
• reviews legal agreements for ORS units related to research, with a primary focus on clinical research, at Dalhousie including grants, contracts, transfer agreements, inter-institutional agreements, service agreements, sub-site agreements and other research matters
• provides legal advice on research-related issues through liaison with the Legal Counsel Office and provides advice on policies related to research.
 

Shawna Denney, LLB
Contracts Specialist
Email: sdenney@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-5143

Areas of responsibility:
• drafts, reviews and negotiates research grants, contracts and related agreements
• provides contract administration support within ORS Legal
• liaises with ORS units researchers, research accounting, financial services, as required on progress of contract review.

Jill Bennett
Contracts Specialist
Email: jill.bennett@dal.ca  Phone: 902-431-0327

Areas of responsibility:
• drafts, reviews and negotiates research grants, contracts and related agreements
• provides contract administration support within ORS Legal
• liaises with ORS units researchers, research accounting, financial services, as required on progress of contract review.



Nataliia Franskevych, LLM 
Support Specialist, Legal
Email: orslegal@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-4564

Areas of responsibility:
• provides specialized administrative support to ORS Legal
• serves as initial contact for ORS Legal and liaises with researchers and other departments on requests and queries
• provides administrative support to ORS units.

Catherine Connors, MPA
Director, Research Ethics
Email: catherine.connors@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1462

Areas of responsibility:
• oversees University’s Research Ethics Boards, Research Ethics unit and manages ethics review and oversight process for research involving humans
• develops policy, procedures and educational resources
• provides ethical guidance to researchers, responds to research participant concerns and serves as principal liaison on ethics issues with external stakeholders.

 
Angela Hersey, MES
Manager, Research Ethics
Social Sciences and Humanities
Email: angela.hersey@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1895

Areas of responsibility:
• provides guidance to researchers about the ethics review process; interprets and applies ethical principles, University policies, the TCPS to provide advising services in the context of individual research projects
• conducts pre-reviews of research ethics submissions, evaluates research projects for ethical acceptability
• writes review letters; collaborates with Board members to resolve difficult ethical issues
• conducts continuing ethical reviews for each research project annually and ensures continued ethical conduct and risk mitigation; authorizes annual renewals, study closures and exemptions from research ethics review.
 

Hillary Ferguson, Ph.D.(c)
Manager, Research Ethics
Health Sciences
Email: hillary.ferguson@dal.ca  Phone: 902-431-0169

Areas of responsibility:
• provides guidance to researchers about the ethics review process; interprets and applies ethical principles, University policies, the TCPS to provide advising services in the context of individual research projects
• conducts pre-reviews of research ethics submissions, evaluates research projects for ethical acceptability
• writes review letters; collaborates with Board members to resolve difficult ethical issues
• conducts continuing ethical reviews for each research project annually and ensures continued ethical conduct and risk mitigation; authorizes annual renewals, study closures and exemptions from research ethics review.

Jaime Pike, B.Com.
Support Specialist, Research Ethics
Email: ethics@dal.ca / jaime.pike@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-3423

Areas of responsibility:
• serves as initial contact for inquiries and coordinates Board meetings
• facilitates the research ethics review process for initial submissions, re-submissions, amendment requests, continuing and final reports, and release of funds requests
• communicates REB decisions to researchers.

David Spurrell, Ph.D.
Manager, Grants and Contracts
Email: david.spurrell@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1160

Areas of responsibility:
• manages Grants and Contracts Unit
• facilitates grant applications to the Tri-Agency and other Canadian funding agencies
• organizes outreach sessions and manages Dalhousie’s internal funding programs.

Susan Haydt, Ph.D.
Research Grants Facilitator 
Faculty of Medicine, Schulich School of Law
Email: susan.haydt@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1333 

Areas of responsibility:
• facilitates grants applications to the Tri-Agency and other Canadian funding agencies
• organizes outreach sessions and educational resources.

 
Jim Karle, Ph.D.
Research Grants Facilitator
Faculties of Architecture and Planning, Management, Science
Email: j.karle@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-4343

Areas of responsibility:
• facilitates grants applications to the Tri-Agency and other Canadian funding agencies
• organizes outreach sessions and educational resources.
 

Sydney Dale-McGrath, MA
Research Grants Facilitator
Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences, Engineering, Health
Email: sydney.dale-mcgrath@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-3036

Areas of responsibility:
• facilitates grants applications to the Tri-Agency and other Canadian funding agencies
• organizes outreach sessions and educational resources.
 

Sara Murphy, B.Sc.
Research Grants Facilitator and Contracts Administrator
Faculties of Agriculture, Computer Science, Dentistry
Email: sara.murphy@dal.ca  Phone: 902-893-6028

Areas of responsibility:
• facilitates grants applications to the Tri-Agency and other Canadian funding agencies
• organizes outreach sessions and educational resources.
• assists in the review and facilitation of grant agreements and contracts.
 

Kristie McVicar, M.Sc.
Research Contracts Administrator
Email: kristie.mcvicar@dal.ca  Phone: 902-431-5348

Areas of responsibility:
• supports the processing of grant applications and associated documentation
• updates and maintains grant application statistics and reports
• facilitates outreach sessions and events.

Veronica Bacher, MEd
Manager, Institutional and International Programs
Email: veronica.bacher@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1848

Areas of responsibility:
• manages CRC, CFI, NFRF and other major institutional funding programs
• advises on funding agency and University policies and procedures
• coordinates teams for large-scale institutional applications and liaises with external consultant.

Elspeth White, M.Sc.
Facilitator, Institutional and International Programs 
Email: elspeth.white@dal.ca Phone: 902-494-3273

Areas of responsibility:
• facilitates and reviews applications to Genome Canada, CFI JELF and RNS
• manages reporting to CFI and RNS.

Erin Murphy, Ph.D.
Facilitator, Institutional and International Programs
Email: erin.murphy@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-2997

Areas of responsibility:
• facilitates and reviews applications to international funding opportunities, including NIH, Horizon Europe, and funding opportunities to support international collaboration, including IRDC, GAC and DFATD
• supports institutional applications to CRC, CFI and NFRF (Transformation and International)
• organises outreach sessions and educational resources.

Annie Laroche, MLIS
Research Administrator
Email: annie.laroche@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1376

Areas of responsibility:
• coordinates large-scale institutional competitions.
• facilitates CFI post-award, including the Infrastructure Operating Fund (IOF)

Kaitlin Tornblom, B.Sc.
Research Administrator
Email: kait.tornblom@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-7837

Areas of responsibility:
• supports the pre-award facilitation for international funding opportunities
• responsible for post-award administration for grants from international funding opportunities, including authorization of opening of research accounts and transfer of funds.
 

Arati Patel, BBA
Research Contracts & Finance Administrator
Email: arati.patel@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-8075

Areas of responsibility:
• assists with the development of proposal budgets (international and institutional)
• provides financial oversight on Dalhousie international project accounts
• provides financial administrative support for various OVPRI/ORS accounts.

Megan Johnson, Ph.D.
Research Facilitator
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Email: megan.johnson@dal.ca  Phone: 902-431- 0342

Areas of responsibility:
• Facilitates research funding applications from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
• Organizes outreach sessions and educational materials
• Advises on funding programs and university policies and processes.

Chantelle Falconer, Ph.D.
Research Facilitator
Faculty of Management
Email: chantelle.falconer@dal.ca  Phone: 902-431-0394

Areas of responsibility:
• Facilitates research funding applications from the Faculty of Management
• Organizes outreach sessions and educational materials
• Advises on funding programs and university policies and processes.

Inga Slišković, Ph.D.
Research Facilitator
Faculty of Science
Email: inga.sliskovic@dal.ca  Phone: 902-431-0425

Areas of responsibility:
• Facilitates research funding applications from the Faculty of Science
• Organizes outreach sessions and educational materials
• Advises on funding programs and university policies and processes.

Danielle Andres, MPA
Manager, Post-Award
Email: danielle.andres@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-2872

Areas of responsibility:
• oversees the post award process facilitation and improvement at Dalhousie
• advises Dalhousie researchers on University and funding agency processes, guidelines, and policies
• organizes outreach sessions for the Dalhousie research community to improve effective post award research fund management.
 

Tonya Canning, Ph.D.
Research Grants Officer, Post-Award
Faculties of Architecture and Planning, Arts and Social Sciences, Computer Science, Health, Schulich School of Law, Science 

Email: tonya.canning@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-2247

Areas of responsibility:
• authorizes the opening of research accounts
• facilitates the transfer of funds between institutions
• ensures compliance with university and agency policies and procedures.

Cheryl Paris, DipBA
Research Grants Officer and Animal Care Coordinator
Faculties of Agriculture, Engineering and Mitacs programs
Email: cheryl.paris@dal.ca  Phone: 902-893-2635

Areas of responsibility:
• authorizes the opening of research accounts
• facilitates the transfer of funds between institutions
• ensures compliance with university and agency policies and procedures
• supports Dalhousie researchers by administering the Animal Care and Use Committee (ACUC).
 

Ngoc Anh Nguyen, MA
Research Grants Officer
Faculties of Dentistry, Management, Medicine
Email: ngocanh.nguyen@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1039

Areas of responsibility:
• authorizes the opening of research accounts
• facilitates the transfer of funds between institutions
• ensures compliance with university and agency policies and procedures.

Jaq-Lin Larder, MLIS
Information Management Administrator
Email: jaq-lin.larder@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-3853

Areas of responsibility:
• oversees quality assurance for ROMEO research database and Researcher Portal
• prepares periodic and ad-hoc research funding reports
• compiles and delivers the ORS weekly newsletter, and acts as ORS web administrator
• oversees records management procedures for paper and electronic records.
 

Nada Jama, B.HSc.
Data Technician
Email: researcher.portal@dal.ca  Phone: 902-431-0402

Areas of responsibility:
• provides support to Research Portal users
• compiles quality assurance reports
• inputs research data into ROMEO database.

Jessica Connors, Ph.D.
Manager of Operations (DalCore)
Email: jessica.connors@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1742

Areas of responsibility:
• Provides strategic support in relation to the Core Facilities program and research infrastructure at Dalhousie
• Responsible for the operational oversight of the DalCore infrastructure program
• Provides support to staff running individual facilities.

Zane Sylliboy, BA
Indigenous Research Facilitator
Email: zane.sylliboy@dal.ca  Phone: 902-431-1734

Areas of responsibility:
• dedicated to supporting Dalhousie’s Indigenous research community
• facilitates grant applications to internal funding opportunities and external funding agencies
• supports the development of research ethics submissions
• coordinates outreach and information sessions for opportunities relevant to the Indigenous research community.

Michael Sullivan, MA
Director, Research Security
Email: michael.sullivan@dal.ca  Phone: 902-431-0744

Areas of responsibility:
• Promotes research security within the university
• Advises Dalhousie researchers on meeting national and Tri-Council research security requirements
• Develops research security policy and guidelines.