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Principal Patrick Deane is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Michelle Searle as Special Advisor to the Principal on Community Engagement. Dr. Searle began in the role on July 1 and succeeds Wendy Craig, who served in the role for the past two and a half years.

“Community engagement and collaboration provide meaningful ways to direct our academic efforts towards addressing real-world challenges,” says Principal Deane. “I am grateful to Wendy for her leadership on the Principal’s Council on Community Engagement and for developing a thoughtful, comprehensive framework that embeds meaningful partnerships with communities into student learning at Queen’s. I’m also delighted that Michelle will now bring her expertise and insights to advance the implementation of this important work.”

Dr. Searle is an associate professor of educational evaluation in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s with over two decades of experience advancing community-engaged learning and research. A former K-12 educator with national and international experience, she brings a mix of expertise in program evaluation, classroom assessment, creative arts, and mixed methods research to the special advisor role. Her scholarship is grounded in cooperation and social impact, centered around people, relationships, and shared goals. She has led projects that use evaluative inquiry and arts-informed approaches to increase equity, engagement, and accessibility in educational and organizational settings, and recently received the Chancellor A. Charles Baillie Teaching Award.  

“The launch of the framework marks an exciting milestone in our commitment to community engagement as a critical dimension of teaching, research, and learning at Queen’s,” says Searle. “Collaborative partnerships with communities enrich learning, spark innovation, and help to address challenges and I’m looking forward to strengthening connections, exchanging ideas, and creating new opportunities for meaningful, reciprocal engagement among students, faculty, staff, and community partners.” 

For more information about the community engagement framework and the role of the special advisor, please visit the Office of the Principal and Vice-Chancellor’s website.