
OUR TEAM
FOUNDER
DR. STEPHANIE CHITPIN
Stephanie Chitpin is a Professor of Educational Leadership at the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Chitpin’s principal contribution to leadership and to the professional development of principals rests on her rejection of the inductive method. She argues that knowledge is acquired by hypotheses deductively validated as “falsifiability criteria”. Her research funded by The Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and The Ontario Ministry of Education, Canada, are international in scope, and includes the analysis of the Objective Knowledge Growth Framework (OKGF) based on Sir Karl Popper’s critical rationalism, as a new tool for understanding principals’ decision-making.
Dr. Chitpin’s works include Decision Making in Educational Leadership: Principles, Policies, and Practices (2015), Popper’s Approach to Education: A Cornerstone of Teaching and Learning (2016), Confronting Educational Policy in Neoliberal Times: International Perspectives (2018), Understanding Decision-Making in Educational Contexts: A Case Study Approach (2020).

Recipient of the 2020 Excellent in Research Award
DIRECTORS

DR. DOUGLAS ARCHIBALD
Co-Director
Dr. Douglas Archibald is the Director of Research and Innovation and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine with a cross-appointment to the Department of Innovation in Medical Education and the Faculty of Education. His research interests are in medical education, inter-professional education, research methodology, and eLearning. Dr. Archibald is the lead for the Program for Research Innovation and Medical Education (PRIME) and works to support research development, evaluation of research projects designed to enhance undergraduate and postgraduate medical education as well as faculty development in the Department of Family Medicine. His current research is exploring how electronic consultations can inform continuing professional development for primary care providers.

XINGTAN CAO
Co-Director
Xingtan Cao is a PhD candidate at Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa. His research interests are citizenship education, second language education, educational leadership, and international and comparative education. His doctoral research examines the lived experiences of recent Chinese immigrants to Canada. He is an active member in the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE). He has served as the Program Chair for the Citizenship Education Research Network (CERN) at the CSSE in 2020 and 2021. He has been teaching for the ESL program at the University of Ottawa since 2019. Xingtan joined the Equitable Leadership Network (ELN) in 2019 as a core member. His expertise on Critical Race Theory (CRT), citizenship education, acculturation, and educational leadership are closely connected with a promotion for an equitable leadership framework for all.
CORE MEMBERS

DR. MADDIE VENABLES
Core Member
Dr. Maddie Venables is a Senior Research Associate for the research arm of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Her research interests lie in primary care and medical education. She was involved in establishing the Ottawa Practice Enhancement Network (OPEN) and supports faculty and residents with their research and scholarly work.

NATHALIE SIROIS
Core Member
Nathalie Sirois is an experienced education professional who has worked locally and internationally at many levels in the education system, including as a teacher, a consultant and a system leader. She is a passionately curious educator and a lifelong learner committed to developing and promoting socially just practice required to create and maintain educational contexts built for human flourishing in all its diversity. A fundamental concern regarding equity and anti-oppression has been a thread linking all the chapters of her unconventional career path. She currently works as the Equity, Human Rights and Pluralism Advisor for the CEPEO, the French Public School Board of Eastern Ontario.
Her quest to understand and shape her own role as practitioner and vector of educational change – both pedagogically and structurally – has brought her to examine how to bridge research and action while including the lived experience and the voices of the marginalized, this in the midst of the rich complexity that characterizes education and society today. Her work evolves more specifically around how to best adapt and apply the said bridge in a French-language minority context. She has spent the last two decades in practitioner inquiry mode using a broad social ecological perspective to champion student success and well-being. This journey has meant experimenting with findings stemming from a variety of fields while also applying a critical and trauma-informed lens to her work. The problems of practice she has grappled with have incited her to learn and borrow – in a sometimes unorthodox mix – from such disciplines as Developmental Psychology, Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology, Genocide Studies, History, Philosophy, Organizational Theory, as well as Cultural and Intercultural Studies and Practice.
In her present work pertaining to the K-12 student socio-demographic data collection, analyses and use, she is exploring how some critical theories including Indigenous and De-colonial Research Methodologies can help ensure the how of this project is ethically coherent with its why.
The tensions inherent to socially just professional and organizational development integrating principles of Adult Development inspired her to become a certified Dare to Lead Facilitator in the category of Courage Catalyst. She locates her work in a lineage of interculturally aware, responsive and sustaining Service-leadership.
Beyond her work in Canada, she has contributed to a variety of collaborative learning initiatives with K-12 teachers and other educational leaders internationally in contexts such as Haiti, Lebanon, France, Morocco and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

DR. MARVIN ZUKER
Core Member
Marvin Zuker was a judge of the Ontario Court of Justice, where he presided over the small claims, family and criminal courts from 1978 until his retirement in 2016. He is associate professor at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto, where he teaches education law. Zuker is the author and co-author of many books and publications, including The Law is Not for Women and The Law is (Not) for Kids.

DR. SACHIN MAHARAJ
Core Member
Sachin Maharaj is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, Policy and Program Evaluation at the University of Ottawa. Prior to joining the University of Ottawa, he was a teacher at the Toronto District School Board and a lecturer at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, where he completed his Ph.D. and was a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholar. Dr. Maharaj's research focuses on school boards, school choice, teacher unions, and policy implementation. He is also a regular contributor to the Toronto Star, where he has published over 60 articles, and has appeared several times on media outlets like CBC and TVO.
STUDENT MEMBERS

OLFA KAROUI
PhD Student in Education, Olfa's research focuses on educational leadership and policy studies as it relates to student food insecurity.

SAUD AMIN
MEd student in leadership, evaluation, curriculum and policy studies.
Saud is a former Air Force officer, an engineer, an educator and a social worker.

WENEFE CAPILI-BALBALIN
PhD Student in Leadership, Evaluation, Curriculum, and Policy Studies.
Research interests include educational leadership, issues and perspectives in education, and teacher professional development. A citizen of the world.

XINGTAN CAO
PhD student in Language, Education and Society.
Research interests: citizenship education for new immigrants in Canada, comparative and international education, and philosophy of education

JENNY STODOLA
PhD Student in Education. Jenny’s research interest is in decolonizing and Indigenizing health professions education from a settler lens in order to improve physician cultural competency.