Updates, news and stories

Karyn Magnusson

Karyn Magnusson is the Managing Director of Building Operations at UBC Vancouver. A UBC alumna, Karyn is a registered professional engineer, and spent 14 years within progressive leadership roles with the City of Vancouver’s engineering department. She joined UBC in 2014 to lead the operations and maintenance of over nine million square feet of building space and over 1,000 acres of landscaping at UBC Vancouver’s Point Grey campus. She is a former elite-level swimmer.

Stephen Lamb

Stephen Lamb joined UBC’s Office of the CIO in April 2017 as Deputy Chief Information Officer, a new role to help lead significant change across the information technology landscape of the university. Prior to joining UBC, Stephen was Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, where he was responsible for leading the delivery and advancement of IT services and data analytics in support of teaching and learning, applied research and business administration. During his career, he also served as the CIO for the Vancouver School Board, one of Canada’s largest and most diverse school systems, serving 56,000 students across 109 schools.

An unexpected path sparks UBC’s online learning era

Empowering youth in Kenya and at home

It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for students—and a yearly experience for Colleen Poeta. As program coordinator of the Sauder Social Entrepreneurship-Kenya (SSE-K) Program, Colleen spends four weeks of her summers in Nairobi, where she supports a team of UBC students as they deliver a series of workshops in the large urban slums of Kibera and Mathare.

Bringing emergency preparedness to life at UBC

Gordon Binsted

A UBC Vancouver alum, Dr. Gordon Binsted is in the field of human kinetics. After holding positions at the University of Illinois, the Beckman Institute, and the University of Saskatchewan, he returned to UBC in 2007 — this time to the Okanagan campus — as professor in the School of Health and Exercise Sciences. He was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Development in 2011, and most recently took on an additional role as Associate Provost, Academic Health Initiatives.

Pamela Ratner

Dr. Pamela Ratner is Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President, Enrolment and Academic Facilities. She provides leadership for UBC’s enrolment management, academic space and facilities planning, and the capital projects prioritization and budgeting processes. Recently, she was also appointed on a pro tem basis as Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President, International — a new role focused on strengthening UBC’s international activities. In 1995, Dr. Ratner joined UBC as a postdoctoral fellow before being appointed to the professorial stream in the School of Nursing. She has since held a number of leadership roles at the university, including those in the School of Nursing and Faculty of Education. Her academic contributions have been recognized with several awards, including the prestigious Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Dr. Ratner holds a deep commitment to excellence in research, teaching and learning. She is also a strong advocate for equity and inclusion.

Alex Bigazzi’s “Silver Bullet”

Michael White

Michael White joined UBC in 2014 as Associate Vice-President of Campus and Community Planning, and leads a team dedicated to creating a vibrant, live-work-learn community at the university’s campuses in Vancouver and the Okanagan. A UBC alumnus, Michael is passionate about the intersection of community engagement and urban planning. He spent 10 years as a municipal planner for the City of Vancouver and later worked as manager of planning in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He returned to Canada in 2011 as a consultant, before joining UBC in 2014 to begin his current role.

Skeleton staff: curating the big blue whale

Chris’s passion for nature was what first sparked his involvement with the Beaty Museum. While an undergraduate in animal biology at UBC, he began volunteering with the Cowan Tetrapod Collection in 2006 helping to move it into the newly constructed Beaty Museum in 2007. A part-time position followed, during which he completed a certificate in Museum Studies from UVic’s Cultural Resource Management program.