The FDSI Team
Our Facilitators
Etienne Côté
Etienne Côté is Professor of Companion Animal Medicine at the Atlantic Veterinary College/Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Prince Edward Island. Etienne is a veterinary cardiologist and his professional interests are cardiovascular diseases of different species, interpersonal communication between veterinarians and animal owners, and the intersection between human and animal heart diseases. He teaches this in the classroom, laboratory, and especially in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital on clinical-year rotations (experiential learning).
Etienne’s teaching and learning successes include the development of the UPEI Residency in Veterinary Cardiology programme (one of 2 in Canada), contributing to training over 1000 Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students, the development of the simulated client/actor programme for client communication at AVC-UPEI, co-editorship of the Clinical Veterinary Advisor and Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine textbooks, and several teaching awards. He is a 2015 3M National Teaching Fellow.
Favourite quotation: "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
Ann Braithwaite
Dr. Ann Braithwaite is professor and coordinator of Diversity and Social Justice Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island, where she has taught since 1998. As the only faculty member appointed to the program, she teaches a wide variety of courses at every level, on topics such as Identities and Place; Monsters, Freaks, Zombies, and Cyborgs; Disability Studies; Race and Whiteness; and Theorizing Social Justice.
The co-author or co-editor of three books, with a fourth forthcoming later in 2022, Dr. Braithwaite’s scholarly work examines the ways in which disciplines—such as Women’s and Gender Studies—are constructed through languages and narratives that reflect a set of embedded ways of knowing, asking what versions of a discipline these assumptions make possible, and what possibilities they shut down.
Dr. Braithwaite is on the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) standing committee for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, in addition to several EDI committees at UPEI. Her passion is to engage others in exploring how to bring questions of inclusion and justice to the classroom and to curricular programming both at UPEI and beyond. She is the recipient of numerous teaching, educational leadership, and service awards at UPEI, the 2014 AAU Anne Marie MacKinnon Educational Leadership award, and is a 2021 3M National Teaching Fellow.
Dany MacDonald
Dany MacDonald is a Professor of Kinesiology in the Department of Applied Human Sciences. He began his career at UPEI in 2010 following an undergraduate degree in Psychology (Bishop’s University) and graduate degrees in Sport Psychology from Queen’s University.
Dany’s research is within the area of Positive Youth Development through Sport which is aimed at ensuring that young sport participants have positive experiences through sport participation and develop into contributing members of society. He also conducts research on coach development by implementing ‘train-the-trainer’ programs for coaches and is interested in the topics of athlete development and measurement. He is currently working with multiple colleagues across Canada and is part of an international team of researchers developing coach training practices in Portugal.
Dany is also passionate about teaching and different pedagogical approaches. He has utilized various teaching methods throughout his classes and has attending and presented at various scholarly meetings about pedagogy. Dany participated in FDSI in 2011 and was part of the Teaching Partnership Program for mentoring new faculty members on numerous occasions. In 2015, Dany was the recipient of the UPEIFA Hessian Merit Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Libby Osgood
Libby Osgood, CND, PhD, P Eng is an Assistant Professor in Sustainable Design Engineering at the University of Prince Edward Island, where she teaches design and engineering mechanics courses. She received her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona in 2004 and her Masters of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas in 2005. Libby worked at Orbital Sciences as a systems engineer in Gilbert, Arizona, supporting the design of two NASA satellites: FERMI and LandSat 8. She was on the headset during the countdown, launch, and on-orbit check-out for FERMI.
Libby moved to Prince Edward Island, Canada and began teaching courses at UPEI in 2011 for what was the Diploma of Engineering. She supported the development of the program into the Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering. While teaching, she earned her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2016. She entered the Congregation of Notre Dame in 2017 and returned to UPEI in 2019 as a religious sister to continue teaching students. Her research interests include: Engineering Education, Design Pedagogy, Humanitarian Engineering, the intersection of Science and Faith, and Teilhard de Chardin. She is the engineering course advisor and coordinator of the Engineering Success Centre. She attended the FSDI in 2014 and is excited to continue the tradition of cultivating a passion for teaching.
Charlene VanLeeuwen
Charlene VanLeeuwen, Ph.D, has taught at UPEI since 2003, developing a deep familiarity with higher education teaching and learning along the way. Her interdisciplinary background includes a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Guelph, a Bachelor of Education from the University of Ottawa, a Master of Education in Leadership in Learning from UPEI and a Ph. D. in Educational Studies from UPEI. Her postdoctoral research focused on understanding and improving faculty experiences of teaching, learning, and participation in post-secondary digital learning environments.
Charlene provides academic and administrative leadership to the Teaching and Learning Centre. She collaborates with institutional, national and international partners to support, research and advocate for initiatives related to teaching and learning. In this role, Charlene provides opportunities and support for university educators to reflect on and improve their pedagogical expertise; fosters a culture of scholarship around teaching and learning, and supports instructional staff in meeting their professional development goals. She collaborates closely with individuals and groups across the campus and beyond as an active member of national and international organizations related to teaching, learning, and educational development. A recipient of multiple awards for excellence in teaching and educational leadership, Charlene is excited to share her experiences as an educator in physical classrooms and online spaces with participants attending the Faculty Development Summer Institute.