Dr. Cathy Bruce, Acting Vice-President of Research and Innovation
Dr. Cathy Bruce is the acting vice-president Research and Innovation at Trent University. Prior to August 2020, Professor Bruce, was dean of Education, Teaching and Learning since 2016. Dr. Bruce was a founding faculty member of the School of Education, overseeing all education programs, online learning initiatives and the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University. Her research focus is mathematics learning and the role of spatial reasoning and self-efficacy in that learning. In 2011, she launched “Math for Young Children”, a SSHRC-funded research program involving over 170 educators and 1200 students, designed to investigate children's spatial and mathematics capabilities. Guiding a diverse and collaborative research team, Prof. Bruce acts as lead researcher for the Trent Math Education Research Collaborative (TMERC), an innovative research hub that leverages strong partner connections with teachers, mathematics educators, early childhood educators, and school boards. For more information on VP Bruce’s research see section below.
VP Bruce’s career spans both academic and administrative leadership in which she has served as the president of the Association of Canadian Deans of Education, the vice-chair of the Ontario Association of Deans of Education, and the director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Trent University. A co-author of two math professional texts based on her research program, with a third in progress, Prof. Bruce has been recognized as a leading educator and researcher. She was named one of Ontario’s most outstanding university teachers by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) in 2012 and was a recipient of the Eduardo Flores International Leadership Award in 2015 for her leadership in action research.