Faculty and Staff
Dr. David Bourgeois
PsychologyAssociate Professor
Undergraduate Program Coordinator, Honours Program, Transfer Credits
Phone: 902-491-6330
Email: david.bourgeois@smu.ca
Dr. Bourgeois is a social psychologist. His research interests include social, political, and cross-cultural Psychology as well as youth engagement; Dr. Bourgeois regularly supervises undergraduate students who are interested in writing their thesis within the realm of these topics.
Prior to joining the Psychology Department at Saint Mary’s, Dr. Bourgeois worked as a researcher for various non-profit organizations, including the United Way of Greater St. Louis (Missouri) and the Federation of French-Canadian Youth in Ottawa (Ontario). Dr. Bourgeois currently volunteers with the Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement.
Dr. Jim Cameron
PsychologyProfessor
Phone: 902-491-8653
Email: jim.cameron@smu.ca
Jim Cameron (Ph.D., York University) has taught at Saint Mary’s University since 1999. Dr. Cameron is a social psychologist with research interests in the area of social identity and intergroup relations, with a focus on processes involving psychological well-being, collective action, and globalization. Dr. Cameron regularly supervises undergraduate students interested in social and personality psychology, and currently teaches courses on psychological statistics and measurement.
Dr. Patrick Carolan
PsychologyLecturer
Phone: 902-491-6619
Email: patrick.carolan@smu.ca
Patrick completed his PhD in Cognitive and Neural Sciences Psychology at Simon Fraser University in 2017, and joined the SMU faculty in Fall 2018. His teaching interests include research design, data analysis, emotion, attention, and consciousness. His research examines the interactions of affect and impulsivity with visual attention and working memory from a neuroscience perspective – one that seeks to map psychological concepts to measurable neurological mechanisms. Throughout his graduate career this has been primarily with event-related potential electroencephalography (ERP/EEG) and psychometrics. However in his postdoctoral work, he has also begun looking at early childhood experience and development in cross-cultural environments and collaborative community settings.
Dr. Steven Carroll
PsychologySenior Lecturer
Phone: 902-491-6463
Email: steven.carroll@smu.ca
Dr. Carroll is a Senior Lecturer, and has been working for the Department of Psychology since 2012. He has a general interest in mathematical psychology, cognitive modelling, psychophysics, and measurement and scaling. Steve is particularly interested in mathematical and computer models of decision-making processes.
Dr. Carroll’s website can be found at: http://www.psnap.ca
Dr. Leanna Closson
PsychologyAssociate Professor
Phone: 902-491-6464
Email: leanna.closson@smu.ca
Leanna received her PhD from the University of British Columbia in 2011 and subsequently was a postdoctoral researcher at Carleton University. In 2012, Leanna joined the SMU Department of Psychology where she teaches courses in developmental psychology. Leanna’s research explores the social development of children and youth, with a focus on peer relationships. Some of the topics she studies include understanding the function and impact of peer group social status (e.g., popularity), social competence, aggression, and victimization.
Dr. Nicole Conrad
PsychologyChair, Professor
Phone: 902-420-5080
Email: nicole.conrad@smu.ca
Dr. Nicole Conrad is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, where she has taught since 2005. She received her Ph.D. degree in Experimental Psychology from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario (2002). Most of her previous and current research relates to the broad area of reading acquisition. Within this broad area, her research focuses on how memory is involved in reading acquisition and skilled reading, how children acquire the linguistic and cognition information necessary to become skilled readers, and the nature of the beneficial relation between reading and spelling.
Dr. Arla Day
PsychologyProfessor
Phone: 902-420-5854 902-420-6381
Email: arla.day@smu.ca
Dr. Arla Day is a Canada Research Chair and Full Professor in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Saint Mary's University, and a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association.
Arla is a founding member of two research and community outreach centres: The CN Centre for Occupational Health and Safety and the Centre for Leadership Excellence. Arla chairs the Nova Scotia Psychological Healthy Workplace Program committee, and she is on the Steering Committee for the American Psychological Association’s Business of Practice Network, which oversees the state, provincial, and national healthy workplace awards and programs.
Dr. Day currently teaches graduate level courses in Psychometrics (test validation and development) and Organizational Psychology, and her past teaching has included Personnel Psychology, Statistics, and Introduction to Psychology.
Dr. Maryanne Fisher
PsychologyProfessor
Phone: 902-491-6275
Email: mlfisher.99@gmail.com
Dr. Maryanne Fisher is a Full Professor in the Department of Psychology, where she has worked since 2004, and Affiliate Faculty at the Kinsey Institute in Bloomington, Indiana. She received her PhD in Experimental Psychology from York University in Toronto (2004), her MSc in Psychology from McMaster University in Hamilton (2002), and her BA (summa cum laude) from York University (1997). She has published over 90 peer-reviewed journal articles, primarily related to women’s evolved psychology, and has edited The Oxford handbook of women and competition (2017) and co-edited Evolution’s empress: Darwinian perspectives on the nature of women (2013), both published by Oxford University Press. Her primary areas of research interest are women and competition, mating and relationship behaviours, evolutionary analyses of cultural artefacts, and the ways that feminist scholarships and evolutionary perspectives of human behaviour may be integrated. She is an award-winning teacher, as she was a recipient of the Association of Atlantic Universities Distinguished Teacher Award in 2016, and the Father Stewart Medal for Excellence in Teaching from Saint Mary’s University in 2014, along with several other student-nominated awards from the Saint Mary’s University Students Association.
Dr. Mark Fleming
PsychologyProfessor
Phone: 902-420-5723
Email: mark.fleming@smu.ca
Dr. Mark Fleming is the CN Professor of Safety Culture. He received his Bachelor’s in Psychology and Master’s in Human Factors from Aberdeen University and his PhD in Psychology from The Robert Gordon University in Scotland. Mark is an applied psychologist with nearly 20 years of experience in industrial health and safety management in high hazard industries including the offshore oil and gas, nuclear power, petrochemical, power generation and construction. He is dedicated to developing practical and valid tools to assist organisations to prevent harm.
Currently, Dr. Fleming’s research includes investigating methods for measuring and improving safety culture, safety motivation, safety leadership and rail safety. He advises many Canadian and international organisations (e.g. International Atomic Energy Agency) on safety culture assessment and improvement. Through his work, Dr. Fleming hopes to provide best practice guidelines to industry and criteria for successful safety programs. He seeks to translate his work on safety culture into usable practices and guidelines by producing practical tools such as Changing Minds Guide and the Cultural Maturity Model.
Dr. Lori Francis
PsychologyProfessor
Acting Dean of Science
Phone: 902-496-8150
Email: lori.francis@smu.ca
Dr. Francis joined the department psychology at Saint Mary's University as an assistant professor in 2002. She received a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Guelph (2002). Dr. Francis has also studied at McMaster University (M.Sc., 1998) and St. Francis Xavier University (B.Sc. Honours, 1996). Her research interests include occupational health and safety, organizational justice, and unions. Her current organizational research interests can be grouped in three major categories. A brief description of each of these areas and examples of the work she is doing are provided below.
Occupational Health and Safety
Dr. Francis does research pertaining to well-being in the workplace, including workplace stress and strain and organizational stress prevention initiatives. Curremtly she is involved in a funded three year longitudinal study of Nova Scotia employees and employers - examining such issues as prevalent stressors, the experience of stress, and the utility of existing intervention programs.
She is also involved in a number of collaborative projects in the area of worker safety. In these projects we are investigating the factors that impact the safety related attitudes that employees develop.
Organizational Justice
Another aspect of her research program examines factors related to fairness in the workplace. In particular, Dr. Francis considers the impact of unfair outcomes, procedures and treatment at work on various employee outcomes. Currently she is most interested in the impact of injustice on employee health.
Unionism
Along with a number of colleagues, Dr. Francis is involved in a line of research on unionism and protest behaviour. In this ongoing series of studies they are looking at the factors that predict of participation in protest activities (such as strikes).
Dr. Debra Gilin
PsychologyProfessor
Graduate Program Coordinator
Phone: 902-491-6211
Email: debra.gilin@smu.ca
Dr. Gilin is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist interested in what fosters productive/healthy versus unproductive/unhealthy conflict in the workplace. Her research focuses on organizational conflict, negotiation, and mediation, the implications of conflict for work stress and well-being, how personality and thinking styles influence conflict handling, inter- and intra- group conflict dynamics, and organizational change interventions.
Recent projects have examined the distinct operation of cognitive perspective-taking versus empathy in conflictual interactions, how to decrease incivility among workers in high-stress work environments (i.e., nursing) over the long-term, and how disrespectful work group norms can hasten the effects of work stressors on physical and mental employee strain. Debra has a strong interest in applying basic social psychological research to real organizational problems, and enjoy teaching, learning about, and using advanced statistical methodologies such as structural equations modeling and hierarchical linear modeling.
Dr. Camilla Holmvall
PsychologyAssociate Professor
Phone: 902-491-6210
Email: camilla.holmvall@smu.ca
Camilla received her Ph.D. degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Waterloo in 2003 and joined Saint Mary's University in July of 2003. She is an Associate Professor with a cross-appointment between the departments of Psychology and Management. Her research primarily focuses on issues of organizational justice and interpersonal mistreatment in the workplace.
Dr. Jason Ivanoff
PsychologyProfessor
Phone: 902-491-6345
Email: jason.ivanoff@smu.ca
Dr. Ivanoff received his B.Sc. in 1997 and his M.A. in 1998 from the University of Guelph. He completed his Ph.D. in 2003 from Dalhousie University. After a 3-year postdoctorate fellowship at Vanderbilt University, he joined the Department of Psychology at Saint Mary’s University in 2006. He is currently an adjunct professor at Dalhousie University. Using the tools of cognitive neuroscience (e.g., psychophysics, electrophysiology, and functional magnetic resonance imaging), Dr. Ivanoff studies the temporal dynamics of thought and action.
Dr. Kevin Kelloway
PsychologyProfessor
Phone: 902-491-8616
Email: kevin.kelloway@smu.ca
A native of New Waterford, NS. Kevin is a graduate of Dalhousie (B.Sc. Honours Psychology), Saint Mary’s (M.Sc. in Applied Psychology) King’s (MFA in Creative NonFiction) and Queen’s (PhD in Organizational Psychology) universities. He teaches courses in organizational and occupational health psychology as well as courses in research methodology and statistics. Kevin is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, the International Association for Applied Psychology and the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology. He is a former President of the Canadian Psychological Association. His research interests include leadership and occupational health psychology.
Dr. Robert Konopasky
PsychologyProfessor
Phone: 902-420-5855
Email: robert.konopasky@smu.ca
Dr. Konopasky joined the faculty at Saint Mary’s University in 1972 and is now a professor of psychology. His primary research interests are forensic psychology, especially methods of establishing cause of damages in civil suits. Dr. Konopasky has been qualified as an expert witness in psychology, has examined defendants who faced various criminal proceedings and provided the Courts with reports and testimony. He has also been qualified as an expert in civil matters and provided testimony and reports on damages because of sexual assault. Dr. Konopasky has been qualified as an expert by adjudicative labour boards and provided reports and testimony regarding plaintiffs facing disciplinary hearings. Apart from his interest in forensic psychology, Dr. Konopasky has investigated the use and impact of technology in the classroom.
Dr. Eden-Raye Lukacik
PsychologyAssistant Professor
Phone: 902-420-5858
Office: MS 315
Email: eden-raye.lukacik@smu.ca
Raye is an assistant professor of I/O psychology and joined the department at Saint Mary’s University in 2022. She received her PhD from the University of Calgary. Her work focuses on recruitment and selection including how technology is used to interview and assess candidates, how people search for jobs and how organizations recruit them, and how people use deception.
Dr. Marc Patry
PsychologyProfessor
Phone: 902-491-8605
Email: marc.patry@smu.ca
Marc Patry joined the Psychology Department at Saint Mary's University in 2005. His current research includes work on law and public policy, correctional psychology, and teaching and learning.
Dr. Nicolas Roulin
PsychologyProfessor
Phone: 902-420-5831
Email: nicolas.roulin@smu.ca
Nicolas Roulin is a Professor of I/O Psychology. He received his BS and MS in Management from the University of Lausanne and his PhD in I/O Psychology from the University of Neuchatel (both in Switzerland). Before moving to Saint Mary’s in 2017, he worked at the University of Lausanne and the University of Manitoba. His research is focused on personnel selection. He is particularly interested in applicant impression management and faking during the selection process, employment discrimination, and how to use new technologies (e.g., social media) as selection tools. He work has been published in journals such as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Organizational Psychology Review, or Journal of Business Ethics. He also recently published the book “The Psychology of Job Interviews”, which offers an extensive review of the academic literature and translates it into a series of evidence-based recommendations for practitioners and job seekers.
Dr. Steven Smith
PsychologyProfessor
Phone: 902-420-5581
Email: steven.smith@smu.ca
Steven M. Smith, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology. BA, Bishop's University (1995); M.A. and Ph.D. Queen's University (1997; 2000). Dr. Smith’s current research program involves a number of issues related to eyewitness identification, confession evidence, interpretation of recent Supreme Court decisions, the impact of media on public opinion, and the role of messaging in addiction and unhealthy behaviors, including gambling. He has published his research in such journals as Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Applied Psychology, Psychology Crime & Law, Law and Human Behavior, Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, and Psychology, Public Policy and Law. His research has been supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and The Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation, and several other organizations.
Dr. Skye Stephens
PsychologyAssociate Professor
Phone: 902-420-5083
Email: skye.stephens@smu.ca
Skye Stephens joined the Department of Psychology as an Assistant Professor in 2016. She completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Ryerson University and her predoctoral psychology internship at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. She has research and clinical interests in Clinical-Forensic Psychology. To date, her research has focused on sexual offending, specifically the role of atypical sexual interests in victim selection and sexual recidivism. Her other research interests are: paraphilias and hypersexuality in forensic and non-forensic populations; sexual violence prevention; criminal careers and desistance in those who have committed sexual offences; and the assessment and treatment of psychosis in forensic populations.
https://skyestephens.wordpress.com/
Dr. Veronica Stinson
PsychologyProfessor
Phone: 902-420-5861
Email: veronica.stinson@smu.ca
Dr. Stinson joined the faculty at Saint Mary's University in 1996 and is now a professor of psychology with research interests and experience in legal/forensic psychology. Recent research projects examine social cognitive factors that influence how people make decisions when they have to recall or recognize someone (for example, when someone witnesses a crime or accident), in the context of a police interview or interrogation, and in the context of a small group decision making task (for example, juror decision-making). She has worked on high-profile civil and criminal cases in the US and provided expert testimony in Canada.
Dr. Meg Ternes
PsychologyAssociate Professor
Phone: 902-420-5853
Email: meg.ternes@smu.ca
Dr. Meg Ternes joined the Psychology Department as an Assistant Professor in July 2014, after working for several years for the Correctional Service of Canada’s research branch. Meg completed her B.A. at St. Francis Xavier University in 2001, then went on to complete an M.A. (2003) and Ph.D. (2009) in Forensic Psychology at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests include substance use and addiction, correctional psychology, credibility assessment, eyewitness memory, and investigative interviewing.
Dr. Marc Blumberg
PsychologyPart-time Instructor
Email: marc.blumberg@smu.ca
Dr. Blumberg was previously employed as the psychologist for the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Nephrology Services for the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Prior to coming to the IWK, Dr. Blumberg was the supervising psychologist for the Behavioral Pediatrics Clinic of the Mailman Center for Child Development, Miami, Florida. He was also the psychologist for the Children's Oncology Service at Jackson Memorial. In addition to his clinical responsibilities, Dr. Blumberg was an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Miami School of Medicine, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, Florida, where he was very active in the behavioral medicine training program for pediatric residents.
Dr. Blumberg has taught a variety of graduate and undergraduate psychology courses at Universities throughout North America, including Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the University of Miami, in Miami, Florida, Mount Saint Vincent University, and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Dr. Blumberg currently teaches psychology courses at Saint Mary's University in Halifax. Undergraduate and graduate psychology courses taught have included Counselling & Psychotherapy, Behavior Problems in Children, Child Psychopathology, Adolescent Development, and Interviewing and Assessment of Children.
Dr. Pamela Yates
PsychologyAdjunct Professor, Part-time Instructor
Email: pamela.yates@smu.ca
Pamela Yates, Ph.D, R. Psych is an Adjunct Professor and Part-Time Instructor. BA (Honours) Saint Mary's University (1987); M.A.(with Distinction) and Ph.D. Carleton University (1990; 1996).
