New directors

The Faculty of Community Services is pleased to welcome the following new school directors this fall:

Esther Ignagni, Director, School of Disability Studies

Esther Ignagni draws from work, academic and lived experiences with disability, to inform her role as director of the School of Disability Studies. Since she joined the school in 2006, Ignagni's teaching has included the conceptual foundations of critical disability studies, theories of the state and research methodologies. Her current research explores the relationships between death, dying and disability in the advent of Canadian medical assistance in dying legislation. More generally, her research explores intimate citizenship: how disabled people create families and kinship, parent children, exercise reproductive rights and intimate justice within and against dis/ableist cultures. Before she obtained her PhD in public health sciences at the University of Toronto, she worked across a variety of community, activist and clinical settings.

Kathleen Peets, Director, School of Early Childhood Studies

Kathleen Peets brings experience as an RFA member of nine years to her new role as director of the School of Early Childhood Studies (ECS). In that time she has worked alongside colleagues within ECS and across FCS in many capacities, and is eager to work with a newly configured leadership team over the next three years. Peets’ area of research is in young children’s language and literacy, with an emphasis on oral storytelling and its relationship with aspects of text-based literacy. This work emerges from training in language and literacy through a sociocultural approach, but it continues to be informed by the vibrant intellectual community of ECS and community partnerships and collaborations. Currently, Peets is the project director of the ‘Cross-Cultural Play-Based Learning Partnership’ (SSHRC PDG) with co-investigator Patricia E. Falope, who heads the non-profit organization Early Childhood Development Initiative.  

Fiona Yeudall, Director, School of Nutrition

Fiona Yeudall joined the School of Nutrition in 2001, following PhD studies at the University of Otago. A Registered Dietitian since 1992, prior to graduate studies she worked as a community-based dietitian. Yeudall’s teaching focuses on dietetic practice, lifecycle nutrition, and food and nutrition policy. Her research explores the role of sustainable livelihoods and food systems in food and nutrition security. A recent project examined a food systems approach to increasing availability of, and access to, a locally produced fortified complementary food in Northern Vietnam. Past work focused on the role of urban agriculture in food and livelihood security in Canada, Kenya and Uganda, and training to build capacity among municipal actors for sustainable city region food systems policies and practices in Canada and Kenya. A member of Dietitians of Canada’s Sustainable Food Systems Leadership Team, Yeudall has also supported the work of Food Secure Canada and the Canadian Association for Food Studies as part of her service work, and through her leadership in the Centre for Food Security and urban agriculture on campus, including the Ryerson Urban Farm.  

Lynn Lavallée, Interim Director, School of Social Work

Lynn Lavallée joined Ryerson’s School of Social Work in 2005 as an assistant professor. She became associate professor in 2010 and full professor in 2019. Lavallée has taken on numerous administrative roles that have prepared her well for the responsibilities of interim director. She was the associate director of the School of Social Work from 2012-2016, interim director of field education from 2012-2013, chair of the Ryerson Research Ethics Board from 2013-2017, senator from 2010-2014, member of the Anti-Racism Taskforce 2008-2010, and has been on various university-, faculty- and school-level committees. Lavallée’s administrative experience includes vice provost Indigenous engagement for the University of Manitoba from September 2017 to December 2018. Upon returning to Ryerson University, Lavallée took on responsibilities of strategic lead, Indigenous resurgence in the Faculty of Community Services. While she carries out the responsibility of interim director of the School of Social Work she will also continue some of the major tasks related to her role as strategic lead, Indigenous resurgence.

Pamela Robinson, Director, School of Urban and Regional Planning

Throughout her career as a planner, Pamela Robinson’s research and practice have focused on complex, emergent challenges that Canadian communities face. Her research began with a focus on cities and climate change and now focuses more recently on how Canadian local governments use data and technology to mediate their relationships with citizens. As part of the SSHRC funded GEOTHINK.CA (external link)  research team, Robinson worked actively with Canadian local governments and civil society partners on the role of open data in municipal planning practice. Now with SSHRC funding she is the principal investigator of two grants that explore ‘who is planning the Canadian smart city?’ Robinson is the editor of Urban Sustainability: Reconnecting Space and Place (University of Toronto Press, 2013) and Teaching as Scholarship: Preparing Students for Professional Practice in Community Services (WLU Press, 2016).  From 2016-2019, Robinson was the inaugural associate dean of graduate studies and strategic initiatives for the Faculty of Community Services at Ryerson University.