Strengthening collaboration and building a shared future

As your newly appointed interim provost and vice-president, academic, I am excited to share this first message with you. Although I’m not new to the university, this past week I have once again been reminded of how hard-working, passionate and encouraging our community is. 

For me, taking on the role of interim provost is an opportunity to support the advancement of the university’s strategic vision and to exemplify our values as an institution that is bold and collaborative, diverse and inclusive, and dedicated to excellence and sustainability. It’s also a chance to put a different lens on our activities, to build our transparent and transformative processes, and to champion all of the different innovative initiatives woven into our curriculum. 

As we move ahead, I look forward to learning, to building collaboration across the university, and to hearing perspectives and ideas from our community. Our academic mission is critical to our success as a university and I am pleased to work with a strong group of colleagues: deans and vice-provosts who are change makers dedicated to supporting the student experience, and who lead their diverse faculty representing varied and innovative disciplines. More than anything, as interim provost I look forward to supporting students, faculty and staff in all aspects of their work.

Following the pandemic we will continue to adapt to the future of work, teaching and learning and our on-campus presence will continue to evolve as we establish more positive in-person experiences. Beyond our pandemic recovery, we have an opportunity to expand support for international students and an ongoing responsibility to weave our equity, diversity and inclusion priorities throughout all of our other strategies. 

I am truly grateful to President Lachemi for the opportunity to contribute to the university community in this new position. I would also like to thank Jennifer Simpson for her significant contributions as provost and vice-president, academic. Her leadership as chair of the University Renaming Advisory Committee was pivotal to the identification and adoption of a new name that speaks clearly to our values and commitments as a community. I wish her all the best in the role of Special Advisor to the President and I look forward to working with her in this new capacity.

I am really delighted to engage with our TMU community in this role and I encourage you to reach out to me at provost@torontomu.ca to discuss our priorities as a community and how we can address them collegially and collaboratively.

Roberta Iannacito-Provenzano

Interim Provost and Vice-President, Academic