Lorna Stefanick, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Coordinator
BPA-Governance, Law and Management
Email: lornas@athabascau.ca
Phone: (780) 438-0128 or 1-877-275-0483

Ph.D.: Queen's University ( Kingston)
MA: University of Calgary
BA: University of British Columbia

My association with Athabasca University is a long one. The first university course I registered in over 25 years ago was a distance course at AU. I chipped away at a university degree for a number of years while being a ski bum and delivering Her Majesty's mail. I eventually graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations from UBC in Vancouver. My master's degree from the university of Calgary was completed much the same way, part-time, in between having children. I completed my Ph.D. in 1996 at Queens University, taught my first course for AU the following year, and have worked part-time for AU for the next six years while serving as a faculty member at other universities. I moved to AU in a fulltime capacity in 2004 to assume leadership of its Governance program. These early experiences as a "non traditional" university student shaped my democratic approach to post-secondary education. I believe strongly that knowledge and skill development are not the preserve of society's elite, we all collectively benefit when barriers to higher education are removed.

I can also claim to be one of the few professors in Alberta who has taught at all the province's major universities: Calgary, Lethbridge and Alberta. These appointments have included significant experience developing courses and course components for the online environment. These include the development of national programs in Information Access and Protection of Privacy and Local Government Administration; the latter program won the 2003 CAUCE Award of Excellence Program Award. Aside from providing needed professional development for public administrators in two important areas, this program work was particularly rewarding as it allows adult learners who might otherwise be excluded to participate in an interactive instructional experience with students from across Canada.

My research interests are as diverse as my teaching background. My graduate work and early publications focused on environmental policy and environmental interest groups. In recent years, however, I have written papers and made presentations on administrative accountability, access and privacy legislation, cyber communities, online learning and local government. As Coordinator of the Governance Program, I look forward to continuing my research on issues of interest to students of public administration.

Recent Publications:

  • Alberta's Ombudsman: Following Responsibility in an Era of Outsourcing," in Canadian Ombudsman, Stewart Hyson, ed., Institute of Public Administration of Canada, Toronto, forthcoming 2009.
  • "Outsourcing and Transborder Data Flows:  the Challenge of Protecting Personal Information Under the Shadow of the USA Patriot Act," International Review of Administrative Sciences, vol. 73, December 2007.
  • "Limitations to Developing Virtual Communities in the Public Sector: A Local Government Case Study," (with Edward C. LeSage, Jr.), Canadian Public Administration, vol. 48, no. 2, summer 2005.
  • "Online Learning: A new partnership delivers national local government program," in Municipal World, June 2003, with John Sinclair and Jack Novack
  • "New Social Movements and the Environmental Policy Process: The Case of Alberta's Castle Wilderness Area," in Joanna Everitt and Brenda O'Neill, Citizen Politics: Research and Theory in Canadian Political Behaviour, Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2002.
    • "Baby Stumpy and the War in the Woods: WCWC and Environmental Radicalism in BC," BC Studies no. 130, summer 2001.
  • "Environmentalism and Environmental Actors in the Canadian Forest Sector," in Michael Howlett (ed.), Canadian Forest Policy: Regimes, Policy Dynamics and Institutional Adaptations (University of Toronto Press, 2001).
  • "Alberta's Special Places 2000: Conflict, Consultation, and the Castle Crown Wilderness," in Stephen Bocking (ed.) in Canadian Perspectives on Biodiversity (Peterborough: Broadview University Press, 2000), with Kathleen Wells, a former UofL undergraduate student and research assistant.

Upcoming/recent conference Presentations

  • "The Search for Paradise: Amenity migration and the growing pains of western Canadian mountain towns" presented at the New Zealand Political Science Association Annual General Meeting, Auckland, NZ, Aug 2008.
  • "The War in the Woods Revisited: the Shifting Landscape of Environmental Advocacy Groups in BC" presented at the Association for Non Profits and Social Economy Research Meeting, Vancouver, BC, June 2008.
  • "Transboundary Conservation: Citizens, Security, and Cross Border Collaboration" presented at the Border Regions In Transition IX conference, Victoria BC and Bellingham WA, January 2008.
  • "Transborder Data Flows: Canadian, US, and European Approaches to the Protection of Information Privacy", a poster presentation at the Canadian Political Science Annual General Meeting, Toronto, 2006.
  • "Outsourcing and Transborder Data Flows:  the Challenge of Protecting Personal Information Under the Shadow of the USA Patriot Act," presented at the Commonwealth Association of Public Administration Managers' Biennial General Meeting and published in proceedings, Sydney Australia, 2006.
  • "Alberta's Ombudsman: the Impact of Outsourcing on Administrative Accountability" presented at the Canadian Political Science Association annual general meeting, York University, Toronto, June 2006.
  • "The US Patriot Act, New Public Management and the Impact of Outsourcing on the Protection of Personal Information" presented at the University of Calgary, Department of Political Science, February 2006.
  • "New Regionalist Metropolitan Action: The Case of the Alberta Capital Region Alliance," presented at the Canadian Political Science Annual General Meeting, Winnipeg, 2004, with Edward C. LeSage, Jr.
  • "Comparing and Contrasting Practical and Academic Approaches to Privacy," panel participant for "Making Privacy Work" University of Calgary, Centre for Information Security and Cryptography, Calgary, May 2004.
  • "Alberta's MuniMall," presented at the IPAC National Forum, Ottawa, Nov. 4, 2003.
  • "NACCLA: Providing Professional Development Opportunities to Local Government Administrators," presented at the annual general meeting of the International Institute of Municipal Clerks, Columbus, Ohio, May 2003, with Jack Novack.
  • "Blueprint for Online Partnering in National University Programs," presented at the annual meeting, Canadian Association for University Continuing Education, Halifax, 2002, with Christine Marles and Jack Novack.
  • "Draft Model for Collaborative Development and Delivery of Online In-Service Programs," Office of Learning Technologies Project Wrap-Up Mini Conference, Toronto, 2002, with Jared Paisley.
  • "On-line Collaboration: the challenges and opportunities" presented at the Canadian Association of University and Continuing Education Conference in Victoria, May 2001, with Christine Marles.
  • "Local Government Administrators Use of Information Communications Technology," presented at "Exploring the E-Frontier: Public Administration in a Knowledge Society," presented at the Institute of Public Administration in Canada National Conference, Edmonton, May 2001, with Edward C. Lesage Jr., Christine Marles, and Stanley Varnhagen.
  • "Partnerships, pedagogy and possibilities" presented at the Technology/Pedagogy/Politics: What's Next? Presented Conference in Calgary, May 2001, with Christine Marles.
  • Organizer and Chair of a "Policy Making - Implications of Online Service Delivery" for the Technology in Local Government Conference, Edmonton, AB, June 2000.
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Student and Academic Services - Last Updated October 27, 2008, 14:02:55 MST/MDT