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COVID-19 information and screening. Learn how we’re keeping our campus community safe, healthy and engaged during our gradual return to campus.
Note: The university’s mandatory vaccine directive is now in effect. Learn more about vaccine requirements.
COVID-19 information and screening.

Learn how we’re keeping our campus community safe, healthy and engaged during our gradual return to campus.
Note: The university’s mandatory vaccine directive is now in effect. Learn more about vaccine requirements.

Ontario Tech acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

Learn more about Indigenous Education and Cultural Services

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Adjunct professors

Jeffrey Abracen, PhD

Dr. Jeffrey Abracen is a Chief Psychologist for the Central District (Ontario) Parole, Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). He has expertise in the study, assessment and treatment of high-risk offenders, as well as a number of other types of offenders. He is also a fellow of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA). In his role at CSC, he is responsible for engaging in both research and treatment. His research has primarily focused on treatment effectiveness for sexual offenders, the role of substance abuse, and predictors of sexual recidivism. Dr. Abracen has experience working in general sexology, a high-security correctional facility and community corrections. This breadth of experience allows him to provide insights into working with people with issues related to problematic sexual interests and behaviour more generally, as well as those who have committed various types of crimes, and the most effective approaches to assessment and rehabilitation.

Nawal Ammar, PhD

Dr. Nawal Ammar is the Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rowan University in New Jersey. Prior to joining Rowan, Dr. Ammar spent nine years as the Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at Ontario Tech University. Before her tenures with these universities, Dr. Ammar held a variety of positions for numerous organizations, both in the U.S. and beyond North America, including the Institute of Women Studies in the Arab in Beirut-Lebanon, the Institute of Community Research in Hartford Connecticut, and the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department in Youngstown, Ohio. Her recent research includes studies on elder abuse in the Greater Toronto Area, violence against immigrant women in Canada and the United States, as well as working on socio-legal issues related to Muslim women, both in western and in Arab courts.

James Brown

An Adjunct Professor with the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities since 2017, James has more than 30 years of experience in policing at the municipal and international level, and has been seconded to work with provincial and state agencies as well as with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). His international experience includes leading community consultations across Eastern Europe, leading police development missions to Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Hungary, and leading ministerial-level negotiations on police training focus. During this time, he led a team of international police officers in the design and delivery of the OSCE Law Enforcement Officers training program in responding to hate crimes in the OSCE region. His Canadian police experience focused on major project management, designing and leading police reform and organizational change, business-process mapping and analysis along with threat, risk and vulnerability analysis. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Policing, Security and Community Safety at London Metropolitan University, where his research focuses on human trafficking data collection, the evaluation of police data capture as it relates to human trafficking, and an evaluation of police service capacity to respond to, and investigate, incidents of human trafficking.

Sonja Brubacher, PhD

Dr. Sonja Brubacher earned her doctoral degree in developmental psychology in 2011 from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. She served for three years as a Lecturer and Trainer at Deakin University's Centre for Investigative Interviewing in Melbourne, Australia. From 2012 to 2014, she held a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship at Central Michigan University. Dr. Brubacher maintains an active program of research at the intersection of developmental and forensic psychology with 47 peer-reviewed journal articles published in addition to numerous book chapters and other professional reports. Her research examines the cognitive underpinnings of children's memory development, and the socio-motivational factors that influence whether and how children's memories are reported to others, including in investigative interviews. Dr. Brubacher has supervised and co-supervised many undergraduate and graduate students at various institutions. She has also taught Introduction to Developmental Psychology, Research in Cognitive Psychology, and several forensic interviewing courses. 

Aziz Douai, PhD

Dr. Aziz Douai earned his PhD in Mass Communications from the Pennsylvania State University and master’s degree in Advertising from Boston University. He is the recipient of the Fulbright scholarship and the Insight Development grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. In addition to supervising student research at the undergraduate and graduate levels, he has lectured on international communications and media studies in the U.S., Switzerland and Canada.

Dr. Douai’s research interests focus on global communications, social and political implications of new media, political economy of communications, media and terrorism, and ethnic media. A specialist in international communications, his research has encompassed global media and international politics including news media’s coverage of terrorism. He is the co-editor of New Media Influence on Social and Political Change in Africa (IGI-Global, 2013). He has published more than 40 journal articles and book chapters in international peer-reviewed periodicals including:

  • Canadian Journal of Communication
  • Global Media Journal
  • Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
  • Journal of International Communication
  • Technology in Society

Rob Elkington, PhD

Rob Elkington, Ph.D., currently resides in Canada, where he serves as the CEO of Global Leadership Initiatives, Inc., which exists to "develop excellence in leadership globally,"  www.globalleader.ca. Rob also serves on the faculty of various universities such as Adjunct Professor at the Ontario Tech University in the Faculty of Social Science and the Faculty of Education, Senior Lecturer at Stellenbosch University School of Public Leadership, and Trent University Master of Management program. These affiliations provide research opportunities and support the development and facilitation of several undergraduate and graduate courses related to leadership. These courses include Foundations of Leadership; Leadership and Technology; Leadership Fundamentals; Leadership and Administration; Strategic Management; Organizational Effectiveness; Cross-Cultural Leadership Development and Training. Collaborative Leadership; Leadership, Negotiation, and Teamwork; Critical Thinking and Ethics; Ethical Leadership. Rob also works with the Ontario Tech University's Continuous Learning Centre to develop and facilitate numerous courses for public and private-sector orgaizations. Rob's research interests centre around topics such as:

  • Seeking Best Methods for Leadership Development
  • Seeking Best Methods for Police Leadership Development,
  • Ubuntu and African Leadership,
  • VUCA and VUCA Prime in Leadership,
  • The Efficacy of an Online Program for Leadership Development,
  • Simulations as a Leadership Development Tool,
  • Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership,
  • Emerging Issues in Higher Educational Leadership, and
  • Leadership Decision Making Leveraging Big Data and Critical Thinking in Organizations. 

Rob is a member of the International Leadership Association; an ICF FLOW Certified Coach, and an MBTI practitioner. He has published a range of books, book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles and has facilitated numerous peer-reviewed presentations. 

Ainslie Heasman, PhD

Dr. Ainslie Heasman is a Clinical Psychologist in the Sexual Behaviour Clinics at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and an Associate at the Centre for Interpersonal Relations. She has expertise in the assessment (including risk assessment) and treatment of mentally ill and sexual offenders, and people with other sexological problems (e.g. hypersexuality). She has been involved in program development for people with serious mental illness who have been found Not Criminally Responsible or Unfit to Stand Trial. As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Heasman has practical experience that will be invaluable to our Forensic Psychology program and students. She has firsthand experience dealing with issues with a number of forensic populations, as well as other populations with complex mental health needs. This includes experience considering and working through ethical issues in forensic psychology.

Krystal Martin, PhD

Krystal Martin is an experienced Clinical and Forensic Psychologist. She received her PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Toronto. Currently, she holds a position as a research scientist at Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences. Her areas of research include forensic mental health, de-escalation, resiliency, trauma, policing, and first responders. Dr. Martin is also an adjunct faculty member at York University and works closely with the Durham Regional Police Service by providing training, education and consultation.

Tim McTiernan, PhD

Tim McTiernan is the President Emeritus for Ontario Tech University. He received his PhD in Psychology from the University of British Columbia in 1982. His major area of research in social psychology was on stereotyping processes. He also researched environmental attitudes and quantitative and qualitative-based data collection in diverse community settings. He joined Ontario Tech University from the University of Toronto. 

Alana Saulnier, PhD

Dr. Alana Saulnier earned her Master of Arts in Criminology at Ontario Tech University and her doctorate degree in Sociology at Queen's University. After graduating from Queen's, she served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she continued to develop her independent research program. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Interdisciplinary Studies Department at Lakehead University. Her scholarship blends theoretical work in procedural justice, building upon work from her research at Ontario Tech, with applied research in surveillance studies, building upon her work at Queen's. Her research examines the topic of body-worn cameras. Dr. Saulnier has active research collaborations with the Ontario Provincial Police and the Durham Regional Police Service. To date, she has authored 10 peer-reviewed articles, two book chapters, and numerous conference and invited presentations.