From: Linda Johnston, Vice-President and Principal, UTSC 
Date: June 5, 2025
Re: Appointment of Professor Alison Mountz as Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation, University of Toronto Scarborough (PDAD&C #44)

It is with great pleasure that I write to inform you that that the Agenda Committee of the Academic Board has approved the appointment of Professor Alison Mountz as Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation, UTSC, for a five-year term effective July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2030, including a one-year administrative leave. 

Professor Mountz has been serving as the Interim Vice-Principal, Research & Innovation, UTSC since October 1, 2024. Between April 29, 2024 and September 30, 2024, she served as Acting Vice-Principal, Research & Innovation, UTSC. During this time, Professor Mountz has demonstrated superb leadership, steering the work of partnership development, strategic investment, and resource allocation, instilling a culture of transparency as well as recognition, celebration, and pride in collective research and innovation accomplishments at UTSC. She has prioritized expanding and growing research capacity, infrastructure and external funding and has led the team in the Office of the Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation (OVPRI) to build tools that incorporate equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) throughout the research lifecycle. As a Co-Chair of the UTSC Research Support Task Force, Professor Mountz has been instrumental in a collaboration between the OVPRI, UTSC Library, and Information & Instructional Technology Services (IITS) that focuses on streamlining access to research-related information and supports on campus. Professor Mountz also oversaw the launch of the newest incubator at UTSC, the Sam Ibrahim Centre for Inclusive Excellence in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Leadership (SICIEEIL).

Prior to moving to UTSC as the inaugural Associate Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation – Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships, Professor Mountz was a faculty member at Syracuse University from 2003 to 2011 and Wilfrid Laurier University from 2011 to 2023 where she held a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Global Migration and directed the International Migration Research Centre. She also spent two years as visiting faculty at Harvard’s Canada Program in the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, most recently as the William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies.

In addition to authoring several award-winning books, Professor Mountz has published over 100 articles and essays, which have been cited over 12,000 times, achieving an H-index of 49. Her research leadership has been recognized with membership in the College of the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Geographical Society. In 2020, Professor Mountz produced and co-directed an award-winning, feature-length film, Safe Haven, available on Kanopy. From 2016 to 2023, Professor Mountz re-launched and edited the journal Environment & Planning C: Politics & Space.

Professor Mountz holds a graduate appointment in the Department of Geography & Planning. She is a political geographer, best known internationally for her scholarship on migration, border-crossings, and the search for political asylum. She holds degrees from Dartmouth College (BA), Hunter College – City University of New York (MA), and the University of British Columbia (PhD).

I wish to thank the members of the Advisory Committee for their commitment of time and whose thoughtful insights and engagement have been valuable in supporting this important process.

Please join me in congratulating Professor Mountz. With her collaborative and consultative leadership, I look forward to seeing UTSC’s vision for excellence in research and innovation flourish in the years to come.