A message from the Director

Dr. Ken Carter

This past year has been incredibly busy one for the Grenfell Office of Engagement (GOE) with exciting initiatives holding their official launches, many engagement events, and exciting funding announcements that will further the reach of entrepreneurship support in the region. GOE continues to prioritize building relationships between Grenfell's faculty, students and staff and community partners.

Jennifer Buxton, Engagement Co-ordinator, has been at the heart of GOE initiatives over the past year. Jennifer rejoined us after being on parental leave and has been leading many of our office's engagement projects. One of these is the continued important partnership with the City of Corner Brook with respect to the City-Engaged Learning program, where courses are tied directly with the city's strategic plans to provide solutions to real world problems at Corner Brook City Hall.

Another GOE initiative launched in September 2023 is the Memorial University Community Hub Network. Co-led by GOE, the Harris Centre and Labrador Campus, this network connects Memorial with 17 communities in Newfoundland and Labrador and is a testament to Memorial's commitment to the whole of the province.

The Centre for Research and Innovation (CRI) has been increasing its profile as an important part of the regional landscape. The partnership among Grenfell Campus, the College of the North Atlantic, and Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Ltd. is strong and is leading to many new research and teaching collaborations. Dr. Todd Hennessey's leadership as the Director of CRI is the driving force for many new initiatives. Many more exciting things are to come in 2024 in training and capacity building as Grenfell faculty across our schools take advantage of this incredible space.

Grenfell's commitment to the region remains strong, growing more and more with each day to support connections between Grenfell Campus and community and industry partners. We do this by building mutually beneficial relationships in engaged research and engaged teaching and learning. An example of this includes hosting two "speed networking" events that brought Indigenous leaders, community partners, municipalities, industry and other stakeholders together to connect with researchers at Grenfell Campus. These events were incredibly successful, and participants spoke highly of having this opportunity to connect and begin building relationships.

Grenfell Campus is situated on traditional Mi'kmaw territory; we strive to continuously build stronger relationships with our Indigenous communities. GOE supports Kristen Pittman in Grenfell's Office of Indigenous Affairs, who leads this important work. GOE and the Indigenous Affairs Office worked closely together on an Indigenous community and faculty speed networking event involving Indigenous leaders throughout the region. We look forward to more events of this kind in 2024.

Finally, I would like to highlight the work of the Navigate Entrepreneurship Centre and Incubator, and send a thank you to Dr. Billy Newel for his work on this initiative. 2023 has proven to be a pivotal year with significant growth at Navigate, which operates on both Grenfell and CNA campuses and at CRI. Dr. Todd Hennessey is leading the Navigate Makerspace at CRI. We thank our funders, ACOA and the Department of Industry, Energy and Technology for their continued support, with new two-year funding announced in 2023. Navigate continues to support entrepreneurship in the region through events, mentorship and one-on-one support for aspiring entrepreneurs. Navigate welcomed two new staff members in 2023, Dr. Brennan Lowery and Dr. Felipe Hansted, who are busy with all the activity that continues to take place. Keep an eye out for the Navigate newsletter to see all the upcoming events. I would like also to take this opportunity to thank Allison Rowe for her dedication to Navigate. She recently took on a role at College of the North Atlantic. We wish her well and know that we will continue to work with her in future through our partnership with CNA.

I hope as you read the stories contained in the 2023 Empowered by Community Report, you appreciate the important ways in which Grenfell Campus is collaborating with our community. I thank all the staff, faculty, and students who are leading and are part of these initiatives. We look forward to continuing the important work of supporting community-engaged research, teaching and learning projects and building new opportunities in the Western region.

Dr. Ken Carter
Director, Research and Engagement