Some new and familiar faces will be on Queen’s campus this fall to begin four fellowships within the School of Policy Studies.

“Our academic fellows enrich the student learning experience and raise our profile as an important contributor to public policy debate and development,” says David Walker, Executive Director, School of Policy Studies. “The appointees’ expertise and experience will continue to be a tremendous asset for the school.”

Jamshed Merchant, who has been Canada’s consul general in Minneapolis from 2012 to 2016, will join SPS on an executive interchange from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Mr. Merchant has served in both academic and public service roles during his 37-year career. After starting out as a university lecturer, he served as a soil scientist and soil conservationist for nearly 20 years. He joined the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat in 2003 before returning to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in 2007. He was appointed assistant deputy minister of the Agri-Environment Services Branch in 2008.

Margaret Biggs, who retired from the Government of Canada in spring 2016, will become the Matthews Fellow in Global Public Policy. Ms. Biggs was president of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) from 2008 to 2013. During that time, she played an important role in developing and implementing Canada’s global public policy in areas such as maternal and child health, food security, economic growth, and democratic governance. Ms. Biggs will be familiar to many at Queen’s, having previously served as the Skelton-Clark Fellow in the School of Policy Studies.

Don Drummond has been renewed as the Stauffer-Dunning Fellow in Policy Studies. Mr. Drummond built a 23-year career with Finance Canada in the areas of economic analysis and forecasting, fiscal policy, and tax policy. He progressed to the position of associate deputy minister, where he was responsible for economic analysis, fiscal policy, tax policy, social policy, and federal-provincial relations. He also coordinated the planning of the annual federal budgets. He left the federal public service in 2000 to become the senior vice president and chief economist at TD Bank until 2010. 

Morah Fenning will return to the School of Policy Studies for a second year as the Ontario Public Service (OPS) Amethyst Fellow. Ms. Fenning is on secondment from the OPS, where she most recently served as the assistant deputy minister of the tourism planning and operations division. During her distinguished public service career of more than 25 years in the OPS, Ms. Fenning has developed a breadth of expertise in implementing public policy in both operational and regulatory environments, both within government and through agencies of government. In addition to her most recent work in the tourism planning and operations division, Ms. Fenning has worked at senior levels in the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Correctional Services, and the Ministry of the Solicitor General.

Building on its rich tradition of service to the nation, Queen’s School of Policy Studies continues to contribute to public policy through knowledge creation, dissemination of research and support for learning, making important contributions to the public good at Queen’s University, in Canada, and the world. Visit the SPS website for more information about its programs, research, publications, conferences, and events.