Staff Contacts

Marlies Rise, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice-President, Research Services
Email: marlies.rise@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-3859

Areas of responsibility:
• oversees ORS research processes and policies
• signs off on research funding applications and awards following review by ORS staff
• involved in major institutional applications
• liaises with Dal central units, hospital research offices and funding agencies
• undertakes institutional reporting.



Trevor Weissent, MBA
Managing Director, Finance and Operations
Email: trevor.weissent@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1743

Areas of responsibility:
• advises on and oversees Dalhousie Research and Innovation budgets
• advises on and provides financial oversight of Dalhousie’s large-scale institutional research projects
• oversees ORS post award processes and administration, information management, human resources, and facilities management

Shelley Brown, Ph.D.
Director, Strategic Initiatives and Programs
Email: shelley.brown@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-8885

Areas of responsibility:
• oversees development of large-scale funding applications
• advises on and leads strategic developments in ORS
• oversees ORS pre-award processes and administration
 

Jessica Morin
Indigenous Research Facilitator
Email: jessica.morin@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1734

• Dedicated to supporting Dalhousie’s Indigenous research community
• Facilitates grant applications to internal funding opportunities and external funding agencies
• Supports the development of research ethics submissions
• Coordinates outreach and information sessions for opportunities relevant to the Indigenous research community.

Under Recruitment
Research Administrator, Analysis & Projects 

Esther Akinkugbe, LL.B, LL.M
Legal Advisor
Email: esther.akinkugbe@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-3431  

Areas of responsibility:
• reviews legal agreements for ORS units (except OCIE) related to research at Dalhousie including grants, contracts, transfer agreements, inter-institutional agreements, service agreements, sub-site agreements, clinical trials and other research matters
• provides legal advice on research-related issues through liaison with the Legal Counsel Office and provides advice on policies related to research.

Ayodeji Adeniran, LL.B, LL.M, MBA
Contracts Specialist
Email: a.adeniran@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-5143

Areas of responsibility:
• Drafts, reviews and negotiates research grants, contracts and related agreements
• Provides contract administration support within ORS Legal
• Liaises with ORS units researchers, research accounting, financial services, as required on progress of contract review.




Khyati Raval, BMS
Contracts Support Specialist &
ORS Administrative Assistant
Email: ORSLegal@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-4564

Areas of responsibility:
• provides specialized administrative support to ORS Legal
• serves as initial contact for ORS Legal and liaises with researchers and other departments on requests and queries
• provides administrative support to ORS units.

Catherine Connors, MPA
Director, Research Ethics
Email: catherine.connors@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1462

Areas of responsibility:
• oversees University’s Research Ethics Boards, Research Ethics unit and manages ethics review and oversight process for research involving humans
• develops policy, procedures and educational resources
• provides ethical guidance to researchers, responds to research participant concerns and serves as principal liaison on ethics issues with external stakeholders.

Angela Hersey, MES
Manager, Research Ethics
Email: Angela.Hersey@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1895

Areas of responsibility:
• advises researchers on project-related ethical issues
• prepares review letters.

Kait Tornblom, BSc
Ethics Support Specialist &
ORS Administrative Assistant (temporary)
Email: k.tornblom@dal.ca / ethics@dal.ca Phone: 902-494-3423

Areas of responsibility:
• serves as initial contact for inquiries and coordinates Board meetings
• facilitates the research ethics review process for initial submissions, re-submissions, amendment requests, continuing and final reports, and release of funds requests
• communicates REB decisions to researchers.

David Spurrell, Ph.D.
Manager, Grants and Contracts
Faculties of Science and Engineering
Email: david.spurrell@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1160

Areas of responsibility:
• manages Grants and Contracts Unit
• facilitates grant applications to the Tri-Agency and other Canadian funding agencies
• organizes outreach sessions and manages Dalhousie’s NSERC internal funding programs.



Christine Whitehouse, Ph.D.
Research Grants Facilitator (on leave)
Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences, Law, Management, Computer Science, Architecture and Planning
Email: christine.whitehouse@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-2872  

Areas of responsibility:
• facilitates grant applications to the Tri-Agency and other Canadian funding agencies
• organizes outreach sessions and educational resources
• manages Dalhousie’s SSHRC internal funding programs.



Susan Haydt, Ph.D.
Research Grants Facilitator 
Faculties of Dentistry, Health, Medicine (and Biomedical Engineering)
Email: susan.haydt@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1333 

Areas of responsibility:
• facilitates grants applications to the Tri-Agency and other Canadian funding agencies
• organizes outreach sessions and educational resources.
 

Under Recruitment
Research Grants Facilitator

 
Jim Karle, Ph.D.
Research Administrator (temporary)
Email: J.Karle@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-4343

Areas of responsibility:
• supports the processing of grant applications and associated documentation
• updates and maintains grant application statistics and reports
• facilitates outreach sessions and events.
 

Sara Murphy
Research and Development Coordinator
(Agricultural Campus)
Email: sara.murphy@dal.ca  Phone: 902-893-6028

Areas of responsibility:
• facilitates grant applications from the Faculty of Agriculture 
• advises on funding programs and university processes and policies 
• organizes outreach events on the Agricultural campus.

Inga Slišković, Ph.D.
Manager, Post-Award
Email: inga.sliskovic@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1848

Areas of responsibility:
• oversees the post award process facilitation and improvement at Dalhousie
• advises Dalhousie researchers on University and funding agency processes, guidelines, and policies
• organizes outreach sessions for the Dalhousie research community to improve effective post award research fund management.
 

Caroline Sequeira, BA
Research Grants Officer, Post-award (on leave)
Grants and Contracts
Faculties of Agriculture, Architecture and Planning, Arts and Social Sciences, Computer Science, Engineering, Law, Management and Science
Email: caroline.sequeira@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-2247

Areas of responsibility:
• authorizes the opening of research accounts
• facilitates the transfer of funds between institutions
• ensures compliance with university and agency policies and procedures.

Annie Laroche, MLIS
Research Grants Officer, Post-award (on leave)
Grants and Contracts
Faculties of Dentistry, Health and Medicine
Email: annie.laroche@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1039

Areas of responsibility:
• authorizes the opening of research accounts
• facilitates the transfer of funds between institutions
• ensures compliance with university and agency policies and procedures.
 

Cheryl Paris
Research Officer & Animal Care Coordinator
Grants and Contracts
(Agricultural Campus)
Email: cheryl.paris@dal.ca  Phone: 902-893-2635

Areas of responsibility:
• provides post-award support for the Faculty of Agriculture (grants and contracts)
• coordinates Animal Ethics for Agricultural campus.

Under Recruitment
Research Grants Officer (term) 

Jaq-Lin Larder, MLIS
Information Management Administrator
Email: jaq-lin.larder@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-3853

Areas of responsibility:
• oversees quality assurance for ROMEO research database and Researcher Portal
• prepares periodic and ad-hoc research funding reports
• compiles and delivers the ORS weekly newsletter, and acts as ORS web administrator
• oversees records management procedures for paper and electronic records.

Ida Maria de Oliveira, M.Sc.
Data Technician
Email: Ida.Oliveira@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1376

Areas of responsibility:
• provides support to Research Portal users
• compiles quality assurance reports
• inputs research data into ROMEO database.

Under Recruitment
Manager, Institutional and International Programs
Email: TBA  Phone: TBA

Areas of responsibility:
• manages CRC, CFI, NFRF and other major institutional funding programs
• advises on funding agency and University policies and procedures
• coordinates teams for large-scale institutional applications and liaises with external consultant.

Sydney Dale-McGrath, MA
Facilitator, Institutional and International Programs (term)
Email: Sydney.Dale-McGrath@Dal.Ca  Phone: 902-494-3036

Areas of responsibility:
• facilitates and reviews applications to Genome Canada, CFI JELF and RNS
• manages reporting to CFI and RNS.
 

Erin Murphy, Ph.D.
Facilitator, Institutional and International Programs
Email: Erin.Murphy@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-2997

Areas of responsibility:
• Facilitates and reviews applications to international funding opportunities, including NIH, Horizon Europe, and funding opportunities to support international collaboration, including IRDC, GAC and DFATD
• Supports institutional applications to CRC, CFI and NFRF (Transformation and International)
• Organises outreach sessions and educational resources.
 

Chris Wirz
Financial Administrator (on leave)
Email: chris.wirz@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1742 

Areas of responsibility:
• assists with the development of proposal budgets (international and institutional)
• provides financial oversight on Dalhousie international project accounts
• provides financial administrative support for various OVPRI/ORS accounts.
 

Under Recruitment
Research Administrator
Email: TBD  Phone: 902-494-1862

Areas of responsibility:
• Supports the pre-award facilitation for international funding opportunities
• Responsible for post-award administration for grants from international funding opportunities, including authorization of opening of research accounts and transfer of funds

Elspeth White, M.Sc.
Research Administrator
Email: Elspeth.White@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-3273

Areas of responsibility:
• facilitates CFI post-award, including Infrastructure Operating Fund (IOF)
• coordinates large-scale institutional competitions.
 

Amanda Leslie, MFA
Research Administrator (temporary)
Email: Amanda.Leslie@dal.ca  Phone: 902-494-1738

Areas of responsibility:
• supports processing of International applications and documentation.