Brescia Welcomes New Assistant Professor, Dr. Roula Hawa

July 27 - Brescia University College is pleased to announce the appointment of our new faculty member, Dr. Roula Hawa as Assistant Professor in the Family Studies and Human Development program in the School of Behavioural and Social Sciences.

Dr. Hawa received her PhD in Leadership, Higher and Adult Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. She holds a Master of Science in Family Studies from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, a Master of Public Health from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, and a Bachelor of Education from OISE, University of Toronto.

Dr. Hawa is a seasoned educator who has a passion for teaching. She brings extensive teaching, curriculum writing and educational leadership experience in Ontario's K-12 public education system where she was a secondary school teacher and Department Head for Social Sciences and Humanities/Family Studies. Additionally, Dr. Hawa taught undergraduate and post-graduate students in family support and family studies at Ryerson University and Queen’s University.

Dr. Hawa has developed a strong program of research, with over $500,000 of grant funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) as a principal investigator and over 15 peer-reviewed publications to date. She is currently leading a CIHR-funded research study involving youth from Middle Eastern and North African communities in Canada in the area of sexual health and HIV prevention. She is also co-leading a rapid response research intervention study to address the stigma, fear, discrimination, and misinformation related to the COVID-19 outbreak. Dr. Hawa’s multi-method research is community-engaged and is focused on the social ecological approach to resilience, mental health and well-being in vulnerable populations, including racialized youth and women. She is currently working on a book chapter titled “Indigenous and Immigrant Realities Intertwined: Life Storytelling as a Vehicle for Hope, Belonging and Agency in Educational Settings”.

Dr. Lauretta Frederking, Vice-Principal and Academic Dean, states, "It's wonderful to have Roula as part of our Brescia community and we’re pleased she’s chose to join our school as we head into the next bold century of empowered women leaders!”