Alan Shepard (academic)

Alan Shepard (born c. 1962)^[1] is an American-Canadian academic and the current and 11th president and vice-chancellor of Western University in London, Ontario, effective July 2019. He previously served as the president and vice-chancellor of Concordia University in Montreal.

Alan Shepard
11th President of the University of Western Ontario
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 July 2019
Chancellor	Kelly Meighen
Preceded by	Amit Chakma
4th President of the Concordia University
In office 1 August 2012 – 30 June 2019
Chancellor	L. Jacques Ménard Jonathan Wener
Preceded by	Judith Woodsworth Frederick Lowy (interim)
Succeeded by	Graham Carr
Personal details
Born	c.1962 (age 62–63) Iowa, U.S.
Citizenship	Canadian, American
Education	St. Olaf College (BA) University of Virginia (PhD)
Occupation	University academic and administrator
Academic background
Thesis	Marlowe's anatomy of desire (1990)
Academic work
Discipline	English literature
Sub-discipline	Early Modern English literature
Institutions	Texas Christian University University of Guelph Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) Concordia University University of Western Ontario

Early life and education

Shepard was born in Iowa, and is a dual citizen of both Canada and the United States.^[2] He has a background in Early Modern English literature. He received a B.A. in English literature from St. Olaf College in 1983^[3] and received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia in 1990.^[2][4]

Career

Shepard served as the chair of the English department at Texas Christian University from 1998 to 2002.^[2] He moved to Canada in 2002, where he began working as a visiting research fellow at the University of Toronto.^[2]

Shepard was hired as an associate vice-president academic at University of Guelph in 2005.^[2] In 2007, Shepard became the provost and vice-president academic at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University), where he worked until 2012.^[2] At Ryerson, Shepard led the development of a business incubator called the Digital Media Zone.^[5]

In August 2012, Shepard became the president and vice-chancellor of Concordia University in Montreal.^[6][7] His two predecessors, Judith Woodsworth and Claude Lajeunesse, were both removed midway through their terms due to scandals.^[8][9]

In November 2018, Shepard announced he would be leaving Concordia on 30 June 2019 to become the president and vice-chancellor of Western University in London, Ontario.^[7][8] In July 2019, Shepard replaced Amit Chakma to become the 11th president of Western.^[5][10] In December 2022 he was reappointed to a second term as President.^[11]

Shepard has served on the board of directors at Universities Canada, Stratford Festival, and the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal.^[12] He is currently chair of the Canadian Research Knowledge Network.^[4]