Biography
Susan Toews joined the Centre for Preparatory and Liberal Studies (CPLS) as Dean in February 2020, following seven years as Director of Student Affairs, where she was responsible for a range of services to support student success. Driven by a strong belief in cross-college collaboration for maximum positive impact, Susan has provided strategic leadership to various team initiatives, including Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Academic Pilot and Service Review projects, Healthy Campus, PeerConnect, Access and Inclusion Coaching, and the integration of soft skills for the future of work within Career Services. Before joining Student Affairs, Susan served as Academic Chair, School of Work and College Preparation, for 6 years, where she was extremely honored in 2012 to receive the President’s Achievement Award for Leadership, having been nominated by faculty and staff.
Susan’s contributions to the college sector include serving as provincial chair of Heads of Student Affairs (2018 - 2020), where she actively advocated for provincial collaboration on access, inclusion, and student well-being initiatives. Susan has presented at multiple conferences, including keynote panelist at the 2nd Pan-Canadian UDL Conference (UPEI 2017) where she addressed the need to see beyond individual teaching responsibilities and develop the institutional infrastructure for UDL implementation to positively impact the student learning experience.
Prior to her work at George Brown College, Susan held leadership positions at non-profit education organizations, managing curriculum and resource development projects, coordinating provincial trainings, and guiding e-learning curriculum development for use in adult literacy centers across Ontario, including programs for Francophone, Deaf, and Indigenous learners. As a teacher for 12 years, Susan developed curriculum in adult ESL, upgrading, and labour adjustment programs, authored an initial assessment guide that was chosen by Literacy Services of Canada for distribution, and was selected to serve as peer trainer for practitioners across the province adopting personalized learning outcomes program design.
Susan holds an M.Ed. from OISE/University of Toronto (psychology/curriculum), a B.A. from Trent (psychology), and has studied and worked in Germany and Poland. In addition to extensive professional development in education, Susan has more recently earned certificates in administrative law and policy for effective leadership through Osgoode /York U, CACUSS Institutes, Stitt Feld Handy/Windsor U, and Rubin Thomlinson.
