Advisory board

The Green College advisory board advises the principal on all aspects of the college’s organization, membership, programming, and development. The current members of the advisory board are:

ARNIE GUHA, PhD, MA, BA

Arnie Guha is the multidisciplinary creative behind Acid4Yuppies, which focuses on experiential art works – from illuminated light boxes and electric murals, to psychedelics-inspired scarves and fine art prints. His 'trippy' works are complemented by an extensive body of minimalist photography and portraiture. From vivid colours to subdued hues, his practice explores both realms of the visual experience from extreme intensity to soft suggestion.

Born and raised in Jadavpur, a fabled neighbourhood at the southern edge of Calcutta, India, Arnie spent much of his childhood in neighbourhood printing shops, and at the local portrait photographer’s studio, where he became fascinated by the intersection of painting and photography as he watched the photo-artist manually touch up pictures with brush and pencil.

Educated at Jadavpur University, Calcutta, and then at Cambridge University, UK, Arnie fell in love with medieval manuscripts: the unapologetic vibrance of the colours and the power of the image to communicate what remains ineffable in the verbal realm. This would later inform his doctoral work on secondary orality and information visualization in digital, hypertextual environments at the University of British Columbia, where he was also a resident member of Green College.

Since then, Arnie has built a leading Canadian Experience Design practice at Phase 5, where his clients include the London Stock Exchange Group, media companies and several of Canada’s largest banks. When COVID-19 put a halt to traveling, he found himself meditating in his garden in downtown Toronto. Acid4Yuppies is his collection of transformative art, born out of meditation during the forced stillness of COVID-19.

Arnie splits his time between Toronto and Montreal, and enjoys collaborating with DJs and other visual artists to create experiential, accessible art. His last solo exhibit, “Northern Borealis,” was held at the John B. Aird Gallery in Toronto, in the summer of 2022. In October 2022, Arnie’s experimental video, “Entropy: A Walk in the Woods” was exhibited as part of NOCTURE: ART AT NIGHT in Dartmouth, N.S.

AJAY AGRAWAL, PhD, MEng, MBA, BSc, CM
Geoffrey Taber Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

I am the Geoffrey Taber Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management; research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA; faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Toronto; and board member at Carnegie Mellon University’s Block Center for Technology and Society in Pittsburgh, PA. I have published many scholarly articles on the economics of innovation and am co-author of Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence and co-editor of The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda. I serve on the editorial boards of Management Science and the Strategic Management Journal. I am founder of the Creative Destruction Lab and co-founder of Next Canada, both of which are not-for-profit programs to support entrepreneurs. I am a proud alumnus of UBC and former resident member of Green College and served as chauffeur for Sir Cecil Green during one of his visits to the college.

MELINA BUCKLEY

More information to be posted soon.

MICHAEL P. CLARK, MScBA, MSc, BSc
Chair of the board of directors, Clos du Soleil Winery

Michael Clark is the board chair, managing director and winemaker of Clos du Soleil Winery, a boutique winery producing internationally award-winning wines in British Columbia’s Similkameen Valley.  Prior to his career in wine, Michael worked in investment management in multiple countries where he held senior roles at Alpstar Hedge Funds, a Swiss-based alternative asset manager; Lombard Odier, the oldest private bank in Switzerland; and PanAgora Asset Management, a US global asset management company specializing in quantitative strategies. Michael holds an MScBA in Finance from the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, and an MSc in Theoretical Physics specializing in quantum field theory. A strong believer in inter-disciplinarity, Michael invests considerable time in the study of modernist poets and collects first appearances of the important works of these artists.  Michael was a resident member of Green College from 1996-98 and was president of the Green College Dining Society. 

MAKOTO FUJIWARA, PhD
Senior scientist, Particle Physics, TRUIMF

Makoto Fujiwara is a particle physicist and senior scientist at TRIUMF—Canada’s particle accelerator center on the University of British Columbia campus. A native of Japan, he earned his PhD from UBC and has held positions at the University of Tokyo, CERN (Geneva), and RIKEN (Tokyo). Since joining TRIUMF, he has served as the head of the Particle Physics Department and as Deputy Associate Director. In 2005, Makoto co-founded the international antimatter project ALPHA at the CERN laboratory and has since led its Canadian group. His contributions to antimatter research have been recognized with numerous awards internationally, including the Outstanding Young Scientist by the Nuclear Physics Forum in Japan, the John Dawson Award from the American Physical Society, and the NSERC John C. Polanyi Award in Canada. Makoto was a dynamic resident member in the early days of Green College (1995–97), engaging with peers over the mysteries of the universe by day and occasionally testing the laws of gravity on the dance floor by night.

JOANNE KIENHOLZ
Senior advisor, Institutional Strategic Awards, Simon Fraser University

Joanne Kienholz is an applied anthropologist, dedicated to fostering connections among communities, people and organizations through expert grant facilitation, research advising and compelling storytelling. She developed a passion for sharing knowledge through story during her time as an interpreter at various museums and heritage sites in her home province of Alberta. Her studies brought her to Vancouver in 2007, where she became an active resident member of Green College. After completing her MA in Anthropology in 2009, she served as a community liaison for the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology, and later spent several years living and working in the Musqueam community as a grant writer and facilitator. She currently works at Simon Fraser University as a senior advisor in Research Development, specializing in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Her diverse career underscores her continued commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship and community engagement.

SUZANNE HUOT, PhD
Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of British Columbia

Suzanne obtained her PhD in Occupational Science in 2011 as part of an interdisciplinary graduate program in the Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Western Ontario, where she previously completed her Masters in Geography. Suzanne's doctoral work examining the integration of racialized French-speaking immigrants and refugees. She was an assistant professor in the School of Occupational Therapy at the University of Western Ontario (2011-16) prior to joining the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at UBC in July of 2017. Suzanne worked as the Executive Director of the Canadian Society of Occupational Scientists, and later served as an elected executive board member for two consecutive terms. She has more recently served as an elected board member of the International Society for Occupational Science, including two consecutive terms as chair.

MURRAY MCCUTCHEON, PhD
Senior vice president, AbCellera

Murray McCutcheon is a senior vice president and member of the executive team at AbCellera. As a leader in the discovery and development of antibody medicines, AbCellera has partnered with 40+ companies, including many global pharma, to bring new medicines to patients. Murray and his team are responsible for identifying new strategic partners, negotiating the agreements, and managing the collaborations. Prior to AbCellera, Murray was part of the Office of Technology Development at Harvard University, where he worked to manage and commercialize intellectual property arising from Harvard research labs. He started his career post academia as a consultant at Lux Research, an advisory firm specializing in science-driven innovation. Murray completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University in 2011 and attained PhD, MSc, and BSc degrees in physics from the University of British Columbia, where he specialized in the field of nano-photonics under the supervision of professor Jeff Young. He also earned a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Trinity College in Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Murray is an active contributor to his community and was an elected director on the board of the University Neighbourhoods Association at UBC from 2019 to 2024. He has also served on the Board of Triathlon BC.

DARLENE SETO, MA, BA
Lead, Policy and Partnerships, Foundry BC

I originally came to UBC for graduate studies after growing up with big blue prairie skies. Over a decade later, I’ve been fortunate enough to continue settling here and call these beautiful Coast Salish lands and waters home. My personal and professional life has spanned the social sector, including the anti-poverty, food security, and mental health and substance use fields. The core values of my work are embedding equity and justice-oriented principles into policy, research and decision-making processes to reduce systemic harms and support human wellbeing. Currently, I work at Foundry BC as Lead, Policy and Partnerships, to support health and wellness for young people across the province. I am a Green College society member, former residents’ council chair and hold many fond memories and dear friendships struck in the Great Hall.

MATTHEW WHITE
CEO, Victoria Symphony Orchestra

Matthew White spent his early career as an international vocal soloist; a countertenor performing with opera companies and symphonies around the world. He then became an administrator and driver of classical music in the Lower Mainland providing strategic oversight and direction as the Executive and Artistic Director of the Early Music Vancouver (EMV). Since 2012, Matthew has played a central part in more than doubling EMV’s budget and administrative capacity as well as in dramatically growing EMV’s audience. EMV now offers one of the most ambitious programs of its type in North America, presenting and producing between 40-50 concerts per year featuring internationally renowned local, regional and guest artists. Other highlights of his administrative career include establishing the Vancouver Bach Festival and the Pacific Baroque Series in Victoria.

ALISON WYLIE, PhD, BA, FRSC, FAHA
Philosophy and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1), University of British Columbia

I am a feminist philosopher of the social and historical sciences with particular interest in archaeological research practice. What intrigues me are questions about how inquiry succeeds when evidence is sparse and uncertain, and how significantly it can be enhanced by bringing to bear a diversity of situated experience, knowledge and interests. Since joining UBC in 2017 I have worked with the Indigenous/Science research cluster and in that connection, I co-convened a Green College Interdisciplinary Series on Indigenous-led partnerships, “Exploring Histories and Environments” (2019-2020). I also assisted with “Working Tools: Community-Facing Data Management Platforms for Indigenous-University Partnerships” (2020). I have a longstanding commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusiveness in research and activism in the academy and beyond. I am currently working with a UBC-based philosophy collective on the “Philosophy Exception” website project.

RENREN YANG, PhD
Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia

Renren Yang is an assistant professor of Modern Chinese Popular Culture at the University of British Columbia. He earned his PhD in Comparative Literature at Stanford University, where he subsequently served as a postdoctoral teaching fellow before joining UBC. He completed his undergraduate and master studies at Peking University in Beijing. Yang is a humanities scholar of 20th and 21st century Chinese literature, film, and popular culture, with a focus on the intersection of literary and media studies. Much of his recent scholarship examines how the ongoing shift from print to digital media has been transforming our concepts and practices of authorship. His published work explores diverse topics including literary reworkings of cinema and theater in 1940s Shanghai, the evolution of cover designs for Chinese web novels, the time-travel genre and the surveillance cinema in post-socialist China. He has also edited a special section on "new genres of Chinese web novels" for the journal Chinese Literature and Thought Today. At UBC, Yang serves as an executive committee member of the Centre for Chinese Research.

GAOHENG ZHANG, PhD 
Italian Studies, University of British Columbia

章杲恆 Gaoheng Zhang is an associate professor of Italian Studies at the University of British Columbia. He is a humanities scholar of migration, mobilities, multiculturalism, media, rhetoric, ethics, and masculinity. His recent research seeks to provide a road map for analyzing cultural mobilities concerning contemporary Italy’s and Europe’s global networks with Asia, America, and Africa, which are created through migration, colonialism, exile, tourism, business travel, and other forms of human mobility. Gaoheng is a leading cultural critic of Chinese migration to Italy, which has generated considerable debate in the Italian, Chinese migrant, and international media because of migrants’ economic clout. At UBC, he is a member of the executive committee of the Centre for Migration Studies, a member at the Centre for European Studies, and an affiliated faculty with the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies program.

AIRINI, PhD
Provost and vice president academic, University of Saskatchewan; vice principal, Green College

Professor Airini is the provost and vice president academic at the University of Saskatchewan (USask). Airini joined the USask in February 2021 and holds a professorial appointment in the College of Education. Her three-decade career is defined by her leadership internationally and domestically in areas of equity in higher education, Indigenous advancement, and converting research and policy into improved education outcomes. Airini has more than 20 years experience in senior academic administration at world-class universities internationally, and most recently, Airini was dean of the interdisciplinary Faculty of Education and Social Work at Thompson Rivers University (BC, Canada). Airini holds academic appointments in three countries – Australia, Canada, and New Zealand (NZ).

GAGE AVERILL, PhD, BA
Provost and vice president academic, University of British Columbia

Dr Gage Averill is provost and vice president academic, at the University of British Columbia, and a professor in the UBC School of Music. From 2010 to 2022, Dr Averill served as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at UBC. Dr Averill, a renowned ethnomusicologist whose research in Haitian popular music has earned him several awards, joined UBC in 2010 after holding positions as vice principal, academic, and dean for the University of Toronto, Mississauga campus, and also dean of Music at the University of Toronto. Prior to that, he served as chair of the Department of Music at New York University.

BENOIT-ANTOINE BACON, PhD
President and vice chancellor, University of British Columbia

Dr Benoit-Antoine Bacon joins the University of British Columbia from Carleton University in Ottawa where he has been serving as president and vice chancellor since 2018. For the past several years, he has also been serving on the board of directors of Universities Canada and on the Executive Committee of the Council of Ontario Universities. He has previously served as provost and vice principal, academic at Queen’s University in Kingston and as provost and vice president, academic affairs at Concordia University in his hometown of Montreal, where he was recognized with an award as Sustainability Champion. His first academic appointment was at Bishop’s University, where he served in a number of leadership roles including dean of Arts and Science and chief negotiator for the Association of Professors of Bishop’s University. He is a three-time recipient of Bishop’s Merit Award for exceptional performance in teaching and research. Dr. Bacon holds a PhD in neuropsychology from the University of Montreal, after which he undertook a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. His research in the field of cognitive neuroscience focuses on the links between brain activity and perception in the visual, auditory and vestibular systems, as well as on multisensory integration.

SIR MICHAEL DIXON
Principal, Green Templeton College, Oxford

Sir Michael Dixon is principal of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. In this role he is the central figure promoting the college’s life and work, championing its interests, ensuring collegial decision making and developing ambitious strategic plans. He trained as a zoologist at Imperial College, London and then completed doctoral studies at the University of York, working on host location mechanisms in larval trematode parasites, most notably Schistosoma mansoni, causative organism of Bilharzia. Michael was awarded a knighthood for services to museums in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2014.

NICOLA HODGES, PhD
School of Kinesiology; associate director graduate affairs, Faculty of Education; vice principal, Green College

Nicola holds a PhD from University of British Columbia in Human Kinetics, as well as an MSc in Human Biodynamics and a BSc in Psychology. She is a professor in the School of Kinesiology and the associate director graduate affairs in the Faculty of Education. Nicola currently runs the Motor Skills Lab in Kinesiology at UBC, which examines how and why various practice variables (such as instruction, demonstrations, feedback and order of practice) impact motor learning and transfer. Nicola has a keen sense of the interdisciplinarity of the college. “I’m almost like a prototypical multidisciplinary researcher,” she says, noting that her research has been funded by all three Tri-Agencies in Canada. Currently, she is doing work that straddles the social sciences and natural sciences. Nicola has remained a part of the Green College community since moving out, often going to talks which she says she finds invigorating: “I’ve been teaching all day and dealing with lots of things, and I walk over to the college, there’s a sort of physical distance. You walk over to the Coach House and you listen to a talk that’s not in your area, so you can put your pen down. You don’t have to worry about taking notes and can just listen to something that reminds you why you’re a scholar, and how privileged you are to have time to think and listen and engage in ideas and friendship.”  Nicola is a member of the common room and a society member, and a former resident (1999-2000), when Richard Ericson was the principal.

MICHAEL ANTHONY HUNT, PhD
Dean pro tem of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, University of British Columbia

Dr Michael Hunt has led several new initiatives that have enhanced collaboration and engagement between Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (G+PS) and graduate programs, as well as professional development for graduate program administrators across campus. Prior to this, he held the role of associate dean, Graduate and Postdoctoral Education in the Faculty of Medicine, which saw the implementation of a graduate student well-being strategy, a Faculty-wide peer mentorship program, a dedicated graduate program review process, and programs for supervisors and trainees to foster and maintain healthy and respectful working environments. Dr Hunt's academic appointment is as a professor in the Department of Physical Therapy. His research is at the intersection of human movement, pain and health, and is currently funded by a number of funding bodies, including CIHR and NSERC. He completed degrees at the University of British Columbia and the University of Western Ontario, as well as a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Melbourne. He has had the great fortune of working with many outstanding graduate students and postdoctoral fellows over the past 15 years.

JAMES ORBINSKI, OC, MSC, MA, MD, MCFPC
Principal, Massey College at University of Toronto

Dr James Orbinski is principal of Massey College at the University of Toronto, where he is also professor at the Termerty Faculty of Medicine and the Munk School for Public Policy. Providing medical humanitarian relief worldwide in situations of war, famine, epidemic disease and genocide with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Dr Orbinski accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on their behalf in 1999. Renowned for his research on medical humanitarianism, infectious diseases, global health governance, and the health impacts of climate change, Dr Orbinski’s work is documented in his book, An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarianism in the 21st Century, as well as the documentary film Triage. James Orbinski is an Officer of the Order of Canada, awarded for a lifetime of leadership in global health and humanitarianism, and received Canada’s Meritorious Service Cross for his leadership in providing direct medical relief in Kigali during the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

JESSICA CASEY (Co-chair of the Green College residents' council)
Master’s Student, Science and Technology Studies, University of British Columbia 

Jessica Casey serves as co-chair of the Green College residents' council for the 2025-26 year. A Newfoundlander of mixed European and Inuit ancestry, Jessica is currently living and working at the University of British Columbia. 

Jessica is a master’s student and research assistant in Science and Technology Studies, exploring interconnections between science, medicine, and colonial systems. She completed her bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies and anthropology from the University of King’s College. She is also a former community health worker with deep interests in cultural safety, and she brings those experiences and commitments to her research in Indigenous health, collaborative practice, and the history and philosophy of science. 

REINA MAGISTRO NADLER (Co-chair of the Green College residents' council)
PhD Candidate, Law, University of British Columbia

Reina Magistro Nadler returned to Green College in 2024 after two years of resident membership during her MA in 2010-12, and now serves as co-chair of the Green College residents' council for the 2025-26 year. Trained as a lawyer in the United States, Reina has since become a Canadian citizen and is completing her dissertation at UBC's Allard School of Law.