Instead of asking which single attribute fosters leadership, we should be asking which patterns of human qualities create the best outcomes
Look up any list of bestselling books and chances are at least one title deals with leadership. People have pondered the topic for millennia but are still chasing a clear answer to the question: what makes a good leader? That may be because we’re asking the wrong question, says business professor Ian Gellatly. Human beings…
RNA technology used to target gene defects in blood cells that lead to diseases like leukemia
A University of Alberta researcher is hot on the trail of a new drug to combat blood cancers. Based on RNA technology — best known for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines — the drug targets specific gene defects in blood cells responsible for cancers such as leukemia. “With conventional cancer drugs, there is a…
Gaps in regulations and enforcement leave companion animals, livestock vulnerable to abuse
When it comes to laws protecting pets and livestock, Canada receives a failing grade. In 2020, an international organization called World Animal Protection gave the country a D, placing it among a group that includes Tanzania, Peru and the United States. The reason for that dismal ranking comes down to the “split jurisdiction” of Canadian federalism, according…
Plan ensures Indigenous identities, languages, cultures and worldviews are reflected at the U of A
The University of Alberta is launching a strategic plan to respond to the calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Final Report. Braiding Past, Present and Future: University of Alberta Indigenous Strategic Plan aims to dismantle colonial structures in the university that have long “disenfranchised Indigenous Peoples of their legal, social, cultural, religious…
Why an academic theory that dates back to the 1970s has become a political lightning rod today
In April of this year, Georgia became the latest of 15 American states to ban the teaching of critical race theory in schools. In celebrating a similar ban in Mississippi, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves recorded a video in which he claimed, without evidence, that school children had been “dragged to the front of the classroom and coerced…
Deneh’Cho Thompson found that traditional systems hindered his progress. So he set out to change them
Deneh’Cho Thompson confesses to a mild rebellious streak in his youth. As a high school student in Calgary, he fell short of completing his diploma for “myriad reasons,” he says. Though he enjoyed many subjects and excelled in some, drama was the subject that most held his interest. Thompson eventually enrolled in a theatre program…
Hanna Daniel has made it her business to foster diversity by empowering others
Like an itch that needs scratching, when Hanna Daniel sees something that cries out to be done, she doesn’t regard it as optional. So when the business student arrived at the University of Alberta and realized there was no campus group for black students, she got down to the business of starting one. After a…
Experts to examine systemic problems, make evidence-based recommendations
A research team led by a University of Alberta scholar has received nearly $2.5 million in new federal funding for a national research project aimed at reforming the Canadian justice system. The team, headed by sociologist Sandra Bucerius and including the United Way and academic experts on the court and prison systems from across Canada, was awarded a Partnership Grant from…
Through engineering, Portia Rayner discovered her calling as an experimenter, innovator and leader
Portia Rayner describes her University of Alberta engineering degree as a seismic “shift in mentality.” At first, she wasn’t at all sure engineering was the right program for her. She had once wanted to be a veterinarian, and later thought chemistry or pharmacology would be a better fit. “You always hear those stories of the…
Assisting landmark Indigenous cases, Anita Cardinal-Stewart graduates with even stronger passion
The caption on her junior-high yearbook photo reads, “Dreams of being a lawyer or an actress.” That was when Anita Cardinal-Stewart was full of hope, and anything seemed possible. But that hope evaporated through her teen years growing up in the Woodland Cree First Nation in northern Alberta. “I started to see how hard it…
Look up any list of bestselling books and chances are at least one title deals with leadership. People have pondered the topic for millennia but are still chasing a clear answer to the question: what makes a good leader? That may be because we’re asking the wrong question, says business professor Ian Gellatly. Human beings…
