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Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Mattthew Evans is pleased to announce the appointment of Lynnette Purda as Vice-Provost, Professional and Continuing Education, for a five-year term, starting July 1, 2026.  

The establishment of this new portfolio reflects Queen’s commitment to expanding lifelong learning opportunities and positioning professional and continuing education as a strategic area for growth and impact.

As Vice-Provost, Dr. Purda will lead the development of a unified platform for professional and continuing education at the university, bringing together expertise and experience across faculties, building on and enhancing existing strengths, and identifying priority areas for growth. Dr. Purda will develop the strategy and enabling infrastructure for the new platform, ensuring Queen’s can respond to evolving market demand, broaden access to lifelong learning, and scale professional and continuing education in a deliberate and sustainable way.

“In various roles at Smith Business, Dr. Purda has demonstrated exceptional leadership and I am certain that she will provide visionary oversight of this new portfolio and platform, which will in the long-term position Queen’s as a leader in lifelong learning, upskilling and reskilling, and professional education,” says Provost Evans.

Dr. Purda served as Interim Dean of Smith School of Business from January 2025 to June 2026, and prior to that position, she was Associate Dean (Graduate Programs). She is a Professor and RBC Fellow of Finance at Smith Business. Her primary research area is corporate finance with a focus on governance. Her work appears in leading academic journals such as Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of International Business Studies, The American Law and Economics Review, and Financial Management. She has worked with policymakers and practitioners including the Bank of Canada, the Accounting Standards Oversight Council of Canada, and FP Canada. She is a past president of the Northern Finance Association.

“This is an exciting opportunity and I am pleased to take on this new Vice-Provost role at Queen’s,” says Dr. Purda. “Professional and continuing education is an area of significant opportunity for the university. By working collaboratively across our faculties, we have an opportunity to build something distinctive at Queen’s that expands access to learning, responds to evolving learner needs, and creates meaningful opportunities for individuals and organizations. I look forward to engaging with colleagues across campus as we shape this new chapter together.”

Dr. Purda has been nominated for teaching excellence awards at both the undergraduate and Master’s levels. She has taught in programs across the Smith portfolio including Bachelor of Commerce, MBA, Master of Finance (both Toronto and Beijing), and Master of International Business. She also supervises research of Master’s and Doctoral students and won the 2022 PhD/MSc Award for Research Supervision.

She is a Chartered Financial Analyst with industry investment banking experience and is an editor of the book Corporate Fraud Exposed. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba, and a PhD in Finance from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.