Megan Wing and Aaron Lowe

We started skating together at the Riley Park FSC in Vancouver, BC in 1986 when we were 11 & 12 years old.

From 1992-1999 we lived and trained in Montreal under the instruction of Elyse Hamel. During that time we won a national bronze medal in the Junior category, 3 National bronze medals in Senior and began competing internationally for Canada.

From 1999–2006 we lived in Windsor, ON and trained in Detroit under the instruction of Igor Shpilband, Marina Zoueva and Liz Coates. In those 7 years, we competed at 5 World Championships, 14 Grand Prix International Competitions, won two bronze medals at the Four Continents Championships and 7 more National medals and competed at the 2006 Olympic Games.

While competing, we were also active in our sport off the ice.  Aaron was the Skate Canada National Team captain from 2002-2006, Skate Canada’s athlete representative at the International Skating Union, and a board member for AthletesCAN. Megan was the athlete representative on the Skate Canada Board of Directors, International Committee, and National Teams Committee. We both earned our Master’s Degrees from the University of Windsor, Aaron in Human Kinetics with a major in Sport Management and Megan in Applied Social Psychology.

After Olympics and Worlds in 2006, we retired from eligible competition. In the year following our retirement we performed in shows in Germany, the USA and Canada. Then, in the spring of 2007 we moved back to our hometown of Vancouver, BC and we’ve been coaching and choreographing at the BC Center of Excellence ever since. We love working with young athletes and passing on the knowledge we’ve gained over the years.

Dr. Ross H. Paul

A bilingual native of Montreal, Dr. Ross H. Paul recently retired after completing two terms (10.5 years) as President of the University of Windsor after serving almost seven years as President of Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. Now resident of Vancouver, he is an Adjunct Professor at UBC where he is writing a book on university leadership in Canada.

Dr. Paul is a graduate of Bishop’s University (B.A., Mathematics and Economics, 1964), McGill University (M.A., Educational Administration, 1968) and the University of London (Post-Graduate Certificate in Education, 1965 and PhD., 1973). He has teaching and administrative experience at all levels of education, starting his career as a teacher at Montreal’s Lower Canada College (1965-67, 1968-69).  After a stint at Bishop’s University, where he was Alumni Secretary and Lecturer in the Graduate School of Education (1969-71) and following completion of his doctorate in London, he spent seven years at Dawson College in Montreal where he held the positions of Dean of Arts and Academic Dean. Beginning in 1980, Dr. Paul spent 11 years at Alberta’s Athabasca University, 10 as Vice-President Academic and the last as Acting President before assuming the Presidency of Laurentian in 1991.

Dr. Paul’s research interests include the sociology of organizations and the management of higher education. He is best known for his 1990 book, Open Learning and Open Management: Leadership and Integrity in Distance Education and is a frequent contributor of book chapters and journal articles on the management of technology and higher learning.

Long active in the Council of Ontario Universities (COU), he served at various times as its Chair, Chair of the Policy and Planning Committee and long-serving member of its Executive and Government Relations Committees and the Working Group on University Capacity. He represented Canadian universities on the Canadian Automotive Partnership Council (CAPC) and co-chaired its Innovation Working Group. He has just completed his term as an inaugural member of the Ontario Minister’s Advisory Committee for Arts and Culture and continues as an International Ambassador of the Shaw Theatre Festival.

He is a past Chair of the Board of World University Service of Canada (WUSC) and was founding Chair of both the Optical Research Advanced Network of Ontario (ORANO) and CREAD, the distance education network for all of the Americas. He also served a term as Vice-President, North America, for the International Council of Distance Education (ICDE). He served six years as a Board member of the Windsor and District Chamber of Commerce and, prior to that, in the same capacity on the Sudbury Regional Development Committee.

He has travelled and consulted widely on management and distance education issues, notably through CIDA or WUSC projects in Thailand, China, Sri Lanka and Jordan; comparative education tours of the former Soviet Union, Israel (two), and the United States (two); as a visiting professor in New Zealand and the United Kingdom and through conference and speaking engagements throughout Europe, South Asia, China and Latin America. He recently led a group of Deans on a tour of Russia to pursue opportunities related to research and training in the fledgling automotive industry there.

For his widespread community activities, he was awarded the Governor General’s Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Confederation in 1992 and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002. He received the Bishop’s University Award of Merit in 2000 for contributions to higher education and was one of the “internet pioneers” to receive an inaugural ORION Award from ORANO in 2005. Dawson College awarded him an Honorary Diploma and named its highest academic award, the Ross Paul Award, in 1980.

Dr. Paul plays the piano and guitar and has authored and performed in a number of satirical musical revues.  He is married to Dr. Jane Brindley, a psychologist with an international reputation in distance education, who shares his love of theatre and the visual arts, and has two sons, David (a journalist and economic development officer) and Jonathan (a teacher).

Martha Piper

From 1997 to 2006, Martha C. Piper served as the eleventh president and vice-chancellor of the University of British Columbia, one of Canada's largest and most prestigious research universities. Piper is deeply committed to working with students and faculty in strengthening UBC's position as an international leader at the forefront of learning and research.

Born in Lorain, Ohio, Piper received her BSc in physical therapy from the University of Michigan, her MA in child development from the University of Connecticut, and her PhD in epidemiology and biostatistics from McGill University.  Upon completion of her PhD, Piper was appointed director of the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy at McGill University.  In 1985, she joined the University of Alberta as Dean of the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, and was appointed vice-president, research in 1993. The portfolio was expanded in 1995 to include external affairs.

Piper's teaching and research interests have focused on early identification of the developmentally delayed infant, and assessment of specific approaches used in the treatment of physically and mentally handicapped children. She has published extensively in her field and, in 1995, co-authored the book Motor Assessment of the Developing Infant.

Through her commitment to advancing research, Piper has been established as a leader in the research community. She has served as a board member of the Alberta Research Council, the Canada Israel Industrial Research Foundation, the Edmonton Economic Development Board, Telecommunications Research Labs, the Centre for Frontier Engineering Research, and the Interim Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. Prime Minister Chrétien appointed Piper to the National Advisory Board on Science and Technology in 1994 and, in 1996, to the board of the Advisory Council on Science and Technology, a position she held until 2004. In 1997, Piper was appointed as a member of the Canada Foundation for Innovation. In 1998, she was appointed to the board of directors of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, and became a member of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. In 2001, Piper was appointed by the premier of British Columbia to the BC Progress Board. She was also the 2001 General Campaign Chair for the United Way of the Lower Mainland. In 2002, Piper was appointed a member of the board of directors for the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation, and the Singapore Minister of Education appointed her to the National University of Singapore Council. Piper was appointed a public governor of the board for the Canadian Academies of Science in 2005 and became a member of the board of directors for PrioNet Canada in the same year.

Piper has been awarded sixteen honorary degrees: in 2003, Piper was named an officer of the Order of Canada. She was named Educator of the Year by The Learning Partnership in 2004. In 2005, Piper was named a recipient of the Order of British Columbia. In Mexico in 2006, The Instituto Technologico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey held a special ceremony to recognize Piper for her contributions to higher education, which marked the first time that a non-Mexican has received such an honour. The Martha C. Piper Research Prize is awarded annually to a faculty member at the University of Alberta.