Below is a list of faculty that are active in the department, and available to students with course specific questions. If you need administrative support, we encourage you to refer your questions to one of the following;
- The Chair of the department can address detailed program questions, including program requirements, planning and selection, research opportunities, graduate studies, and more.
- The Academic Advisor, if available, can offer support including course registration and course load, important dates, academic policies and more.
- The Academic Deans serve as the academic and administrative anchors to the professors within their Faculties or Schools as well as the students.
Faculty of the Environment, Agriculture and Geography Department:
Dr. Mirella Aoun
Associate Professor
Dr. Mirella Aoun is Associate Professor in the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems (SAFS) programs and Scientific Director of the Educational Farm. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering from Université Saint-Joseph (Lebanon), a Master’s in Microbial Ecology from Université Claude Bernard, Lyon I (France), and a Ph.D. in Forest Sciences (Plant Genomics) from Université Laval (Canada). She was formerly Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB), where she coordinated the interdisciplinary Water-Energy-Food-Health Nexus (WEFRAH) research initiative.
Before joining Bishop’s, Dr. Aoun led applied research in organic fruit production at CETAB+ (Centre of Expertise and Technology Transfer in Organic Agriculture, Québec), where she managed the experimental site and served as Lead Principal Investigator in Canada’s Organic Science Cluster II. As a certified agronomist in the province of Québec, she also provided consultancy and professional training in organic horticulture. Earlier in her career, she was awarded the NSERC Visiting Fellowship in Canadian Government Laboratories and conducted postdoctoral research on bioenergy crops at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
Her current research focuses on the development of climate-resilient, sustainable production systems for temperate environments. She leads multidisciplinary research initiatives at both provincial and national levels, such as the CANberries project—a nationally recognized initiative that integrates renewable energy and soilless cultivation to enable year-round berry production. Her work bridges agricultural sciences, agtech, and the agroenvironment, and she has developed and taught multiple graduate and undergraduate courses while supervising students and professionals across disciplines.
Dr. Aoun is an active member of several scientific and professional networks. Her academic profiles are available on ResearchGate, Google Scholar, ORCID, and LinkedIn.
Dr. Darren Bardati
Full Professor
Dr. Bardati earned his PhD and Master’s degrees at McGill University, and a BA Honours in Geography from Bishop’s. Since 1996, he has taught resource and environmental management courses in the Department of Environment, Agriculture and Geography. His research interests revolve around agroecology and sustainable foods systems, adaptation to climate change, and water management. He and his family enjoy living on a small farm where they tend large gardens, save heirloom seeds, and raise a variety of animals.
Dr. Bryan Dale
Associate Professor
Dr. Dale completed both his PhD and MA in Human Geography with a specialization in Environmental Studies from the University of Toronto’s Department of Geography & Planning. His Bachelor’s degree was in Radio and Television Arts from Toronto Metropolitan University. Dr. Dale also completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Culinaria Research Centre at the University of Toronto Scarborough before joining Bishop’s. His research interests include: food sovereignty, agroecology, climate change, environmental justice, social movements, agriculture, food security, labour and equality in the food system, urban political ecology, and cooperatives and other alternative economic initiatives (especially in food and farming).
Dr. Elisabeth Levac
Full Professor
Dr. Levac has a Ph.D. in earth sciences from Dalhousie University, a B.Sc. in physical geography and a M. Sc. in earth sciences from the Université du Québec à Montréal. Before coming to Bishop’s, she was a post-doctoral fellow for the Halifax Pollen and Spores Monitoring Experiment at St. Mary’s University. Dr. Levac has been monitoring biogenic aerosols (pollen and spores) in Sherbrooke since 2006, hence she does everything in the wide field of palynology. She is now conducting research into the health impacts of these biogenic aerosols, as well as air pollution, on human health. Ongoing work examines changes in the length of the ragweed allergy season in Sherbrooke.
Dr. Jane Morrison
Associate Professor
Dr. Morrison earned her PhD in Agroecology from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (BarcelonaTech) and her MSc in Integrated Water Resources Management from McGill University. She also holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering with a Minor in Environmental Engineering from McGill. Following a funded postdoctoral fellowship at Bishop’s University (supervisor: Dr. D. Bardati) and receipt of prestigious NSERC and FRQNT grants, she served as Strategic Innovation Faculty (2020–2022) before being appointed to a tenure-track position in the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems program.
Dr. Juan Francisco Núñez
Assistant Professor
Dr. Núñez earned his Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) at Université de Sherbrooke. He also holds a Master’s degree in business administration from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) of Mexico. His research focuses on supply chain collaboration, value chain sustainability, green supply chain management, fairtrade, and fair labour. As a practitioner, Dr. Núñez accumulates over twenty years of experience in logistics, transportation, and procurement in the private and public sectors.
Dr. Matthew Peros
Full Professor – Dean of Social Sciences & Interim Associate Vice-Principal Research
Dr. Peros received his Ph.D. in geography from the University of Toronto, his M.Sc. from York University (also in geography), and his B.Sc. in archaeological sciences and geography from the University of Toronto. His graduate work focused on environmental change and prehistoric human adaptations in Cuba. Following the completion of his Ph.D., Dr. Peros moved to the Laboratory for Paleoclimatology and Climatology at the University of Ottawa, where he researched arctic climate change under the direction of Dr. Konrad Gajewski.
Dr. Vivian Valencia
Associate Professor, Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Action Research Chair
Vivian earned a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Columbia University, a master’s degree in Environmental Health from Johns Hopkins University, as well as a BS in Biology and a BA in French from University of Florida. Previously, she was a postdoctoral Research Fellow in Agroecology and Food System Sustainability at the University of Michigan. She also conducted a short research stay both at McGill University and Wurzburg University as a P.R.I.M.E. Research Fellow. Vivian is also a guest lecturer at Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands), where she was formerly Assistant Professor at the Farming Systems Ecology group.
Vivian is active in the policy, diplomacy, and social entrepreneurship spheres, where she collaborates with diverse actors to support a coherent transformation towards a more sustainable and resilient society. She is a former member of the Advisory Council of the Global Diplomacy Lab; a BMW Responsible Leader; alumna of several programs of the Bosch Foundation; alumna of the Managing Global Governance Training Program of the German Development Institute (DIE); and alumna of German Federal Foreign Office “International Futures” Training for International Diplomats. Vivian’s research and professional career have been supported by the National Geographic Society, PRIME Fellowship of the DAAD and Marie Curie Programme of the European Commission, Bill and Melinda Gates Millennium Scholarship, among others.
Part-time Faculty of the Environment, Agriculture and Geography Department:
Bruno Courtemanche
Contract Faculty
Dr. Courtemanche holds a B.Sc in Geomatics, a M.Sc. in Physical Geography and PhD in Remote Sensing from Université de Sherbrooke. He is the Director of the Diving Projects and Scientific Research at RAPPEL (Regroupement des associations pour la protection de l’environnement des lacs et des bassins versants), a solidarity cooperative for water protection.
Jennifer Downing
Contract Faculty
Ms. Downing holds a M.Ed. from Bishop’s and a Permaculture Design Certificate from the Permaculture Education Center, in Nashville, TN. She has knowledge and experience in growing food, raising animals, saving seeds, and permaculture landscape design. She has held community workshops on gardening and taught permaculture to smallholder women farmers in Malawi. She currently teaches AGR171 – Permaculture Design I: Permaculture Principles and AGR172 – Permaculture Design II: Permaculture Projects.
Adjunct Professors of the Environment, Agriculture and Geography Department:
Dr. Nicholas Devillers
Adjunct Professor
Nicholas Devillers, PhD (Animal Science, Rennes) is a Research Scientist at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Centre in Sherbrooke (adjacent to Bishop’s University). His specialty is human-animal relationship, sustainable animal husbandry, and animal welfare.
Faculty of the Environmental Science Program:
Our B.Sc. Environmental Science program depends on courses and contributions from the following faculty members in the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics:
Dr. Patrick Bergeron
Associate Professor – Biology and Biochemistry
Dr. Patrick Bergeron is an associate professor in the Department of Biology and Biochemistry. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Biology at McGill and his PhD in Evolutionary Biology and Behavioural Ecology at the Université de Sherbrooke. He was also a postdoctoral fellow in population genetics at Dartmouth College (NH) and in biostatistics and epidemiology at the CRCHUS. His main research themes focus on life-history trade-offs and behavioral ecology.
Dr. Marylène Boulet
Senior Instructor – Biology and Biochemistry
Dr. Alexandre Drouin
Associate Professor – Chemistry
Dr. Alexandre Drouin was born in Arthabasca, Quebec. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in organic chemistry at the Université de Sherbrooke under the supervision of Dr. Jean Lessard and Dr. Claude Spino. His research was aimed at the development of the rearrangement of N-heterosubstituted lactams. He then moved to the Université catholique de Louvain, in Belgium, as an ARC-FNRS postdoctoral research fellow, where he worked on the total synthesis of polycavernoside A and the development of a new methodology for the hydroamination of unactivated alkenes, under the supervision of Dr. István Markó. After two years in Belgium, he came back in Sherbrooke where he joined Tranzyme Pharma as an NSERC postdoctoral scientist and worked on the development of new drugs for gastrointestinal diseases. He finally joined Bishop’s University in September 2012 as an assistant professor where he teaches all organic chemistry courses and labs.
Dr. Valerio Faraoni
Full Professor – Physics and Astronomy
Valerio Faraoni earned a BSc in Physics (Laurea in Fisica) at the University of Pavia, Italy, and an MSc and PhD (1991) in Astrophysics under the supervision of Prof. George F.R. Ellis at the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy.
Dr. Michael Richardson
Associate Professor – Biology and Biochemistry
Dr. Michael Richardson is Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. He teaches a variety of courses including Introductory Biology, Ichthyology and Herpetology, Ornithology and Mammalogy, Comparative Anatomy, Freshwater Biology, Animal Behaviour, and Introduction to Evolution and Ecology. His undergraduate and graduate training was in Wildlife Biology from the Macdonald Campus of McGill University. Michael’s graduate research involved using goldfish (Carassius auratus) as a model for better understanding how exotic fish become established in local lakes and ponds, and the impacts they have on native ecosystems.
Dr. Jade Savage
Full Professor – Biology and Biochemistry
Dr. Jade Savage completed her bachelor’s degree in Biology in 1998 and her PhD in Entomology in 2004 at McGill University. She joined the Department of Biological Sciences at Bishop’s University in July 2004. She has travelled extensively, throughout North America and abroad, to take part in conferences and research field expeditions in Canada, the United States, Costa Rica, Australia, and Sweden. Dr. Savage was recently awarded four grants from NSERC and FQRNT totalling $108,485 to pursue her work on the systematics and biodiversity of Diptera (true flies).
Dr. Brad Willms
Associate Professor – Mathematics
Dr. Willms is not only a mathematics professor; he is also passionate about sports. Dr. Willms serve as the academic advisor for Sports Studies students.
Dr. Dale Wood
Associate Professor – Chemistry
Dr. Wood is Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Bishop’s University and Adjunct Professor at Université de Sherbrooke. He earned his Bachelor of Science and PhD in Chemistry at University of New Brunswick. His primary field of research is main-group inorganic chemistry.