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John R. Donald, Ph.D., P.Eng.

I hold a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (1993) with a focus on Water Resources Engineering and received my professional engineering designation (P.Eng.) in 1994. I have ten years of industry experience as an engineer and senior manager, including seven years at an international environmental engineering consulting firm, and three years with information technology startups.

My 20+ years of experience in academia include ten years in executive appointments in Ontario Colleges in roles such as Dean of Engineering and Information Technology, Vice-President of Business Development, Applied Research and External Relations, and Vice President of Community and Business Development.

I am a Professor in the University of Guelph School of Engineering, and have led a wide variety of activities to support maximizing the potential of engineers to both lead and support society.  This includes activities such as teaching interdisciplinary undergraduate engineering design courses; teaching engineering leadership graduate courses, serving as President of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (2017-18), organizing national conferences on Engineering Accreditation and engaging in scholarly activity in the areas of engineering leadership, engineering accreditation, and teaching and learning in engineering.

In 2020 I launched the Guelph Engineering Leadership (GEL) Program with the mission to “create accessible leadership growth opportunities for the School of Engineering that equip students with leadership skills to excel personally, professionally and technically and identify with leadership beyond working on technical projects.”

In 2017 I established the SOE Instructional Development Multimedia Studio to facilitate access to studio type software and hardware for the creation and effective use of multimedia video in the classroom to enhance learning outcomes through innovative practices such as flipped classrooms.