Research project aims to transform mental health care for youth in Canada

Mental health research team: Top row: Michael Zhang (Management Science), Catherine Loughlin (Management), Pawan Lingras (Computer Science), Ethan Pancer (Marketing), Skye Stephens (Psychology)

Bottom row: Steven Smith (Psychology), Leanna Closson (Psychology), Mohammad Drira (Accounting), Meg Ternes (Psychology), Hai Wang (Computing Information Systems)

Middle: Rachael Collins (Criminology) Not pictured: Dalhousie University’s Jenny Chen (Management) and Claver Diallo (Industrial Engineering)

A new two-year research project at Saint Mary’s University, which aims to transform mental health care for youth in Canada, was granted $250,000 from the federal New Frontiers (NFRF) in Research Fund – Exploration stream. The Supporting Youth with Mental Health Conditions project will use machine learning and analytics to conduct their research.

The 13-member project team includes 11 members from the university and will be led by Dr. Michael Zhang, Management Science professor at the Sobey School of Business, and Dr. Steven Smith, Psychology professor in the Faculty of Science at Saint Mary’s University.

“Using machine learning techniques will help us analyze and integrate data about internalizing and externalizing mental health problems and show the need for unique care services,” says Dr. Zhang. “We hope to establish a coordinated system for mental health care that addresses the most common needs of each community.”

Most youth and families in Canada who need mental health care cannot receive appropriate care in their communities due to a variety of barriers.

“Addressing youth mental health issues is one of the most important challenges facing our society,” says Saint Mary’s University President, Robert Summerby-Murray. “We are proud to see so many faculty from across our campus, from so many disciplines, coming together to address this challenge with a researched, evidence-based approach.”

In 2015, the Mental Health Commission of Canada (HCC) reported that at least 75% of mental health problems and illnesses appear in childhood and adolescence. Approximately 5% of male youth and 12% of female youth, aged 12 to 19, have experienced a major depressive episode, and only a ratio of 1/6 children get the needed mental health services (MHS) from 15-20% of diagnosed cases.           

The NFRF is a federal research funding program that fosters world-leading discovery and innovation by encouraging Canadian researchers to explore, take risks, lead, and work with partners across disciplines and borders. It supports research that defies current paradigms, bridges disciplines, or tackles fundamental problems from new perspectives.  

For more information on NFRF visit:
https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/nfrf-fnfr/news-nouvelles/2020/exploration-2019-recipients-eng.aspx

Saint Mary’s University Language Centre takes world-renowned certification course online

COVID-19 is changing the way we study, work and live, and that includes how the Saint Mary’s University Language Centre offers its world-renowned Cambridge course for teaching English. The Cambridge Authorised Teaching Awards Centre at the language centre is now offering the opportunity to gain the Cambridge CELTA qualification 100 percent online in just five weeks. 

“If you have considered taking this course in the past, now is a good time to gain an internationally-recognized teaching English as a second language certificate online from the comfort of your home,” says Julian L’Enfant, CELTA Administrator at Saint Mary’s University. “You will receive the same rigorous training from our expert tutors in a dynamic online environment and teach real students from the local community.”

The CELTA is the gold standard teaching qualification with three out of four employers requesting CELTA for English language teaching jobs worldwide. Candidates will complete all of the training, teaching practice and assignments online and have access to the opportunities available to all CELTA graduates upon successful completion of the course. The CELTA is for anyone interested in starting a career as an English teacher, or for experienced teachers interested in developing their skills. 

For more information and to download the application form and pre-interview task, click here or email CELTA@smu.ca.

Top undergraduates win awards for paid summer research work at SMU

Every summer, top undergraduate students at Saint Mary’s win the opportunity to do paid research with professors in their fields.

While the necessary campus closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic means that this summer will be a unique experience even for returning award students, important research work will continue as planned. With some ingenuity, work can and will happen online, and teams can work virtually – not just on campus, in the field, or in labs! A total of 34 awards were granted from a pool of more than 200 applicants. These are 12 or 16-week terms, and each student has been approved by a supervising faculty member.

This year there are four award programs that students were eligible for:

·       Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s Undergraduate Student
Research Awards (NSERC USRA);

·       Dean of Science Undergraduate Summer Research Awards

·       Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Explore Summer Research Awards; and,

·       First Year Undergraduate Awards

USRA awards, open to Canadian students who have completed at least a year of a bachelor’s degree, are meant to help students develop their potential for a research career in the natural sciences and engineering.

SSHRC Explore awards are open to students studying social sciences and humanities. With these two award programs that are supported by our federal funding councils, combined with the Dean of Science and First Year awards, all Saint Mary’s University students, Canadian and international, have an opportunity to apply for summer research award positions, even after their first year of study.  

We note that this year, for the first time, we have also awarded one special joint Science and Sobey School of Business Deans Undergraduate Summer Research Award. We are also in the process of finalizing a partnership between our First Year Undergraduate Awards and a just-launched summer student research training program from Mitacs, a national not-for-profit organization that designs and delivers research and training programs across Canada.

“Saint Mary’s University has a long history of engaging undergraduate students with the research efforts of our faculty, and these experiences are a transformational positive experience for every student that has the opportunity,” said Dr. Adam Sarty, Associate Vice-President, Research and Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research.

“The one-on-one attention from our faculty members and teamwork with peers is a perfect complement to an undergraduate degree, and provides an exceptionally strong foundation for career entry, or future professional/graduate studies,” said Dr. Sarty.

Congratulations to the award winners, and best wishes for a successful, productive summer.

The successful candidates are:

NSERC-USRA

Kathleen (Maiti) McGrath – Astrophysics
Sophia Waddell – Astrophysics
Morgan (Lindsay) MacDonald – Biology
Terrell Roulston – Biology
Patrick White – Biology
Mackenzie Zinck – Biology
Kaleigh McLeod – Chemistry
Tanisha Ballard – Chemistry
Logan Cox – Chemistry
Jacob Hoard – Chemistry
Seamus MacInness – Computing Science
Evan Farrell – Computing Science
Tanaka Akiyama – Engineering
Sahana Kanabar – Environmental Science
Cameron Power – Environmental Science/Physics
Conor Waterfield – Subatomic Physics

Dean’s Awards
Jennifer McArthur – Psychology
Humaid Muhammad Agowun – Math/Computing Science
Adina Gherman – Psychology
Abigail Battson – Astrophysics
Nicola Augustin – Biology
Samantha Bennett – Environmental Science

First Year Undergraduate Award
Bethany Leal – Political Science  (Arts)
Jakob Conrad – Astrophysics (Science)
Mayara Mejri – Biology (Science)
Jacqueline Shaw – Psychology (Science)
Aquilya Smith – Accounting (Business)

SSHRC Awards
Shanley Weston – Business
Khoi Anh (Ayden) Pham – Arts
Andres Guardia – Arts
Katheryn Lewis – Arts
Jacob LeBlanc – Business
Yingjun Chen – Arts
Laura Eamon – Business

Sobey School researcher looking into the factors that may impact COVID-19 transmission

Dr. Yigit Aydede leads a research project that brings together data on the effects of weather, climate and local air quality, along with social mobility, to determine their effects on the transmission of COVID-19. The project was recently funded through the Nova Scotia COVID-10 Health Research Coalition.

Dr. Yigit Aydede

“The expectation is that warmer days will mean lower transmission,” noted Sobey School of Business economics professor Aydede. “The assimilation of this data is going to be one of the best policy tools in terms of understanding the risk awareness, expectations and forecasting. This project will help the government determine the possible effects of mobility restrictions.”

Dr. Aydede said the project can only be done locally. “We are not the only one. This kind of research is being done around the world. You can’t take a model from, say, Amsterdam and use it here. It has to be local.”

The study will harness techniques of machine learning and neural networks to crunch vast amounts of data, examining them for relationships. Researchers will examine high-dimensional air quality and atmospheric data localized to a street-by-street basis, alongside satellite weather data, looking at their impacts on respiratory health. It will also factor in publicly available data from Google and Apple on social mobility, including not only what the reason for mobility is (shopping or recreation, for instance), but also what type of mobility is employed: car, transit, or walking, for example. Finally, they will pull in the publicly-available 811 and COVID testing data provided by the Nova Scotia government.

The weather and air quality data are coming from several different companies, two of which are based in Boston and Israel, called ClimaCell and Breezometer respectively. The actual analysis will rely on the robust processing platforms of Google and Amazon.

The funding was part of the Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition. Dr. Aydede is the principal investigator, and leads a collaborative team of co-investigators including Dr. Mutlu Yuksel (Dalhousie) and Dr. Daniel Silver (Acadia). The project is a partnership with MLport (a research portal on machine learning Dr. Aydede helped found), Acadia’s Institute for Data Analytics (AIDA), and Saint Mary’s University’s CLARI, the Change Lab Action Research Initiative.

The project team initially came together in 2018 to examine the data relating to chronic respiratory illness, such as asthma. When COVID-19 began infecting the Atlantic region, they recognized there would be value in pivoting to address the urgent needs brought by the pandemic. The project has received additional funding from Mitacs. Dr. Aydede notes that most of the project funding will go to support the staff required for the data analysis, including graduate students. 

The COVID-19 Health Research Coalition is dedicated to fostering a research environment that engages our academic partnerships and responds to the current needs of Nova Scotians and our health system, in addition to maintaining the expertise in innovative research, discovery science, population/social sciences, and health system improvement.

Exploring ways to help Nova Scotian pulp mills produce medical-grade pulp for N95 respirator production

Dr. Christa Brosseau (left)

A Saint Mary’s University researcher is leading a project to help address a key support needed for the COVID-19 pandemic: personal protective equipment and their components.

“As a result of COVID-19, there is a massively increased global demand for N95 respirators,” says Dr. Christa Brosseau. “New technologies are urgently needed to help manage impending shortages, ideally with ’home-grown’ solutions.”

Dr. Christa Brosseau is a professor in Saint Mary’s University’s Faculty of Science and Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Chemistry & Materials. Her project will explore innovative chemical strategies to help determine if Nova Scotian pulp mills can produce medical-grade pulp for N95 respirator production. A recent grant from Research Nova Scotia will help propel this work forward.

N95 masks are typically composed primarily of synthetic polymer materials (polypropylene, polyester) with cellulose sometimes incorporated into one of the many layers that make up the respirator. At present, a single mill in Canada is producing medical grade pulp and they are struggling to keep up with the increased demand.

“Over the years, there has been an increased interest in making N95 respirators using only wood pulp”, says Dr. Brosseau. “However, wood pulp typically lacks certain properties that translate into effective respirator material.”

Dr. Brosseau’s team, in collaboration with the pulp and paper industry in Nova Scotia, will develop and test chemical additives that can address key challenges in the production of medical-grade pulp from thermomechanical pulp. Using combined expertise in the areas of chemical synthesis, materials characterization and process development, they will work towards an innovative “made-in-Nova Scotia” approach for creation of a product similar to the Western red cedar formulation currently produced in British Columbia.

If successful, this project could help meet the needs of frontline healthcare workers by supplying adequate PPE protection from COVID-19 while also supporting the Nova Scotian pulp and paper industry. The research team will work collaboratively with Port Hawkesbury Paper Mill who will provide thermomechanical pulp for experimentation.

“Although this research project was identified through our COVID research response initiative, it could also have a positive impact on the Nova Scotia forestry sector”, says Stefan Leslie, CEO of Research Nova Scotia. “As we pursue both a sustainable forestry industry and a response to the COVID pandemic, the research community is demonstrating its creativity and initiative.”

Note: This story originally appeared on the Research Nova Scotia website.

Nova Scotia Provincial Heritage Fair goes virtual for 2020

The 2020 Nova Scotia Heritage Fair is going virtual and is open to all Nova Scotian students in Grades 4 to 9.

"It was very important to us to find a way to continue, despite school closures,” says Dr. Kirrily Freeman of the Saint Mary’s Department of History, who coordinates the Provincial Heritage Fair each year. “Students work so hard on their projects throughout the year to prepare for this. Holding a virtual fair will be a good way to keep a connection with the kids, showcase their wonderful work, and highlight our youth and community, as well as our history and heritage, in these challenging times."

Every year, schools across the province hold fairs featuring heritage and history-themed projects by students in Grades 4 to 9. Winners go on to participate in the Nova Scotia Provincial Heritage Fair, usually held over two days in early June at Saint Mary’s University with educational workshops, awards and a public showcase.

Africville is the 2020 honouree for the provincial heritage day and heritage fair. The close-knit community was built on the shores of Bedford Basin by descendants of the Black Loyalists and Black refugees who came to Nova Scotia in the late 1700s and early 1800s. See the Nova Scotia Heritage Day website for information and videos.

Students are invited to submit their projects on any aspect of Canadian history or heritage to kirrily.freeman@smu.ca  before June 1, 2020.  Any parents or students with questions can also send an email to the address above.

Submissions should include:

• 2-3 digital photos of the project;

• captions explaining each photo and describing the research for the project; and

• project information and parent consent form.

Projects will be displayed publicly throughout the month of June on the Nova Scotia Provincial Heritage Fair Instagram site, @nsprovincialheritagefair. Any students looking for inspiration can check out these highlights from the 2018 and 2019 Provincial Heritage Fairs.

Updates from the Nova Scotia Provincial Heritage Fair will be posted on its website, on Facebook at @novascotiaheritagefairs, and on Instagram at @nsprovincialheritagefair.

Emma DeLory takes over the reigns of Huskies rugby

Emma DeLory, the new head coach of the Saint Mary’s University Women’s rugby program.

Saint Mary's University is proud to announce that Emma DeLory has been named head coach of the Saint Mary's University women's rugby program. DeLory becomes the ninth coach in Huskies' history and takes over from Amber Davison, who is moving into an assistant role due to professional commitments.

"The first task is to put the pieces in place to build a winning culture," states DeLory. "The Huskies will look to get better each practice and each week as we become more familiar with each other."

Even in the current pandemic situation, DeLory is actively planning and connecting with the students through virtual means as she transitions into her new role. DeLory is no stranger to AUS Women's Rugby as she excelled as a student-athlete at Acadia University, receiving an AUS All-Star selection in 2015 while earning two degrees in Biology and Environmental Science.  

In addition to her new role, DeLory serves as Rugby Nova Scotia's development officer and the head coach of the Under-16 Women's provincial team. She also works with the Canadian National Women's Rugby program and serves as head coach of the Halifax West High School team.

"We are very excited about Coach DeLory joining our program as she brings passion and values that align with Saint Mary's University," says director of Athletics & Recreation Scott Gray. "She is well respected as a coach and leader in athletics and will be an asset to the Huskies in the building of our program."

New international research study asks: Is COVID-19 changing the way we cook and eat?

It might sound familiar: flour, pasta and yeast are more difficult to find than in the past, and you cannot ignore the photos of homemade bread or desserts circulating on social media. It seems for many that the approach when it comes to meals is completely different than before the emergence of the coronavirus. This has not escaped the notice of several researchers, either.

This change in cooking habits has led to a partnership between Saint Mary's University and the Food, Media & Society (FOOMS) at the University of Antwerp in Belgium to launch a research study into the matter. The Corona Cooking Survey is a large-scale international survey study into the impact of COVID-19 on how people deal with food and food-related media. This study allows the shifts brought on by the coronavirus in terms of buying, cooking and eating habits, to be identified. More than 30 countries have already confirmed that they will participate in the research project. 

Dr. Maryanne Fisher

"This is a really exciting project to be involved with for many reasons. Academics around the world have very quickly come together to explore one of the most basic parts of our daily life: eating," says Dr. Maryanne Fisher, a professor of Psychology at Saint Mary's and part of the study's project team. "The number of people who have turned to baking bread - one of the most basic skills that has endured for centuries - is simply amazing. But how did they learn how to make that bread, and what prompted them to do so?"

In Belgium, the survey has received more than 6,000 respondents in less than two weeks.

"We know from previous research that family and friends play an important role in people's relationship with food. Just think of the typical "family classics" or all the tips that friends and colleagues share about food," says Dr. Charlotte De Backer, an Associate Professor at the University of Antwerp and the study's project leader. "Other sources, such as influencers on social media, celebrities on television or recipes in magazines also have an impact on our food choices. That's why we want to use this study to investigate whether our habits have changed since the preventative measures were taken, and what role various media and people play in these changes."

Interested in participating in the survey? Click here.

Preventing burnout among front-line care workers during COVID-19 focus of new Saint Mary's research project

Dr. Debra Gilin

Dr. Debra Gilin, a professor in Saint Mary’s University’s Faculty of Psychology, is leading a study that will rapidly develop tailored screening and intervention tools to support mental health and prevent elevated job burnout or safety risks in COVID-19-responding health care staff in Nova Scotia.

“For Nova Scotia to successfully fight COVID-19, front-line health care workers must be physically and mentally well, and feel safe at work over the long haul,” says Dr. Gilin.

Dr. Gilin’s research team is comprised of leading Canadian experts in occupational health psychology, patient and occupational safety, and job burnout (Dr. Lori Francis, Dr. Mark Fleming, and Dr. Dayna Lee-Baggley). A recent grant from the Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition will now help propel their work forward.

The team is poised to rapidly deliver research that will screen and intervene for job burnout among front-line health care workers and deliver a “COVID Pulse” staff screening tool to identify those at high risk of burnout. Currently, the team is actively collecting job burnout data from health care and trauma exposed front-line workers during the peak of the COVID-19 escalation in Canada and the US. From there, they will mine the data, finding the most diagnostic factors of workload, stress, personality, and life demands that predict elevated burnout. Partner groups can use “COVID Pulse” to triage the most at-risk employees for earlier and greater support and mitigation. The hope is that this tool will be available by summer.

“We know that the protection of our health care workers’ emotional well-being and safety is a critical priority to succeed in the fight against COVID-19 long-term,” says Dr. Gilin. “By leveraging in-progress research resources, we will deliver these important outcomes with minimal research burden on the front-line workers who are already shouldering a heavy toll for the good of all Nova Scotians.”

Dr. Gilin’s study will use physically-distant, confidential interview and survey methods to listen to emerging sources of stress, trauma, safety risks, and needs among key staff groups on the front lines. The team will then tailor a set of resources, supports, and direct brief interventions, to leaders and their staff.

“The healthcare system response to COVID-19 in Nova Scotia will be a marathon, rather than a sprint,” she says, “And our front-line health care workers’ physical and mental well-being is perhaps the most critical resource we must preserve to be successful in the fight.”

This research project was funded by the Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition. Partners include the Nova Scotia Health Authority, Dalhousie University, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation, IWK Health Centre, IWK Foundation, QEII Health Sciences Foundation, Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation, and Research Nova Scotia. The Coalition is dedicated to leading and fostering a research environment that engages our academic partnerships and responds to the current needs of Nova Scotians and our health care system, in addition to maintaining the expertise in innovative research, discovery science, population/social sciences, and health system improvement. This funding partnership provides the opportunity to catalyze COVID-19 related research initiatives and achieve collective social impact.

Take the survey now

Researchers at Saint Mary’s are conducting this survey on empathy, burnout, and trauma among front-line workers during the COVID-19 response now, and they welcome your voice! Please consider responding, or sharing: https://traumaworksurvey.wordpress.com

For more information visit https://researchns.ca/covid19-health-research-coalition/

Note: This story originally appeared in the May Edition of the Research Nova Scotia Newsletter and has been republished with their permission.

Dr. Mohammad Rahaman: The calm before the economic storm

Dr. Mohammad Rohaman

The following is an excerpt from an article Dr. Mohammad Rohaman wrote for The Chronicle Herald.

The effect of COVID-19 on the Canadian economy has been swift and dramatic. Before COVID-19, the economy was expected to grow at a 1.6 per cent to 1.7 per cent rate in 2020. The Bank of Canada now expects economic activity to slow by as much as 30 per cent from the end of 2019; one estimate by Bloomberg projects a slump as high as 40 per cent. Just by looking at the number of unique applicants for the $2,000 Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), it appears that the pandemic has effectively wiped out all job gains made in the Canadian economy over the last 30 years.

How prepared are Canadians to weather such an unprecedented and virulent economic storm? To begin with, Canadian household and business insolvencies spiked dramatically even before COVID-19. Every single day in 2019, a whopping 375 people filed for insolvency proposals, a number that hasn’t been seen since the recession of 2008-2009. To add insult to the injury, the collapse in oil and gas prices led to a sky-high number of business insolvencies in 2019, the first such increase since 2001. On top of that, Canadian households owe $1.76 for every dollar in disposable income, one of the highest rates in the developed world. In places like Vancouver and Toronto, that spikes to about $2.40, at a level only seen in Iceland before the global financial crisis. The insolvency accounting firm MNP Consumer Debt Index, released recently, found that about half of Canadians (49 per cent) surveyed are now on the brink of insolvency, saying they are $200 or less away from not being able to meet their monthly debt obligations. It is therefore fair to say that Canadians entered the COVID-19 episode quite ill-prepared.

Why aren’t we seeing bankruptcies piling up? Because we are now witnessing the calm before the storm. Right now, every Canadian consumer and business are essentially creditor-proof due to the federal and provincial income, wage and rent support system and, of course, courts are closed. The trouble is the government does not know whose credit is good and whose is bad, but the bank knows. When the economy starts to reopen, the fault line will emerge, and some businesses will likely fall through the crack. Being accountable to their shareholders, banks are unlikely to pick up the slack when the government safety net ends…

Click here to view the entire article Dr. Rahaman wrote for the Chronicle Herald.

Saint Mary’s researchers receive funding as part of Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition

In this unprecedented time of local and global uncertainty, there has never been a greater need to conduct medical and health-related research to collect real-time evidence to inform practice, policy and decision making. The Nova Scotia research community has come together to respond to the COVID-19 global pandemic with a collective investment of just over $1.5 million in COVID-19 focused research. 

Today, the Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition announced the lead researchers who are receiving funding. Among the recipients are two Saint Mary’s University researchers: Dr. Yigit Aydede, and Dr. Debra Gilin.

“The researchers receiving funding as part of this announcement are tackling the impacts and spread of the COVID-19 virus, turning their expertise to this global problem,” says Dr. Adam Sarty, Associate Vice-President Research and Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. “Our researchers are tackling this problem with the tools of machine learning and data analytics to track the virus spread in one case, and the expertise of workplace training and interventions to prevent front-line burnout in the other case.  These projects provide a window into the breadth of the research we do at Saint Mary’s. We work collaboratively and engage in research that matters to our communities.”

This funding supports COVID-19 research that will inform health system decisions, facilitate vaccine development, identify novel treatments, develop devices, and influence social response to the pandemic. Funding will also leverage existing research capabilities to help rapidly respond to the urgent need to support further COVID-19 focused research right here in Nova Scotia.

The COVID-19 Health Research Coalition is dedicated to fostering a research environment that engages our academic partnerships and responds to the current needs of Nova Scotians and our health system, in addition to maintaining the expertise in innovative research, discovery science, population/social sciences, and health system improvement.

Dr. Yigit Aydede

Funding recipient: Dr. Yigit Aydede

Project: The Role of Environmental Determinants and Social Mobility in Viral Infection Transmission in Halifax

Description: This study will analyze the relationships between COVID-19 transmission rates, meteorological and air quality, and the fluctuations in social mobility in Nova Scotia to allow for better calibration of spatial spread in simulation models that are used to inform policy making.

Funding amount: $36,900

Dr. Debra Gilin

Funding recipient: Dr. Debra Gilin

Project: Preventing Burnout Among Front-Line Care Workers to Fight Covid-19: Screen and Intervene

Description: This study will rapidly develop tailored screening and intervention tools to support mental health and prevent elevated job burnout or safety risks in COVID-19-responding health care staff in Nova Scotia.

Funding amount: $47,640

Additional information:

• The full list of Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition funding recipients.  

Saint Mary's University ready to support business, help rebuild economy

960 Tower Road, home to the Saint Mary’s University Entrepreneurship Centre and the Saint Mary’s University Language Centre.

Following last week’s provincial announcement, Saint Mary’s University president Robert Summerby-Murray says the university is ready to continue and scale its business coaching and mentoring services. 

“Our entrepreneurship centre started offering free coaching and mentoring services to businesses throughout Atlantic Canada early in March - we are ready to expand our capacity to help more businesses and entrepreneurs,” said Dr. Summerby-Murray. “The centre’s free programming is designed to help businesses manage through the pandemic and also provides advice on what businesses can do to be more resilient to future shocks.” 

“We have been doing our part to help the economy and the business community – we are ready to do more.” 

Summerby-Murray said that business owners and entrepreneurs get access to world-class experts thanks to the Saint Mary’s University Entrepreneurship Centre’s partnership with Metronome United. Metronome United was founded by SMU alumna and entrepreneur Shannon Byrne Susko BComm’89 BSc’92.  

"We are tremendously grateful to Ms. Byrne Susko for her help and support,” said Summerby-Murray. “Having access to the expertise provided by her and her team will be invaluable to entrepreneurs and business leaders here in Nova Scotia.” 

SMU alumni are also reaching out and showing their willingness to help. 

“Our graduates are ready to serve the province and its business at this time of need,” said Summerby-Murray. “The resourcefulness of our alumni is a source of pride for me and for the Saint Mary’s community.” 

Summerby-Murray said he is pleased the province is taking measures to help small businesses in the province and that combining capital with knowledge will ensure more businesses are ready to re-open when the time is right. 

“Money alone won’t ensure business resilience or innovation,” said Summerby-Murray. “It’s part of what’s needed but having access to the knowledge and skills is a necessary part of the equation.” 

“World class coaching and mentoring services, like those provided by the Saint Mary’s University Entrepreneurship Centre, will ensure the province maximizes its investments in the business community.”