New faces at FIFSW: Introducing Chantal Cory and Sean Kinnear
Categories: Staff
FIFSW is delighted to welcome two new members to our administrative team.
Chantal Cory, Director of Advancement
On August 22, Chantal Cory joined FIFSW for an 11-month term as Director of Advancement, a role that supports our student, donor and alumni communities while raising the culture of philanthropy at the School. Chantal will continue the foundational work established by Seerat Siddique with a focus on growing our powerful community of supporters and friends of the Factor Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.
Chantal has over fifteen years of progressive experience both in private and public sector institutions, including her most recent role at the Rotman School of Management where she successfully partnered with academics, corporate partners and individual donors in support of strategic priorities.
Throughout her career, Chantal has focused on bringing together multiple constituents in order to uncover and advance new opportunities. Her extensive marketing and communications experience includes roles as Director, Sponsorship Strategy for Bell ExpressVu and Director, Head of Partnerships at Forests Ontario & Forest Recovery Canada, where she led a team of 13 fundraising and communications professionals.
Chantal brings a unique skill set that will support the expression of authentic storytelling that is in alignment with FIFSW’s strategic priorities while leading and supporting our advancement team to achieve the Faculty’s ambitious philanthropic and alumni relations goals.
Sean Kinnear, Strategic Research Development Officer
Sean Kinnear is FIFSW’s new Strategic Research Development Officer. Funded by the division of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation (VPRI), this new role was established to assess and evaluate ways to continue to build FIFSW’s research excellence. Sean will work with our stakeholders to develop strategies and identify opportunities to expand external collaborations and partnerships — and maximize funding. With Sean’s support, FIFSW’s research services office is poised to better support our faculty research success.
Sean spent the past 10 years at McMaster University, first as a PhD student, then, since 2019, as a Senior Advisor in the Development Unit of the central research office. During that time, he worked closely with faculty researchers on projects that have secured funding from federal, provincial, municipal, and institutional sources. He has also participated extensively in discussions surrounding the strategic research directions of Canada’s major funding agencies in the near- and longer-term.
A graduate of the Munk School’s Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (CERES) MA program, Sean’s own research interests include carceral spaces/geography, systems of forced labour, authoritarianism, and memory studies. His doctoral research examined thousands of letters written by prisoners of the Stalinist Gulag to their families to understand how prisoners coped with incarceration and isolation and how the study of material culture and collective memory can enhance our understanding of both the Gulag and Soviet society more broadly.
We hope you will join us in welcoming both Chantal and Sean to our Faculty!
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