Senior Management
Interim President
David B. Smith
NSCAD appointed Professor David B. Smith as interim president on September 1, 2025. He previously served as NSCAD’s president from 2006 – 2012 when he raised a record $9 million for the university. This included $3.4 million to establish the Creative Innovators of Tomorrow fund, which provides full tuition scholarships for 20 NSCAD students. He also established the Student Art Awards and the Faculty Research Fund, revitalized Extended Studies programming, and introduced Community Service Learning — initiatives that continue to enrich student experience and strengthen connections with the broader community.
Since joining NSCAD’s faculty as a full professor in 2012, David has taught in the Sculpture program with a strong focus on teaching Introductory Sculpture to incoming students. He has served as Director of the Master of Art in Art Education program since 2022. For more than a dozen years he has led an externally funded educational program in South Africa at the University of Cape Town where he is an Honorary Research Associate.
Prior to joining NSCAD, David served in key academic and administrative leadership roles at the University of San Diego in California for almost a decade, ranging from Chair of the Department of Art to Special Assistant to the Provost.
Smith began his university studies in Business Administration and Commerce at York University and worked in the financial sector in Toronto, though ultimately he chose to pursue a degree in the Arts, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1992. He then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for post-graduate studies, receiving his Master of Science in Visual Studies from the School of Architecture and Planning in 1997.
Email: president@nscad.ca
Vice-President (Academic + Research) and Provost
Kyla Mallett
NSCAD appointed Kyla Mallett as its new Vice-President (Academic and Research) and Provost, effective July 1, 2025.
For almost seven years, Kyla has been Dean of the Audain Faculty of Art at Emily Carr University in Vancouver and has previously held multiple assistant dean positions as well as serving as a faculty member for 13 years.
Kyla earned a BFA from ECU and an MFA from the University of British Columbia. As a practicing artist, her background is in photography, text, media and print. Her work engages with the intersection of culture and language, using archival research to examine social and cultural activities with a focus on adolescence, self-help, feminisms and art.
She has shown at a broad range of galleries nationally and internationally, including Catriona Jeffries Gallery, the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Alberta, Presentation House Gallery, Artspeak, Chicago’s Paris London Hong Kong Gallery, Malaspina Printmakers Society and Mercer Union in Toronto.
As dean, she co-chaired the University Strategic Planning process for ECU, worked with faculty members and leadership to expand curricular offerings to include a fuller range of art practices, developed partnerships and grant opportunities for professional practice initiatives, and supported faculty-led Equity, Diversity and Inclusion initiatives through curricula and community engagement activities, as well as through educational, administrative and hiring practices.
Email: provost@nscad.ca
Associate Vice-President, Operations
dan harroun
Dan Harroun was appointed Associate Vice-President of Operations on April 2, 2024.
Dan joins NSCAD with a rich background in engineering and project management and brings more than two decades of operational experience to the position.
Dan previously worked with the Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE) where he was responsible for the operation and maintenance of the HRCE site and buildings. His role involved liaising with regional and municipal authorities like Health Canada, Halifax Fire and the Halifax Water Commission to ensure the safe and efficient operations of schools across the city.
Prior to that, he was the Senior Project Manager for Wood Environmental and Infrastructure, where he facilitated the design, construction, and tendering of building and municipal projects. His most memorable experience was a 16-year stint at Hershey Canada, where he managed the engineering operations of the Moir’s Chocolate Plant; facilitating robotic packaging and manufacturing projects, reducing utilities costs by four per cent and maintenance expenses by six per cent.
He has also worked with the Municipality of East Hants, Ainsworth Inc., SNC-Lavalin Operations and Maintenance, and Eaton’s Crouse-Hinds. Harroun has a Bachelor of Engineering (Industrial Engineering) and a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) from Dalhousie University.
As AVP, Operations, he will oversee Computer Services, as well as the Facilities Management team.
Email: facilities@nscad.ca
Chief Financial Officer
Leanne Dowe, CPA, CA
Leanne Dowe became NSCAD’s Chief Financial Officer in 2020 after serving as the university’s controller since 2016. She is a chartered professional accountant (CPA, CA) and has more than 30 years of experience as a finance professional including serving as CFO for Gammon Gold and director of finance for both the Arts Club Theatre Society and Forefront Entertainment Group.
As CFO, Leanne provides strategic financial and risk management of the university and serves as an executive resource to NSCAD’s Board of Governors including the Finance and Physical Resources Committee, and Audit and Risk Committee. She is also a board member and executive committee member of Atlantic Universities’ Interuniversity Services Incorporated, a board member and Audit Committee member of Canadian Universities Reciprocal Insurance Exchange (CURIE), and a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada.
Leanne holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, NS.
Email: finance@nscad.ca
Interim Academic dean
Kim Morgan
Professor Kim Morgan was appointed Interim Academic Dean on June 1, 2026.
Kim joined NSCAD’s Fine Arts Division in 2008 and has been working as a full professor in sculpture, installation and public art. She previously served as NSCAD’s associate academic dean from January to July 2024, a role in which she supported curricular planning and academic staffing, academic matters related to teaching and curriculum, and stewarding articulation agreements and memorandums of understanding.
Her artworks over the past 10 years have explored materiality and the body using interdisciplinary methods of working. She has collaborated with other researchers and institutes to bring these ideas into public spaces, including a partnership with Dalhousie Art Gallery to create public art installations outside the gallery space in the Halifax community.
Awards include: Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia’s Masterwork Award 2012, Arts Nova Scotia Creation Grants, Saskatchewan Arts Board Grants, Canada Council for the Arts, and a co-recipient SSHRC (Social Science Humanities and Research Council) Research and Creation Grant.
Notable residencies include: Artpace San Antonio, Texas, The Dalhousie Medical School, The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency, and The Banff Centre for the Arts, and Pelling Lab-Augmented Biology Lab, University of Ottawa, TRLabs Regina, (artist-in-residence 2005-2008)
Professor Morgan has a BA in Literature from McGill University, a BFA in Sculpture/Extended Media from the School of Visual Arts in NYC, and an MFA in Sculpture/Installation, from the University of Regina.
Email: dean@nscad.ca
Dean, Student Affairs and Registrar
Shawn Tracey
NSCAD appointed Shawn Tracey as its new Dean, Student Affairs and Registrar on July 3, 2024. Shawn comes to NSCAD from Saint Mary’s University, where he was Director of Graduate Student Support and Recruitment at the Sobey School of Business. There, he provided leadership and direction on strategic enrolment management, program operations, and student success
In his first year, Shawn has embraced the role to grow an integrated, student-facing support system at NSCAD, from admission to graduation. The Dean reports to the Vice-President (Academic & Research) and Provost, providing strategic and student-focused leadership to the Office of Student Experience, which oversees registration, enrollment and student equity and support programs.
Shawn has a reputation as a consensus builder and collaborator with a strong knowledge of best practices and data-driven decision making. He served as director of Advancement at the Halifax Grammar School, worked at Dalhousie University as an assistant registrar and a development officer, and chaired the Board of Directors for the Nova Scotia College of Early Childhood Education.
Email: dean.students@nscad.ca