John Corlett, Brock’s Dean of Applied Health Sciences, is resigning from the office this summer to become Vice-President Academic at the University of Winnipeg.

Corlett broke the news in a message to colleagues on Tuesday, June 1, just a day after officials announced the appointments of new deans coming to Brock this summer for the Faculty of Education and Faculty of Humanities.

Corlett, who will leave the office on Sept. 1, was first appointed Dean of Applied Health Sciences in 2002.

“The eight years since have been a privilege and I treasure this time as a high point in my three-decades-long career as a university professor,” he said in his note. But “nothing lasts forever and change is not just good, but essential.

“Seasons change, and we must change with them.”

Murray Knuttila, Vice-President Academic at Brock, wished Corlett well in his new position, but said he will be missed.

“John’s commitment to extending Brock into the community and working with diverse elements of our communities are particularly noteworthy,” Knuttila said. “In my relatively short time working with John, I came to appreciate his boundless energy, passion, commitment and intelligence and how he applied these to every task and challenge he has faced.”

Knuttila said he will meet with Corlett to discuss the steps of appointing an interim Dean, and that the University Secretariat will be asked to begin planning a decanal recruitment process for Applied Health Sciences.

During his tenure, Corlett has been instrumental in helping Brock become more involved beyond the campus, including playing a key role in developing the Memorandum of Understanding that Brock signed earlier this year with the City of Welland.

Internationally, he initiated efforts examining the role of physical education in preventing violence in Latin America, and since 2005 has led Brock students and academics on exchanges to El Salvador.

As for going to the University of Winnipeg to work with its president Lloyd Axworthy, “I am very much looking forward to this wonderful opportunity. And the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences will choose its next Dean, someone to lead it well as part of Brock’s evolving vision of the future.”