Dr. Audrey J. Penner is the Director of Adult Education, Learner Supports, and Applied Research at Holland College, Prince Edward Island. She manages a large directorate with responsibilities for policies and operational needs of applied research; curriculum and instructional development; adult education; language training for Newcomers to Canada; library services; assessment services; and integration of the education enhanced technology at Holland College. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Prince Edward Island. She teaches: Transformative Learning, Issues in Adult Education, Facilitating Adult Literacy, the Sociology of Education, and Special Topics in Adult Education in a joint B.Ed degree program between Holland College and UPEI. She is a mentor for teachers within the Master’s of Education program and teaches Theories in Educational Research at the Master’s level at University of Prince Edward Island.
Her role includes leading a team of researchers in a variety of social innovation areas that support learner success, labour force development, and human capital expansion. She has worked as a teacher, administrator, consultant, researcher, and senior leader in the postsecondary environment. She is listed as an expert reviewer with Canada’s National Science and Engineering Research Council, in the area of applied research in colleges. Her most recent publication “Comparison of College Performance of General Educational Development (GED) and High School Diploma Students in Nova Scotia and PEI” was listed as one of the top ten academic stories in Canadian Postsecondary education by Academia, January 28th, 2011. This paper is a joint publication with Human Resource and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) comparing performance of adult learners to the traditional high school trajectory in a postsecondary environment.
She began her academic career with the University of Manitoba in the Faculty of Dentistry, School of Dental Hygiene, from there she finished a Bachelor of Science degree at University of Waterloo. She completed her Master’s degree in Education Learning and Leadership at the University of Prince Edward Island and obtained her Doctorate in Higher Education Administration from the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In 2009-2010, she completed a post doctoral fellowship in advanced analytics for policy development with the Canadian federal government, HRSDC.
She has published papers, presented nationally and internationally. Her past research has included a variety of teaching, learning, and policy issues related to labor force development for low skilled and disadvantaged learners including: adult literacy, support for adult learning and teaching strategies, essential skills; performance indicators as a measurement tool in education; quality measures in higher education; language acquisition strategies. She is currently co-investigator in two projects for policy development including assessing key success indicators for social assistance clients returning to the labor force, and key success indicators in the systems evaluation of the PEI Preschool Excellence Initiative.
She is a member of several Canadian committees focused on adult learning, literacy, and applied research. Dr. Penner has won several awards both for professional work and as a volunteer in her community, including the Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Manitoba, 2005.
Centre For Education Research
