Academic Vice-President & Provost

Dr. Amanda Cockshutt has served as the Academic Vice President & Provost at St. Francis Xavier University since May 1, 2022. She came to StFX from Mount Allison University where she served as the Dean of Science and Graduate Studies. Dr. Cockshutt served in several leadership positions during her tenure at Mount Allison, including as Head of the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. 

Dr. Cockshutt has been described by her colleagues as visionary, effective, results-oriented, an extremely hard worker, an unwavering voice of support for students and an engaging leader.   

Amanda is an educator who engages and inspires students. She is the recipient of both the J.WE. A. Crake Teaching Award in the Faculty of Science at Mount Allison and the Herbert & Leota Tucker teaching award, Mount Allison’s highest award of teaching excellence. Amanda is a scholar of biochemistry with a research focus on the molecular biology of marine picocyanobacteria. Her research program has attracted funding from sources including NSERC and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.   

In 2004, Dr. Cockshutt started a federally incorporated biotech company, Environmental Proteomics NB Inc., and was its founding CEO and Chief Scientific Officer. Through her career path, Amanda maintained an active research program with numerous publications and citations. She has served as the Academic Editor for PLoS ONE since 2014, and on the Evaluation Group for the NSERC CREATE program and on the Fulbright Canada Scholars & Scholarships Adjudication Committee.  

Dr. Cockshutt earned a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Western Ontario (1991) and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Biochemistry from McGill (1987). She held post-doctoral research fellowships at Institut National de la Santé et Recherche Médicale in Paris (1991-1993) and at Umeå Universitet in Sweden (1993-1994).