Retiring Staff + Faculty Celebrated for Extraordinary Contributions

Dr. Cameron Cartiere’s career at ECU started with her appointment as the Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies in 2010. From 2014 until her retirement, the artist and author served as Professor in the Faculty of Culture + Community, focusing on subjects including environmental ethics, public art and social practice, curatorial practice and urban renewal. Throughout her tenure, she led several Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada (SSHRC)-funded projects exploring public art and its impact on community and the environment.

Before arriving in Canada in 2010, she co-founded the Centre for Media, Culture and Creative Practice at Birkbeck, University of London, where she was also a senior lecturer for the Arts Policy and Management MA program.

She has an extensive record of publication, including as author of RE/Placing Public Art, as co-author of the Manifesto of Possibilities: Commissioning Public Art in the Urban Environment, as co-editor of The Practice of Public Art (with Shelly Willis) and co-editor of The Everyday Practice of Public Art: Art, Space, and Social Inclusion (with Martin Zebracki), and in the anthology, The Failures of Public Art and Participation (with Anthony Schrag).

Since 2016, she has served as the co-editor-in-chief Public Art Dialogue, a scholarly journal for critical discourse and commentary about the practice of public art.

Cameron’s work as a practitioner in the public realm includes Border Free Bees, a research initiative co-founded with Nancy Holmes (UBCO). Using public art as the driver, the project’s mission is to raise awareness of the plight of wild pollinators, empower communities to actively engage in solutions for habitat loss, and transform under-utilized urban sites into aesthetically pleasing and scientifically viable pollinator earthworks. Border Free Bees is comprised of various related initiatives in partnership with artists, scientists, designers, subject specialists, community groups, businesses, non-profits and municipalities.

During her time at ECU, she served four years as President of the Faculty Association, stepping down in 2025 upon her retirement. In her final missive in that capacity, Cameron wrote, “I would like to turn my attention to the strength, compassion, dedication, and much-needed goodwill and humour that I have seen every day from our members inside and outside of this campus. I am continually humbled by your ability to keep showing up – in meetings, workshops, seminars, gallery openings, and countless other events … It has truly been an honour to serve with you and on behalf of you. Our membership is a community of incredible people. I will always be in solidarity with this amazing faculty.”

Artist and writer Gaye Fowler served 33 years at ECU, retiring as Foundation Program Advisor. She played an instrumental role in steering the careers of countless Foundation students over the years. Gaye also served as a member of the ECU Board of Governors and as a CUPE shop steward for 29 years.

An accomplished artist and writer with a focus on screenplays and short stories. Her script White Owls made the semi-finals in the Table Read My Screenplay Contest - New Orleans and her short story Something for You Today was published by Sub Terrain Magazine, receiving an honourable mention in the creative non-fiction category.

While studying fashion design at Kwantlen University, Gaye became interested in textiles. Since working at ECU and through the support and encouragement of Brenda Crabtree, former Director of Aboriginal Programs and Special Advisor to the President on Indigenous Initiatives, Gaye has expanded her practice into beading and weaving.

In 2024, Gaye received the Staff Excellence Award for Distinguished Service. Her nominators were effusive about her “big heart, her humour, and her ability to make people feel at ease" and her dedication to the mental health and wellness issues of Foundation students.

“I’m thrilled to receive this award, and I thank my nominators for recognizing my work in the Foundation program,” Gaye said at the time. “I get to witness the next generation of artists and creative thinkers at the beginning of their artistic journeys, and that’s a privilege I don’t take lightly. I’m inspired every day by the work of my colleagues, technicians, and students who make my days brighter and fulfilling.”

Colleagues commended Gaye’s resilience as well as her stalwart advocacy for CUPE members.

“With the Foundation program’s ever-changing environment, Gaye accepts it with grace and takes on the challenges with utmost determination,” ECU staff member Meghan Weeks, a longtime friend and coworker, wrote at the time of the award. “I have been on her Foundation Show set-up crew for almost 16 years, and each year she knocks it out of the park with elevating first-year student work, something that isn’t easy given the number of deserving students that are in the program.”

On the occasion of her retirement, Meghan added, “Gaye put her heart and soul into Foundation. She went above and beyond to welcome new students to Emily Carr. She not only advised students but created community and a safe space. She will be dearly missed by the Foundation Crew.”

Numerous staff colleagues also recounted how Gaye offered not only professional but personal guidance for challenges both large and small, underscoring the deep humanity she brought to her role at ECU. 


Amy Kheong, Executive Director of Counselling + Wellness, Access + Learning Support, served 24 years at ECU. She was known as a warm, empathetic leader and colleague who brought enduring sensitivity, sincerity and good humour to everything she did.

Ashiya Khan-Sequiera, an ECU Counselling + Wellness team member, writes that “Amy displays a high degree of integrity and passion as a leader. She creates a safe, supportive and rewarding work environment. Amy inspires her team to do their work to the highest standard of practice and always leads by example.

“In my 25-year career, I have had my fair share of supervisors but have never met anyone like Amy. She encouraged, challenged and helped me grow professionally and personally.

“Amy has a unique way of bringing out the best in everyone around her. She sees every individual’s gifts and creates opportunities for them to grow and shine. She values each one of us and she goes out of her way to appreciate, support and guide us.

“She inspires her team to do their work to the highest standard of practice, to advocate for marginalized communities and to reduce barriers and stigma for mental health services.

“She has been a champion for student’s mental health needs and will fight endlessly for the best interests of students and her team. She is fierce when she needs to be, yet is also humble, authentic and grateful at the same time.

“Amy will forever be missed at the Counselling + Wellness Centre. She has left us with so much wisdom, care and guidance. Even though she’s no longer here, we will carry on the work, because we learned from the very best.”

In 2023, Amy received the Staff Excellence Award for Distinguished Service. Her nominators described Amy as a “true leader and role model to the Emily Carr community on how to advocate, inspire, lead and provide exceptional service.”

“Attaining a level of excellence is rarely a single-person achievement, and this award goes to all my team from Counselling, Wellness, and Accessibility Services,” Amy said any the time.

Among her many accomplishments, she noted her pride in the work her team did to foster connection at the Wellness Kitchen, which offers food and space to interact for students across the university.

“Students face a myriad of challenges these days, including mental health difficulties, racial and social injustice, food and financial insecurity, and social isolation and loneliness,” Amy writes. "Through food, cooking and sharing, we’ve created a mental health hub, a safe space for students. The Wellness Kitchen connects students, provides them with some sustenance and comfort, teaches skills, and is free from evaluation, judgement, or pressure.”

Artist, animator, researcher and writer Lorelei Pepi served 11 year at ECU, retiring as an Associate Profession in the Faculty of Design + Dynamic Media.

Faculty colleague Martin Rose applauded Lorelei for her spirited efforts in supporting students during The Show, ECU’s annual graduating student exhibition. Martin applauded “the level of detail she put into coordinating students’ premiere screenings for 3D Computer Animation, 2D + Experimental Animation, and Film + Screen Arts.

“Over weeks and months leading up to The Show, she liaised with students, technicians, faculty, communications, grad show coordinators, alumni, external adjudication panels and more, over weeks and months beforehand. A lot of work was put into making the events both polished and professional to showcase the students’ work, ECU’s animation programs, and the university more broadly.”

He also notes Lorelei worked hard to make the experience “a warm and loving celebration for family and friends.”

He adds that her contributions were key to the visibility of a 2025 screening of works by graduating 2D + Experimental Animation students at the Reliance Theatre at ECU, during which the lower section of the theatre reached capacity, and the audience spilled over to the mezzanine above.

“Lorelei’s efforts towards events and screenings went beyond Animation. Faculty- and university-wide, she organized events for a broad community,” Martin continues. This includes co-facilitating Qwalena: The Wild Woman Who Steals Children” event featuring storytellers Dallas Yellowfly and Alysha Collie; and the Time, Light & Sound Series created and curated by Lorelei to showcase the theme of ‘collaborative spirit’ by bringing working practitioners to campus to speak with the community.

“Artists are capable of astounding acts of creativity, and their ideas and energies are often amplified and transformed when working in crews, ensembles and collectives,” notes the Time, Light & Sound tagline.

“Lorelei’s contributions helped elevate ECU’s reputation in the community locally, regionally, nationally and beyond,” Martin continues. Her work spotlighted ECU as “a creative university, showcasing the Faculty of Design & Dynamic Media and its Animation Programs.”

Lorelei was also known as a warm, funny and thoughtful colleague, as well as a brilliant researcher and practitioner. An interview about artificial intelligence in creative practice, conducted with CBC’s Dan Burrett in 2024, remains cogent even a year later, with the news organization continuing to cite Lorelei’s insight as a touchstone in conversations on the topic.

“She made us look good!” Martin writes.

Celebrated painter Ben Reeves served 18 years as an ECU faculty member, retiring as Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Art.

Faculty colleague and friend Ingrid Koenig notes Ben’s enormous impact on the university’s academic and cultural milieu.

“Ben Reeves has been an exemplary faculty member in the Painting area, providing far-reaching and caring leadership as Associate Dean for many years,” Ingrid writes. “Ben has continuously inspired his students and colleagues through his prodigiously powerful painting practice.

“His presence in these roles served to create space for open dialogue around pedagogy, interdisciplinary curriculum development, teaching mentorship, and an atmosphere of collaboration. Ben was instrumental in developing the PRAX courses, an important new requirement in the BFA program for all art students, as it supports integration of their chosen field of material practice with theory, art history and contemporary discourse.

“Countless undergraduate and graduate students have reached successful careers, benefitting from his fruitful feedback and supportive references.

“Besides being a colleague who generously shared course plans and teaching strategies, Ben is much loved for his infectious sense of humour - keeping us enthralled through his wit. With his intriguing background in physics, there was always the chance of travelling with him through wormholes and arriving at new understandings as artists, makers and researchers.”

Ben, who is represented by the esteemed Equinox Gallery, aims to direct his focus to painting full-time.

Speaking about his painting practice in 2021 with WhiteHot magazine, Ben said he realized at a young age that “the landscape and the land is always political, and it’s never neutral. It always means different things in different contexts to different people” adding that ever since, artmaking has been “pleasurable, but always something I did with a kind of serious attention.”