Public Executive Program

An authority on social and economic policy issues, Keith Banting is the author of Poverty, Politics and Policy and The Welfare State and Canadian Federalism. He is an editor and co-author of another dozen books dealing with public policy, including most recently Federalism and Health Policy: A Comparative Perspective on Multi-Level Governance.   He currently holds the Queen’s Research Chair in Public Policy.  Professor Banting served as Director of the School of Policy Studies from 1993 to 2003. Prior to that appointment, he served as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at Queen’s University.  In 1983-85, he was a Research Coordinator for the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada.  In 1986-92, he was a member of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and in 1990 was elected vice-president of the Council.  In 2005, Dr. Banting was invested as a member of the Order of Canada.

Dr. Lobna Chérif holds the position of Chair in Resilience at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) and serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Military Psychology and Leadership. She is also the founding Director of the Resilience Plus Program. Dr. Chérif earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from Laval University (Québec, Québec) and holds certifications as a Positive Psychology Practitioner and Resiliency Trainer from The Flourishing Center in New York. Additionally, she is a certified Professional and Personal Coach from Concordia University in Montréal and a certified Mindfulness-Based Strengths Practitioner from the VIA Institute on Character.

Dr. Chérif has led numerous international and national workshops and webinars on the science of positive psychology. Her current research focuses on mindfulness, character strengths, resilience, and accomplishment, exploring practical applications to enhance leaders' well-being and performance.

Throughout her academic career, Dr. Chérif has received several prestigious awards, including the Canadian Psychological Association’s Excellence Award for her doctoral thesis. She has also been honoured with commendations such as the Honourable John Matheson Academic Leadership Award at RMC and the Canadian Armed Forces Chief of the Defence Staff Coin (2023).

In addition to her professional work, Dr. Chérif volunteers her time consulting for various community organizations and supporting her daughter's award-winning non-profit organization, Gnome for a Home, which is dedicated to assisting those experiencing homelessness.

Shai Dubey teaches courses in negotiations, cross-cultural management, ethics, domestic and international business law and entrepreneurship.

Shai earned his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Toronto and his Law Degree from Queen's University. Shai is also a graduate of the aviation Flight Technology Program at Seneca College. 

After graduating from Seneca College in 1984, he began his working career as a commercial pilot. In 1985 he founded and ran both an executive aircraft charter company and a flight training school based in Toronto. After selling this company, Shai worked as an aviation consultant providing strategic and regulatory advice to Canadian and foreign clients. He practiced law on Bay Street and then ran a global company prior to joining Queen’s.

Chantal Hébert is a national affairs columnist with The Toronto Star and a guest columnist for Le Devoir. She is also a regular contributor to the weekly “At Issue” panel on the CBC’s National News. Ms. Hébert served as parliamentary bureau chief for La Presse and Le Devoir in Ottawa, and as a political reporter for Radio-Canada. She is a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, the 2005 recipient of APEX’s Public Service Award, and the 2006 recipient of the Hyman Solomon award for excellence in journalism and public policy.

Matt Reesor is a communications expert who has helped hundreds of leaders at top organizations to sharpen their messaging. Since 2013, he has held a professor appointment at Smith School of Business, Queen’s University and designed numerous Masters and MBA level business communication courses. In addition, Matt was approached to design the highly successful Communicating With Impact program within Queen’s Executive Education (QEE) which he continues to deliver multiple times throughout the year. Matt has created custom communications programs for a growing list of clients including, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, Canada Life, Canada Post, The Canadian Olympic Committee, CIBC Asset Management, Homestead Land Holdings, EY (Consulting), Kellogg’s Canada, the NHL Alumni Association and various government departments and ministries. Prior to teaching at Smith, he spent his early career in Japan as a junior faculty member at Nagoya University of Business and Commerce where he conducted academic research and published the bestselling textbook, Tell Me More: Effective Communication Strategies for the Japanese Student with MacMillan Publishers. In addition to his teaching and consulting duties, Matt served as the Director of the Full-time MBA program at Smith School of Business from 2016-2023.

Douglas Reid is an authority on corporate strategy, and has been widely quoted in the media. As a researcher, he specializes in inter-company alliance dynamics and large alliance evolution. Prior to joining Smith School of Business, he was vice president at Burson-Marsteller, an international consulting firm. He recently concluded six years of service as a director of Candela Energy, and is an active advisor to several companies including Bell Canada, Ontario Securities Commission, Canada Post, Shoppers Drug Mart and Royal and Sun Alliance.

A former Canadian diplomat, Mr. Robertson is Vice President and Fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and hosts its regular Global Exchange podcast. He is an Executive Fellow at the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University. Mr. Robertson sits on the advisory councils of the Johnson Shoyama School of Public Policy, Conference of Defence Associations Institute, North American Research Partnership, and the Sir Winston Churchill Society of Ottawa. He is an Honorary Captain (Royal Canadian Navy) assigned to the Strategic Communications Directorate. He is a member of the Deputy Minister of International Trade's NAFTA Advisory Council and the North American Forum. He writes on foreign affairs for The Globe and Mail and he is a frequent contributor to other media.

Janice Gross Stein is the Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management in the Department of Political Science and the Director of the Munk School for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  She is the co-author, with Eugene Lang, of the prize-winning The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar. She was the Massey Lecturer in 2001 and a Trudeau Fellow. She was awarded the Molson Prize by the Canada Council for an outstanding contribution by a social scientist to public debate.  She is a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario.  Dr. Stein currently serves as Co-Chair of the International Programs Committee on the Board of Care Canada.