SFU’s VP finance and administration, Pat Hibbitts, passed away suddenly last Tuesday after serving as a senior executive member for over a decade.
Hibbitts began her academic career in Ontario, earning her BA at the University of Toronto and her MBA from York University. In 2009, she received her EdD from SFU’s faculty of education.
She was joined in her SFU convocation by her daughter Kelly — graduating with a BA in history — who played a key role in her doctoral thesis. Hibbitts’ thesis documented her personal experience with the K–12 system as a mother who saw labels and disability assigned to her children as their family moved between a number of mine sites across Canada.
President Andrew Petter’s statement on her passing highlighted that Hibbitts also “wrote extensively on the power of narrative and the human experience in the education system and was active in issues of Aboriginal and health policy.”
She also served as an Affiliated Scholar in the Centre for Studies in Educational Leadership and Policy. In Spring 2010, Hibbitts was the visiting scholar for the University of Bath’s International Centre for Higher Education Management.
Before arriving at SFU, Hibbitts was VP business and finance at the University of Northern British Columbia and director of finance and administration of Sir Wilfred Grenfell College at Memorial University.
On behalf of SFU, Petter conveyed, “Our thoughts are with Pat’s family and friends at this difficult time.”
