Charles Pascal

Biography

Charles E. Pascal is an internationally recognized educator with expertise in early and higher education, training, policy development, and leadership & organizational development. Charles also has demonstrated expertise and effectiveness in strategic philanthropy. He has published extensively in the fields of psychology and education. Currently, Charles is Professor of Human Development and Applied Psychology at OISE/University of Toronto where he is coordinator of the PhD. Program in Early Learning. He also teaches in a PhD. program in leadership that he developed for post-secondary and community leaders. Charles is also the Senior Advisor to the Chagnon Foundation in Montreal, special advisor to Australia’s Good Start Early Learning organization, a regular contributor to the Toronto Star newspaper and conducts seminars and workshops on lifelong learning, leadership, policy-making and strategic philanthropy. Charles graduated from the University of Michigan with a Ph.D. in psychology in 1969 and immediately joined the psychology faculty of McGill University in Montreal. While at McGill, he was a founder of The Centre for Learning and Development. He also founded the McGill Community Family Centre, a full-service child-care centre that was the first of its kind in Canadian universities. He also served on numerous community advisory boards and committees dealing with the education of disadvantaged and special-needs children. In addition, Charles headed a team at Montreal Children’s Hospital that provided training to help parents support children with disabilities. Charles moved to Toronto in 1977 to accept a joint position with the University of Toronto,/Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) and the Council of Ontario Universities Program for Instructional Development. At OISE, he served as founding chair of the higher education group and in 1981 became the executive head of graduate studies. During this time, he was a member of the Governing council of the University of Toronto. Charles also served on Dr. Bette Stephenson’s steering committee for the Secondary Education Review Project.

Research Interest

Policy and higher education; leadership, organizational development and higher education, and public administration