Rhonda McEwen

Rhonda N. McEwen (born ) is a Trinidadian-Canadian academic who has served as the 14th president and vice-chancellor of Victoria University in the University of Toronto since July 1, 2022. Previously, she was vice-principal, academic and dean of the University of Toronto Mississauga and director of the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology (ICCIT). As president of Victoria University, she became the first Black woman to lead a university in Canada.

Her academic work concerns new technologies and information practices, particularly communication through mobile devices and tablets, communicating with robots, virtual reality, and social networks.

Early life and education McEwen was born in Trinidad and Tobago in . Her parents moved her and her family to Menomonie, Wisconsin in the United States in the late 1970s to pursue higher education.

In 2011, her research on touchscreen technology for children on the autism spectrum was featured on 60 Minutes. This led to her joining an advisory group for Sesame Workshop, the non-profit which produces Sesame Street, which sought to discuss autism on its TV program. A new muppet that she helped create named Julia was introduced in 2017. McEwen had suggested that the character be a girl.

On July 1, 2021, McEwen was appointed vice-principal, academic and dean of UTM for a five-year term alongside principal Alexandra Gillespie. Her predecessor as dean of UTM, Amrita Danière, was chosen to return to the role in the interim following McEwen's appointment at Victoria University.

Term as president of Victoria University During her term as president in 2023, students at Victoria University protested the institution's investment in fossil fuels through its endowment funds. A student group called Climate Justice U of T occupied the Victoria College building (nicknamed Old Vic) for 18 days from March 27 to April 13, 2023. According to McEwen, between six and nine million dollars from the institution's endowment financed fossil fuel companies at the time, which comprised 3.2 per cent of its total investment. Following the protest, the Victoria University Board of Regents approved a motion on April 13 to divest from fossil fuel companies by 2030. In a 2026 interview for the Toronto Star, McEwen claimed that "The board was already working on this issue before I even got there."

Personal life McEwen's heritage traces back to Merikins, Black refugees who left Nova Scotia and fought alongside the British during the War of 1812, and settled in Trinidad to escape bondage.

Awards and honours She was granted awards including: a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Tactile Interfaces, Communication and Cognition; an Ontario Centres of Excellence grant; and several Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grants.

In 2025, she was appointed an honorary captain of the Canadian navy in Halifax.

Selected publications Dubé, A. and McEwen, R. 2017. Understanding Tablets from Early Childhood to Adulthood. Routledge. Campigotto, R. and McEwen, R. 2013. "Especially social: Exploring the use of an iOS application in special needs classrooms". Computers & Education. 60 (1). Pergamon. 74-86. Dubé, A. and McEwen, R. 2015. "Engaging or distracting: Children’s tablet computer use in education". International Forum of Educational Technology and Society. McEwen, R. N. and Scheaffer, K. 2013. "Virtual mourning and memory construction on Facebook: Here are the terms of use". Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society. 33 (3-4). SAGE Publications. 64-75. McEwen, R., Ong, L. R., Yang, X. and Zihayat, M. 2020. "A big data analytics framework for detecting user-level depression from social networks". International Journal of Information Management. 54. Pergamon. 102141. Dubé, A. K. and McEwen, R. N. 2015. "Do gestures matter? The implications of using touchscreen devices in mathematics instruction". Learning and Instruction. 40. Pergamon. 89-98.