Owen, Dr. Bill
BSc (Augustana University College), MA, PhD (University of Saskatchewan)
Biography
Dr. Bill Owen is the Interim Vice President Academic and Provost at the University of Northern British Columbia.
Dr. Owen has held a diverse range of progressive administrative roles at the university currently, interim Vice President Academic and Provost and as a Professor (Department of Psychology). Previous leadership roles include Vice Provost Faculty Relations, interim Dean of the College of Arts, Social and Health Sciences, and Vice Provost Student Engagement, working closely with faculty, staff, and students to foster a supportive and dynamic academic environment. In addition to administrative contributions, Dr. Owen has taught extensively and continues to offer guest lectures in a wide range of courses, from required statistics to specialized topics in cognition and psycholinguistics, earning recognition for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Owen’s scholarly background focuses on visual word recognition, psycholinguistics, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Whether in the classroom, through hallway conversations, or in leadership roles, Dr. Owen remains deeply committed to fostering the academic and personal success of students, faculty, and staff while advancing ÂÜÀòÉäÇø’s mission, vision, and values.
With a strong focus on student success, faculty engagement, and institutional excellence, Dr. Owen’s leadership is rooted in the founding community vision of ÂÜÀòÉäÇø, the ÂÜÀòÉäÇø Strategic Plan, READY, and the recently approved ÂÜÀòÉäÇø READY Roadmap: Academic Plan 2025-2031, ensuring that our university remains a beacon of academic innovation and inclusivity.
Research and Expertise
Dr. Owen conducts research in basic reading and cognitive processes. He also engages in the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Selected Publications
Borowsky, R., Owen, W.J., & Masson, M.E.J. (2002). Reevaluating the diagnostics for phonological lexical access: When the pseudohomophone naming advantage becomes a disadvantage. Memory & Cognition, 30, 969-987.
Borowsky, R., Owen, W.J., & Sarty, G.E. (2002). The role of the left hemisphere in motor control of touch: A functional magnetic resonance imaging analysis. Brain & Cognition, 49, 96-101.
Chambers, L., & Owen, W. J. (2024). The Efficacy of GenAI Tools in Postsecondary Education. Brock Education Journal, 33(3), 57–74.
Owen, W.J. (2024). Growing into an academic leadership role. Times Higer Education Campus+
Owen, W.J., & Borowsky, R. (2003). Examining the modularity of lexical orthographic and phonological processing. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 57, 290-303.
Owen, W.J., Borowsky, R., & Sarty, G.E. (2004). FMRI of two measures of phonological processing in visual word recognition: Ecological validity matters. Brain and Language, 90, 40-46.
Owen, W. J., & Siakaluk, P. D. (2011). A demonstration of the Analysis of Variance using physical movement and space. Teaching of Psychology, 38, 151-154.
Owen, W.J. & Smith, H. (2009). Remembering our teaching heart in the midst of all the noise. Transformative Dialogues, 2(3), 1-4.
Siakaluk, P. D., Pexman, P. M., Aguilera, L., Owen, W. J., & Sears, C. R. (2008). Evidence for the activation of sensorimotor information during visual word recognition: The body-object interaction effect. Cognition, 106, 433-443.