Principal
ResourceWorks Consulting
Professor and Past President
Cape Breton University

Jacquelyn Thayer Scott, OC, PhD, LLD, is professor of Organizational Management & Public Administration at Cape Breton University (CBU), in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and principal of ResourceWorks Consulting. From 1996-2007, she served on the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council on Science & Technology for the Government of Canada, and in the last three years was its deputy chair (Operating Head).

From 1993-2002, she was president and vice-chancellor of CBU (then known as University College of Cape Breton), an undergraduate and graduate post-secondary institution offering degrees, diplomas, and certificates in a range of liberal arts, scientific, and technical topics and competencies. Dr. Scott had also served as director of the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto and on the faculty at the University of Manitoba, operated her own public relations and management consulting firm in three provinces, and been employed as a journalist by The Canadian Press and The Columbian Newspapers.

Dr. Scott has served on a number of governing boards and advisory committees, and currently is a member, Premier’s Council on Innovation, Province of Nova Scotia, member of the Millennium Scholarship Foundation, Government of Canada, co-chair to the Satellite Account on Nonprofit Organizations and Volunteering Advisory Committee, Statistics Canada, chair of the Celtic Colours International Festival Society (non-profit, charitable), board member of the Canadian International Demining Corps (non-profit, charitable), board member of the Dynagen Technologies, Inc. (corporate), board member of the Nexient Learning, Inc. (corporate, TSX), governing board member, RCC College of Technology (corporate), board member of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (non-profit), Advisory Committee member, Public Policy and the Third Sector Program, School of Public Policy, Queens University, and Advisory committee member of the Certificate Program in Corporate Social Responsibility, University of St. Michael’s College in The University of Toronto and the Conference Board of Canada.

She is also a former chair of the board of the Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research, Industry and Education (CANARIE), Ltd., the Canadian Alliance of Education and Training Organizations (CAETO), the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education, Atlantic University Sport, the Ontario Council for University Continuing Education, and the Council of Ontario Universities' Status of Women Committee. She has served in recent years on the governing boards of Sempra Atlantic Gas, Sydney Steel Corporation, CDI Education Corporation, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), the Association of Atlantic Universities, the Canadian Centre for Management Development, the Corporate Higher Education Forum, and the Cape Breton County Economic Development Authority (CBCEDA). Dr. Scott also is a major shareholder in four family-owned businesses in Nova Scotia.

As well, Dr. Scott chaired the Government of Canada’s Expert Panel on Skills, and has been a member of Government of Canada delegations to the Heads of State meeting of "Third Way" countries (Berlin, 2000), and to the Asia Pacific Economic Council High-Level Meeting on Human Skills Development (Beijing, 2001). She served on the Premier’s Roundtable on the Economy, and has co-chaired the PGI Golf Tournament for Literacy in Cape Breton.

Dr. Scott has been awarded a number of professional honours in her field, including the Nova Scotia Gzowski Award for Literacy, the CAUCE Lifetime Honourary Membership Award, the first CAETO Honourary Membership Award, and is the author of numerous scholarly and popular articles and works on voluntary organization management and policy, and higher education and community economic development policy. Her contributions were recognized by the Government of Canada in awarding her a Canada 125th Medal, and by the University of Waterloo in bestowing on her the honourary degree of Doctor of Laws. In 1998, the Canadian Progress Club of Halifax-Dartmouth named her "Woman of Excellence" of the year, Corporate Management and the Professions. In 2001, she was awarded the Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for Excellence in Public Administration and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2002, she was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal. In 2003, she was awarded an Honourary Diploma by Loyalist College, Belleville, Ontario. Early in her professional life, she was also the youngest person and the first woman to be awarded a National Newspaper Award for Editorial Writing (1970).

Born in Kansas, she is a Canadian citizen and has resided in this country for 38 years. She is the mother of three children -- Jared, 38; Angela (deceased); and Meghan, 30 -- and grandmother of Brittany, Jessie, Christian, Gavin, Kaitlyn Jacquelyn, Joshua and Bryan. Dr. Scott resides in Ben Eoin, on the southern shore of Cape Breton’s Bras d’Or Lakes.