Canadian Mennonite University - Winnipeg

President's Biography

Cheryl Pauls, PhD  | cmupresident:@:cmu.ca

Dr. Cheryl Pauls became President of Canadian Mennonite University in November 2012 and recently was affirmed for a third term. Her career at CMU’s predecessor colleges began in 1994 when she began teaching piano performance and music theory. Dr. Pauls went on to provide leadership to the CMU School of Music and to many initiatives across the university before her appointment as President.

Alongside teaching, Dr. Pauls has enjoyed a career as a piano soloist, a collaborating musician, and a lecture recitalist. She continues to perform a diverse spectrum of music and is known best as a player and active proponent of New Music. She credits many living composers with shaping her inclinations towards music with no set template for how it goes. Dr. Pauls’ experience as a musician and artist has greatly shaped her leadership and vision for CMU.

As President, Dr. Pauls has overseen considerable extensions in the range of communities and individuals who connect with this small university (student full-time equivalent of 900) in the Anabaptist tradition. Programmatic expansion during this time has included the sciences and business with BSc and BBA programs in ways that complement CMU’s ongoing vision for calling forward the good of the BA. Further recent initiatives have included establishing three CMU Centres (Centre for Resilience, Centre for Career and Vocation, Centre for Faith and Life).

Dr. Pauls holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance as well as a Masters of Music degree from University of British Colombia. She also holds undergraduate degrees from University of Manitoba (BMus), University of Winnipeg (BA) in addition to a Bachelor of Religious Studies from Mennonite Brethren Bible College (now CMU).

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