Staff
Academic Director: Dr. Jane Friesen
Dr. Jane Friesen, Professor of Economics at Simon Fraser University, is an empirical labour economist who has studied a variety of issues, including the effects of government policies such as employment insurance and employment standards legislation on labour markets. Her research interests are currently focused on issues related to the effects of organization and funding of the education system on students outcomes, the determinants of school choice, and intergroup attitudes and behavior. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Toronto. Jane lists some representative publications on her homepage.
As the AD, she is responsible for overseeing the operations of the facility. The AD's responsibilities include ensuring sound local governance and administration of the facility and liaising with the Canadian Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN) central staff, Statistics Canada, other universities and the research community. The AD facilitates and coordinates researchers at the facility and participates as a member of the CRDCN Academic Council.
Analyst: Dennis Ma
As the RDC Analyst, Dennis oversees the day-to-day operations at the RDC and ensuring that all activity adheres to the Statistics Act. His duties include activities such as assisting researchers with project preparation, administering RDC access (security checks and contracts), orientating new researchers into the RDC secure computing environment and liaising with the program management. In addition, Dennis provides consultation on research methods and data concepts to the RDC researchers in a client service oriented environment while fostering a culture of confidentiality. He also analyzes all interim and final research outputs that leave RDC to ensure that they respect Statistics Canada's confidentiality protection requirements, and maintains a liaison between the RDC network and Subject Matter Areas responsible for the Statistics Canada household surveys or administrative data. Dennis is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the secure computing environment by ensuring that physical, technical and legal requirements for the operation of an RDC are within standards used by Statistics Canada.