Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) has launched a major shake-up, creating seven new schools out of the previous four, one of which is the new School of Energy and Natural Resources (SENR), which opens for students in September.

Agatha Ojimelukwe, NAIT’s inaugural dean for SENR, told DOB Energy in an interview that her school emerged from the much larger School of Applied Sciences and Technology.

“We know that this renewed structure will reflect more, is more agile and more responsive and more aligned with industry … to make sure that we continue to meet their needs, and it helps us to innovate,” Ojimelukwe said.

Ojimelukwe said she had big plans, including improved advocating energy and natural resources education at NAIT.

“[We look at the] new competencies that are needed for students, then we can drive those in our programs, and make sure that they continue to be relevant,” she said. 

In the weeks leading up to September’s school launch, Ojimelukwe says NAIT planned to roll things out gradually, but relationship building with industry will be near the top of the list.

“We know [what] needs to change and what needs to stay the same. The future that I see for the school is one that is marked by transformational impact for our students, community, and industry,” she said.

Bringing Nigerian-training, applied research to NAIT

“I want people to think innovation, transformation, solution provider, relevance.”

Ojimelukwe’s path to the dean’s chair started as a lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria, while she was completing her doctorate.

“During that time, I was engaged in applied research focused on environmental monitoring. Port Harcourt’s economy is driven by oil and gas, kind of like Alberta, and so we would have cases of occasional oil spills,” she said.

“My team was involved with monitoring the Nigerian coastline for hydrocarbons, heavy metals and nutrients, just to inform policies on environmental risk assessment for humans and species that live in the water bodies.”

She liked the subject and the ability to inform government policy, and also discovered a love of teaching.

“I wanted to help students make those right decisions, to give them the skills that they will need to succeed and thrive, and to have meaningful careers,” Ojimelukwe said.

She relocated with her family to Edmonton in 2019, joining NAIT as an institutional research specialist and using her advanced analytics skills to get into strategic enrollment management, helping senior leaders at NAIT make informed decisions about student enrollment and programs.

A grounding in alternative and net zero

The opportunity came to join Corporate and Continuing Education within NAIT as the program manager for Energy and Environment.

“We were exploring what the opportunities are in carbon capture, what the opportunities are in hydrogen. What do our students need to know to be able to get into those sectors and be relevant?” Ojimelukwe said.

There was a lot of learning and engagement with both the energy industry and government, along with significant wins, she said.

“We got a lot of government funding to begin to envision what training in cleaner energy could look like, especially when it comes to fuels and some good wins for federal and industry funding to build those programs, which is pretty amazing,” she said.

She joined the board of the Canadian Hydrogen Association and still leads their innovation committee.

Ojimelukwe says NAIT has invested in aligning training with energy needs.

“That’s why we’re engaged in alternative energy, supporting training for individuals who are building solar panels and getting that alternative energy technology implemented in Alberta,” she said.

“That pretty much led me to this point at this position. When the opportunity came up, I expressed an interest, and you go through all the processes and today I’m here because I love teaching and learning, I love supporting people to make the best decisions about their careers, to make impacts on their careers.”

Asked how she can attract more young people into the School of Energy and Natural Resources, Ojimelukwe said there needed to be a “balanced data-driven and data-informed conversation about energy, because we can’t just truncate and terminate all of the work that’s happening in the oil and gas sector, because then we would have even bigger problems.”