Stephen Ritchie is an Associate Professor in the School of Human Kinetics at Laurentian University; he was originalky hired to teach in the Outdoor Adventure leadership program. He is also now a faculty investigator at the Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research, the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health, and he is a core member of the Evaluating Children's Health Outcomes Research Centre. He is active in a diverse portfolio of research, using diverse methods, with a variety of teams, including several research collaborations with Indigenous communities in rural and remote locations. He has also worked in the outdoor field on and off for nearly 40 years as a guide, teacher, facilitator, and more recently as professor and researcher. Prior to his arrival at the university, Stephen spent six years consulting in the private sector working onsite for several large corporations at various locations across Canada.
As an avid outdoorsman, Stephen has international mountaineering experience scaling peaks throughout Canada, the United States, Alaska, Mexico, and in the Himalayas. He has also canoed, kayaked, and rafted throughout Canada on turbulent whitewater rivers, and he has led several long backcountry wilderness expeditions in some of the most remote regions of Canada. Stephen resides in Sudbury Ontario with his wife Nathalie, and their famnily includes two adult children, Tristan and Ixta. And when he is not too busy with his teaching, researching, climbing, or paddling, he can be found lounging on the bank of the Aux Sables River in northern Ontario.
Professional Vision Statement:
My vision is to understand and share the holistic health benefits of an active lifestyle involving wilderness travel, adventure, and the appreciation of nature. I dream of a day when individuals, groups, policy makers, and society will embrace the outdoors as a medium for personal change and health, and as a catalyst for growth and learning.
Professional Mission Statement:
My personal mission encompasses a threefold daily effort:
1. To acquire, develop, and disseminate information and research that both explains and expands the field of outdoor adventure leadership and physical and health education.
2. To educate and motivate students towards a professional orientation, expertise and passion for outdoor adventure leadership and physical and health education. Undergraduates will be knowledgeable, skilled, certified, and work ready. Graduates will be passionate, motivated, and experts in their chosen field of study.
3. To actively promote the holistic health benefits of wilderness adventure, outdoor education, and contact with nature.
