Year: 2026
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Dr. Glynnis Lieb is a social psychologist, and social and trade union activist. Her many socially valuable employments mask a lifetime until recently of precarious labour, low pay, and constant struggles to assert the value of work that social systems under-value. That includes post-secondary dissemination of knowledge, and not-for-profit employments in addictions and mental health.
Lieb was pursuing her PhD and employed in Manitoba Social Services when she applied to manage a three-year Faculty of Law research project at the University of Alberta to map provincial legal and related social and health services. Soon she also began an ongoing career as a part-time on-line course instructor at Athabasca University. Postsecondary teaching is increasingly dominated by highly educated but precarious, underpaid, equity-deserving individuals. Lieb became a leading activist in the instructors’ CUPE local and later the global Coalition of Contingent Academic Labourers. Her union activism earned her the new position of community liaison officer for the Alberta Federation of Labour. In 2018, she joined the University of Alberta’s Fyrefly Institute, and is now executive director. Its role: “creating community, creating networks, sharing resources, building strength and solidarity in 2SLGBTQ communities across the country.” Lieb stresses networking in her many community involvements.
Keywords: Addictions and Mental Health; Athabasca University; Coalition of Contingent Academic Labourers; Community networking; Equity-Deserving Groups; Fyrefly Institute, University of Alberta; Manitoba Social Services; Social psychologist; Valuing of different employments.
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See also: 2SLGBTQ+ in Alberta; Alberta Federation of Labour; Canadian Union of Public Employees; Precarious Workers in Alberta