Black Sparks
Dr Gervan Fearon

Gervan Fearon began a five-year term as Brock University’s President and Vice-Chancellor on Aug. 2017. Before joining Brock, he served at Brandon University as President and Vice-Chancellor, and as Provost and Vice-President Academic.
Prior to his time at Brandon, Fearon served several other academic positions, including as the Dean of The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University; as Associate Dean at York University’s Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies; as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Washington; and as an Associate Professor at York University.
Fearon received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Western Ontario, after having received his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Agricultural Economics at the University of Guelph. He also holds a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CGA) designation and an ICD.D designation. He is also the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and several other awards.
Besides academic achievements, his career includes several years in the Ontario government in roles as a senior analyst at Treasury Board Division, Ontario Ministry of Finance, and an executive assistant to Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. He has also served on several boards including the President of a community social services organization.
He has served on Boards of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, William Osler Hospital System, Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples’ Council, and TELUS Community Board as well as served as the President of Tropicana Community Services.
His research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Public Economics and the Canadian Journal of Economics.
He is passionate about the role of post-secondary education in supporting regional development and has served on numerous community boards and helped champion significant community development initiatives.
Works:
Fearon, Gervan, Economics of Public Good Provision: Auditing, Outsourcing, and Bribery. Canadian Journal of Economics, 42 (3): 997 -1022, August 2009. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1429058
Hao, Na and Fearon, Gervan, Government Funding Policy Towards Communicable Diseases, Atlantic Economic Journal, 37(2): 121-134, June 2009
https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/atlecj/v37y2009i2p121-134.html
Fearon, Gervan and Wald, Steven, The Earnings Gap between Black and White Workers in Canada: Evidence from the 2006 Census, 66 (3), September 2011. https://www.riir.ulaval.ca/sites/riir.ulaval.ca/files/2011_66-3_2.pdf or https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1937892
Fearon, Gervan and Farrell, Carlyle, Perceptions of the Toronto Police and Impact of Rule Changes Under Regulation 58/16: A Community Survey, June 2019. https://brocku.ca/brock-news/2019/06/fearon-led-study-into-perceptions-of-toronto-police/
PUBLICATIONS
Refereed Journal Articles
2020 Fearon, Gervan. Editorial, Atlantic Economic Journal (2019), 47: 389-390.
2018 Fearon, Gervan. Book Review on “Leading the Modern University: York University’s Presidents on Continuity and Change, 1974 – 2014 ed. By Lorna R. Marsden”, University of Toronto Quarterly, 87(3): 279-281.
2018 Lemky, Kim; Gagne, Pierre; Konkin, Jill; Stobbe, Karl; Fearon, Gervan, et al. A review of methods to assess the economic impact of distributed medical education (DME) in Canada, Canadian Medical Education Journal, 2018, 9(1): e87 – e99.
2015 Fearon, Gervan. Book Review: Wampum and the Origins of American Money, Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 2015, 35(2): 268.
2011 Fearon, Gervan and Wald, Steven. The earning gap between black and white workers in Canada: Evidence from the 2006 census, Industrial Relations – Relations Industrielles Quarterly Review, 2011 Summer, 66(3): 324 – 348.
2009 Fearon, Gervan. Economics of public good provision: Auditing, outsourcing and bribery, Canadian Journal of Economics, August 2009, 42(3): 997-1022.
2009 Na, Hao and Fearon, Gervan. Government Funding Policy Towards Communicable Disease. Atlantic Economic Journal, June 2009, 37(2): 121-134.
2006 Fearon, Gervan and Lutz-Alexander Busch, Auditing and Competitive Bidding in the Public Sector, Journal of Public Economics, May 2006, 90(4-5): 657-678.
2005 Farrell, Carlyle and Gervan Fearon, Renting Goodwill in International Marketing Channels: An analysis of pricing strategies and bargaining power, Atlantic Economic Journal, September 2005, 33(3): 285-296
2005 Farrell, Carlyle and Gervan Fearon, Prescription drug exports to the United States: An analysis of the online communication strategies of Canadian E-pharmacies. Journal of Medical Marketing, Volume 5, No. 3, July 2005.
2004 Fearon, Gervan, Public Sector Wage Settlement and the Threat of Outsourcing. Atlantic Economic Journal. September 2004, 32(3): 161-173
2001 Fearon, Gervan, Endogenous Public Sector Budgeting: To Centralize or Not? Canadian Journal of Economics,May 2001, 34(2): 504 – 524.
2001 Fearon, Gervan, Labour Union Political Contributions and Campaign Spending, Research Notes, International Advances in Economic Research, May 2001, 7(2): 269.
1987 Anderson, John and Fearon, Gervan. Risk Management Strategy: Effects on efficiency and costs. Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics. May 1987 34(0): 62 – 66.
Book Chapter
2012 Fearon, Gervan, “The Changing Jamaican Economy: From Independence to Now”, Jamaican in the Canadian Experience: A Multiculturalized Presence, edited by Andrea Davis and Carl E. James, Fernwood Publishing, 2012, pp. 310 – 323.
2011 Fearon, Gervan, “Ontario Infrastructure Expenditure Trends and Policy: 1960 – 2005”, The Guardian: Perspectives on the Ministry of Finance of Ontario, edited by Patrice Dutil, University of Toronto Press, 2011, pp. 287 – 319.
2002 Fearon, Gervan, “Public Sector Finances and Institutional Change: A Crucial Context of the Leadership Challenge”, The Leadership Challenge: Effectiveness in the 21st Century, Edited by Patrick Boyer, QC, University of Guelph, July 2002.