Dr Carl Amrhein

Provost​ & Vice President​​, Academic​​

Dr​ Carl Amrhein joined as AKU’s Provost and Vice President, Academic on October 8, 2017.

Dr Carl Amrhein's academic c​areer began at the State University of New York at Buff​alo in 1980 as a graduate student. He worked for a brief period at the University of Kentucky. In 1993, he joined the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor, became the Chair of the Department of Geography and Graduate Program in Planning and later rose to the position of Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science in 1997. 

In 2003, Dr Amrhein joined the University of Alberta as its Provost and Vice President (Academic), a post he held until 2014. During this period at the University of Alberta, Dr Amrhein played a critical role to guide the university to achieve international ranking. Throughout this period and to the present, Dr Amrhein has maintained his academic activities. He achieved the rank of full Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Toronto, and later, at the University of Alberta, in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Dr Amrhein was instrumental in the success of the AKU-University of Alberta relationship during his tenure as Provost.

Dr Amrhein has contributed significantly to the development of governance and professional development in education and health services. He has been the Chair of the Alberta Universities Association, a member of the Board of Directors of Fulbright Canada and of the international board of the IB organization. He was seconded for one year to the Conference Board of Canada to lead the effort to examine the future of tertiary education in Canada and to make recommendations on changes to respond to the changing economic, technological and social landscape. He is a member of the International Review Team of the Higher Education Evaluation Commission (HEEC) in China and has been a visiting professor at Peking University and Zhejiang University in Huangzhou.  

In 2015, the Government of Alberta engaged Dr Amrhein to join Alberta Health and lead them through a series of highly complex changes towards a renewed health system that is more patient and family-centred, engaging citizens, health-care providers, research into new practices and innovations to evolve a better provincial health system. Dr Amrhein has been serving as the Deputy Minister of Health in the Government of Alberta, the senior public servant in the provincial health system.  

Dr Amrhein has been extensively involved in the development of an integrated health system in the Province of Alberta, together with leading the planning and acquisition of the associated electronic health records and informatics systems. Throughout this period, not surprisingly, he has also been an active leader in interdisciplinary provincial matters, and in federal-provincial activities in health policy. ​

Dr​ Amrhein was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany in 2011. He received an Eagle Feather to honor his contributions in advancing the role of Traditional Knowledge of the First Nations in university programming in 2014. Also in 2014 he was awarded the Alberta Lieutenant Governor's Award for Excellence in Public Administration.​