Introducing Dr. Sue
My name is Dr. Sue Hutchinson. I have been at Dalhousie University, in the School of Health and Human Performance, since 2004. Click here for a link to my School website. If you want to see some of my research publications you can check them out here. I’m happy to send you copies of any of the articles if you are interested. Just email me at: Susan.Hutchinson@dal.ca
I teach in the Recreation and Leisure Studies undergraduate program, and am lucky to supervise/mentor young people pursuing their graduate studies. I also work with great colleagues! See the picture below with Drs. Karen Gallant, Barb Hamilton-Hinch, Kim Woodford and Son Truong having a ‘team building’ evening on the Tall Ship Silva. The other picture is of me and my mother, Diane, who is now in a care facility in Victoria BC.
In addition to teaching and administrative responsibilities I am currently involved with a couple of fantastic research projects. The first is ‘Empowering Newcomers for Recreation Leadership,’ a community-based participatory research project lead by colleague Dr. Heidi Lauckner who is in the School of Occupational Therapy. Click here for a story about a photo exhibit that was part of the first phase of the project.
The second project—and the one that I’m most passionate about—is a retirement planning project that is the inspiration for this website. I am actively in the ‘planning for retirement’ phase of my life. I am shifting to part-time work in the summer and then who knows? I love (and dislike) aspects of my work, but also am feeling ready for some new life learning. So this retirement project is both personal and professional for me. Through my own looking at research on retirement I’ve come to see that there is a fair amount of research on how people fare after retirement (e.g., on how satisfied or unhappy they are) but very little research related to what people do to plan for their time in retirement and how this might relate to how satisfied people are with their everyday lives.
If you are interested in helping to answer this research question, then please take a look and complete the survey on The Research page. If you have questions or want to share your own retirement planning story then please do! Click on Share Your Experience and share things like: how you learned to love what you do or are planning to do in retirement, words of advice for others who are in the process of retiring, or highlights of how you spend your days in ways that matter to you!
Left to Right: Karen, Barb, Kim, Son
My mum, Diane and I