UNB grants honorary doctorates to deserving individuals who exemplify those values cherished by its Academic Community.
Andrea Feunekes will be awarded an honorary doctorate of science at the University of New Brunswick’s 197th Encaenia ceremony on the Fredericton campus on Wednesday, May 27.
Andrea Feunekes is a New Brunswick entrepreneur and community leader whose work links technology, resource planning and education. She earned a master of science in forestry degree from the University of New Brunswick in 1988.
Soon after graduation, Andrea co‑founded Remsoft in Fredericton along with her husband Ugo. Over three decades, she helped build the company into a global supplier of advanced analytics, modelling and spatial planning tools used for sustainable land‑based asset management.
Remsoft now serves more than 150 clients worldwide. Clients using its software plan and manage about half a billion acres of land. The company maintains strong ties to UNB through hiring, research links in forestry and computer science, and long‑standing participation in co‑op and graduate internship programs.
Andrea’s leadership includes service as chair of the New Brunswick Business Council. She has served on the boards of the Wallace McCain Institute, Opportunities New Brunswick and the Stan Cassidy Foundation, and sits on the boards of AstenJohnson, an international fabrics manufacturer, and Shaw Group Limited, which is one of Eastern Canada’s leading community developers, residential builders and natural resource manufacturers.
She was a founding member of the Gathering Circle, which works to strengthen relationships between the private sector and Indigenous communities in New Brunswick. Her support has also included backing the documentary My Name is Wolastoq.
Her awards include the RBC Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year and the Startup Canada Adam Chowaniec Lifetime Achievement Award. She has been named an Edelman Laureate by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. She is a member of the Junior Achievement New Brunswick Business Hall of Fame and the forestry hall of fame of the Association of Registered Professional Foresters of New Brunswick.
Andrea continues to advocate for women in STEM, stronger links between business and education, and practical steps toward reconciliation. Her career reflects steady execution, clear purpose and a record of building capacity.
Habib Dable will be awarded an honorary doctorate of letters at the University of New Brunswick’s197th Encaenia on the Fredericton campus on Wednesday, May 27.
Habib Dable is a leader in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors with more than 25 years of international experience. He holds a BBA from the University of New Brunswick, earned in 1991, and an MBA earned in 1994.
After graduating, he joined Bayer Canada and moved through senior roles in Canada, the United States and overseas. In 2015, he became president of U.S. pharmaceuticals, overseeing work across cardiology, hematology, neurology, oncology and women’s health. His responsibilities included leading teams, guiding product launches and managing long‑term growth in complex health‑care markets.
Habib later became president and chief executive officer of Acceleron Pharma. During his tenure, the company advanced late‑stage programs and strengthened its path to market. In 2019, Acceleron delivered its first major therapy to patients and advanced a second program in pulmonary arterial hypertension. Over five years, Habib helped build the organization, raise capital and guide the company to its sale to Merck in 2021. He has since focused on board service, advisory work, mentorship and selective investment roles.
His work has been widely recognized. Institutional Investor named him a Top-Ranked Mid‑cap Biotech CEO in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Pharmaceutical Executive included him on its Emerging Leaders list in 2016. His experience spans partnerships, product development and growth strategies across the United States and international markets. He is known for sound judgment, steady leadership and attention to patient needs.
Habib has longstanding ties to UNB. The faculty of management awarded him an alumnus certificate of achievement in 2016. He established the Joseph M. Dable Scholarship, which provides full tuition for entrepreneurial students in the faculty of management.
In 2023–2024, he served as executive‑in‑residence, meeting with students to discuss leadership, career paths and decision‑making. Through the Dable Family Foundation, he also supports philanthropic work connected to education and community life.
Habib credits family influence, particularly lessons from his father, for shaping his ethics and perseverance. His career reflects sustained effort in complex health‑care settings and a commitment to mentoring the next generation. He remains connected to UNB and to New Brunswick, returning often to share experience and help students link classroom learning with real‑world practice.
Anna Maria Tremonti will be awarded an honorary doctorate of letters at the 197th Encaenia on the Fredericton campus on Thursday, May 28.
Anna Maria Tremonti is a Canadian journalist with a career spanning more than four decades in radio, television and podcasting.
She is known for her work as the founding host of CBC Radio One’s The Current, which she led for 17 seasons. Under her leadership, the program became the most listened-to radio program in Canada. Her work brought depth and clarity to national conversations on public life, policy and global events.
Before The Current, Anna Maria reported for The National as an international correspondent. She was posted in Berlin, London, Jerusalem and Washington, covering events that reshaped regions and influenced global affairs.
Her reporting included the fall of the Soviet Union, the breakup of Yugoslavia, the first Palestinian intifada and stories across the Middle East. She also co‑hosted the Fifth Estate, producing investigative documentaries that reached audiences in Canada and abroad.
Anna Maria began her career in Atlantic Canada. She hosted Information Morning Fredericton, where she developed the reporting skills and community ties that informed her later work. She went on to assignments with CBC in Edmonton, Ottawa and on Parliament Hill. Her work ranged from breaking news to long‑form interviews, documentaries and live reporting.
Since 2019, she has led AM Tremonti Productions. She created two podcast series with CBC Podcasts. More with Anna Maria Tremonti debuted at number one on Apple Podcasts in 2020. Her 2022 podcast Welcome to Paradise also debuted at number one and drew wide attention for its examination of intimate partner violence. In both projects, she used long‑form storytelling to connect public issues with deep personal experience.
Anna Maria holds an honours BA in communication studies from the University of Windsor. She has received awards from Amnesty International, the Canadian Journalism Foundation, the New York Festivals and the Alliance for Women in Media.
She holds honorary degrees from Windsor, Carleton, Royal Roads, York and Mount Saint Vincent universities. Her career reflects a consistent commitment to public understanding and to the role of journalism in Canadian life.
Donald McAlpine will be awarded an honorary doctorate of science at the University of New Brunswick’s 51st Spring Convocation ceremony on the Saint John campus on Friday, May 29.
Donald is a biodiversity scientist and museum curator whose career at the New Brunswick Museum spans more than four decades. He earned a BA from UNB in 1979, an MSc in 1988 and a PhD in biology in 1996. He joined the museum in 1981, became curator of zoology and served as head of the department of natural history for periods in the 1980s and 1990s and continuously since 2006.
Donald’s work brings together research, collections and public engagement. He has published more than 270 articles dealing with the fauna of Atlantic Canada in technical journals, books, conference proceedings and popular publications.
His studies have addressed emerging issues such as white-nose syndrome in bats, climate-change-induced range shifts in insects and small mammals, and the introduction of invasive molluscs and crayfish. He co‑edited a comprehensive volume on species diversity in the Atlantic Maritime Ecozone and helped produce practical identification tools used by field workers and students.
At the museum, Donald has guided significant growth and modernization of the natural history collections, including the acquisition of significant holdings of marine mammals, freshwater molluscs and insects, all now consulted regularly by researchers worldwide. He has designed or overseen exhibitions and created paths for students and volunteers to learn specimen preparation, field methods and data curation.
In 2009 he founded, and until his retirement in 2024 led, BiotaNB, a biodiversity inventory program in New Brunswick Protected Natural Areas. BiotaNB continues under a new generation of leaders. Each year BiotaNB brings together taxonomic specialists from across North America, students, volunteers and artists for two weeks of intensive fieldwork and a community open house. The program has produced about 60 scientific papers and helped train a generation of naturalists and biologists.
Donald has mentored more than 20 MSc students and several PhD students as a supervisor or committee member, given frequent guest lectures, and widely collaborated with universities and agencies. National awards have honoured his work in conservation and museums, and a special journal issue has highlighted his impact on natural history research in the Maritimes.
Donald’s career is one of rigorous field science, careful stewardship of collections and a commitment to sharing knowledge with the public. He remains closely tied to UNB and to the province he has served for a lifetime.
