Mary Brooks
Dalhousie University, Canada

Mary R. Brooks is the William A. Black Chair of Commerce at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. Dr. Brooks was Membership Secretary and Treasurer of the International Association of Maritime Economists from 1994 to 1998 and a Director of the Halifax International Airport Authority from its inception in 1995 to 2004. She was the Director of Dalhousie University’s Centre for International Business Studies from 1993 to 2001 and co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences for the calendar years 2003, 2004 and 2005. She currently chairs the Committee on International Trade and Transportation, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. She was a Canada–US Fulbright scholar at George Mason University in 2005. As a result of this period, she is currently writing a book with a working title of NAFTA Transportation Services in the Age of Terrorism (completion anticipated by end of March) and has completed three papers on maritime container security.

Dr. Brooks is no stranger to public policy research, having led the research team for the publication, Short Sea Shipping on the East Coast of North America, completed in March 2006; this project provided guidance to potential short sea operators and to governments on the public policy changes required to promote Canada-US short sea activity. Most recently she was the invited opening speaker, at the North America Works II in Kansas City conference, Kansas City, Mo, December 1 (Title: “Building North American Competitiveness Through a Continental Transportation Strategy”). Her work in public policy development began in the early 1980s providing advice to the Government of Canada in the area of liner shipping, and was honed during her two years as Vice-President Policy for the Halifax Chamber of Commerce (1996-1998). She has provided advice to the governments of Canada, the United States, and Australia as well as the European Council of Ministers of Transport. Dr. Brooks received her undergraduate degree from McGill University, her MBA from Dalhousie University and her Ph.D. in Maritime Studies from the University of Wales in 1983.

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