Alumni Spotlight: Benoit-Antoine Bacon

Benoit-Antoine Bacon (Social Science, 1991) is the President and Vice-Chancellor of Carleton University in Ottawa.

Bacon, a professor of psychology, first discovered his interest for the subject at Champlain College Saint-Lambert.

“The first Psychology class I ever took was Intro to Psychology with Jack Crayston at Champlain. He was a wonderful man and gifted professor and I was deeply saddened by his passing,” said Bacon.

“I knew right away Psychology was different from any other material I had been exposed to and that I wanted to know a lot more. I took as many Psychology courses as I could at Champlain.”

After Cegep, Bacon went on to pursue his passion for psychology at Concordia University where he earned a Bachelor’s Honours in Psychology in 1995. He continued along the academic path, earning a Master’s and PhD in Neuropsychology from Université de Montréal.

His academic success is all the more meaningful for the fact that Bacon struggled with depression and substance use issues throughout his studies.

“I was raised in a dysfunctional, unstable and unsafe home and was not doing well personally when I got to Champlain,” he said. “I was not able to focus on my studies and I struggled academically.”

Bacon was able to persevere and earned his PhD before going on to become a professor and university administrator.

“Education is a personal journey as much as a professional journey and it only has value to the degree that it makes you whole, free and fulfilled,” he said.

After completing a Post Doc at the University of Glasgow, Bacon landed a job teaching psychology at Concordia for a year before taking a position at Bishop’s University in 2004 where he stayed for almost a decade.

At Bishop’s, Bacon took on the role of Dean of Arts and Science and also served as Chair of the Psychology Department.

In 2013, Bacon returned to Concordia where he served for three years as Provost and Vice-President of Academic Affairs.

It was at this time that he volunteered to serve on the Champlain Regional College Board of Governors from 2013-2016.

“I figured it would be an excellent governance experience serving an institution I knew and to which I was grateful for two great gifts: learning English and discovering Psychology. I served a three-year term but then moved to Ontario.”

In 2016, he became the Povost and Vice-Principal at Queen’s University where he stayed for two years before being appointed to his current role as President of Carleton in 2018.  He has now been renewed for a second five-year term.

Benoit-Antoine Bacon’s advice for current students and recent grads:

“Many more students than we like to admit are struggling – to different degrees – with childhood trauma, depression, anxiety and substance use. My advice to all students at Carleton and everywhere I worked is always the same: reach out to your network or professional resources because no one has to suffer in silence and no one has to suffer alone. Everyone deserves help and healing is always possible.”