Lou has been with the Centre since 1985 and also holds an adjunct professorship in the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. Her research interests include management in co-operatives and other democratic organizations, community development, women in co-operatives, Aboriginal co-op development, and diversity on co-op boards and governance bodies. Lou served a five-year term as associate dean in the then College of Commerce (now Edwards School of Business) and then returned to the Centre as acting director of the Centre in July 2004. She assumed the formal directorship in April 2005, a position she held until December 2013. In January 2014, Lou passed the director’s wand to Murray Fulton. She retired in the fall of 2014 but remains active in both research and teaching at the Centre in her capacity as Fellow in Co-operative Management and as an adjunct professor at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy.
