►  Teacher, creative, flexible, experienced
►  Workshop leader specializing in interpersonal communication
►  Writer of literature, editorials, curriculum, and teacher's manuals

Teaching Experience, partial list

2001-2003   
PROFESSOR Fanshawe College, London, ON
►  Partial load professor in the General Studies Division
   •  above departmental average in recent student
evaluations
► Rescued and reinvigorated CMNC 105 - Copywriting.
► Created new GenEd elective: Personal Skills for  Effective Encounters
► Collaborated with program faculty in Graphic Design, Office Administration, and Media Arts programs.

1986-present  
PROFESSOR  Mohawk College  All campuses
► Full-time 1989-1995 in the Language Studies Department
► Part-time and sessional 1986-89, 1996-2001
► Continuing Education Professor, 1986 to present
     ►  Consistently excellent course instruction surveys
     ►  Co-coordinator of remedial Reading and Writing Centre, 1992-1994

At Mohawk, I developed and taught courses to students in all college programs including nursing, engineering, media studies, business, and the trades. Areas of instruction included
     Interpersonal Communications
     Business and Technical Writing
     Public Speaking
     Researching and Reporting
     Industrial Communications
     Literature

1999, 1986  
HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHER    
Various School Boards
Hamilton & Hagersville, ON
► Taught English on a long-term occasional contract to students in custody with special behaviour and learning needs, Hamilton
► Taught Grade 10 General and Basic level English, Hagersville

1993-95; 1980-85  
INSTRUCTOR  McMaster  University Hamilton, ON
► Faculty of Continuing Education, 1993-1995; taught Communications to students in professional certificate programs
► English Department TA, 1980-85;
► Received Significant Contribution to Undergraduate Education, an award presented by McMaster Student's Union, 1983

Workshop Leader, recent activities, partial list

McMaster University

2001, 2003   Guest speaker at career development conference for all McMaster Employees. Most recent session called Workplace Gossip: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2000-2004    Guest speaker for The Centre for Leadership in Learning, McMaster University. Workshops include Communicating Nondefensively with Students and Faculty.  In March, 2004, I will  run a half-day workshop for TAs, professors, and researchers called Speaking with  Confidence.

1999-2001   Creating a Supportive Environment, Communicating Nondefensively, and Listening with Empathy, Training and Development Series, Human Resources. These workshops are offered to all staff and faculty at McMaster.

1999, 2001   Must We Whisper in the Library?, a workshop for McMaster Library staff on improving communication with patrons, co-workers, and supervisors.

University of Toronto  

1997-2001      Effective Group Work, an interactive lecture presented yearly for over 100 students in digital media design and business of software classes, aimed at improving their teamwork in group projects.

2001  Communicating Nondefensively. This workshop was designed for the Innovations Foundation, an organization which helps university researchers commercialize their inventions.

Mohawk College, Faculty of Continuing Education

1996-2003      Every semester I offer a variety of writing, speaking, or interpersonal communication workshops to CE students at Mohawk. Recent popular inventions include sessions on writing family stories and keeping creative journals.

Community and Industry

2003-4   Currently completing a series of communication workshops and follow-up sessions for nursing staff at St. Peter’s Hospital.

2003      My presentation, Workplace Gossip, has been requested by several businesses and agencies following its success at the McMaster conference in February 2003. Clients include the Human Resources Professional Association of Halton.

2000-2003    I am active in staff development for Participation House. My most recent workshop is called Comedy and the Caregiver. This workshop includes improvisation activities for staff and discussion with actors who are both participants in improv comedy as well as caregivers for brain-injured clients.

Improving Caregiver-Client Communication, Participation House, March of Dimes, Shalom Village, and other supportive housing agencies. (2001-2)
►   Presented two five-week communications
course for personal care workers. Curriculum included assertive and nondefensive strategies for dealing with abusive quadriplegics.

1997-2003      Frequent presenter of communication workshops for the two Hamilton-area boards. I have participates every year in their Parent Conference and have spoken at PD days for speech pathologists, teachers, educational assistants, and custodial staff. I also taught in the Harassment Mediator Training Program.

CULTURAL CONTRIBUTIONS, recent

Ongoing        Co-coordinator of PoeMagic. This is a multicultural, spoken word, dub and performance poetry event which encourages new writers to perform mostly memorized pieces. Third Friday every month, Staircase Café Theatre, Hamilton. We were featured on CBC radio’s new spoken word show, WordBeat, in February 2004.

2004                I was asked to present a speech at the Hamilton Interfaith Group’s “Evening of Sacred Storytelling” on Jewish heroism.

2004                Staircase Theatre Educational Program (STEP). I am a member of the STEP Board of Directors.

2003                Co-founder and producer of the theatre company, Pinking Shears Productions, which recently presented plays in in both the Hamilton and Toronto 2003 Fringe Theatre Festivals.

2002                Co-coordinated a three-day Jewish Literary Festival in Hamilton which featured 24 writers from across Canada and attracted over 100 participants.

Publishing, Editing, Media Work, partial list

2004                Appleseed Quarterly, article relating Moses’s final words before the Jewish people entered Israel to the importance of storytelling

2004                Poetry included in first two editions of literary journal, Hammered Out.

2003                Edited “Identity and the Jewish Writer: A Panel Discussion”, Parchment: Contemporary Canadian Jewish Writing, 11^th Issue.

2002                Editing and assisting with creating a manual for high school English teachers. This manual explains the new curriculum and requirements for Grade 10 literacy test (EQAO), with Anthony Whitman, Department Head, English, Hagersville SS. 

1998-9            Member of the Hamilton Spectator's Community Editorial Board responsible for writing regular columns on community issues.

1996, 1998, 2001      Wrote Instructor's Manual and Test Item File for three editions of a major Canadian communications text book (Mastering Human Relations, Prentice-Hall) 

1989-2003      Published articles, short stories and poetry in The Globe and Mail, The Hamilton Spectator, short story collections, and literary arts journals.

1976-2001      Host and producer of numerous community radio shows, Vancouver and Hamilton.

Contributions to College Community, partial list

1993-1995      Founder of Women's Issues Network (WIN), an independent college group consisting of over sixty faculty.
    ►   WIN created awareness of violence against women and other gender issues through film programs, seminars, Montreal Massacre memorial services, faculty newsletters, and International Woman's Day events.
    ►   WIN succeeded in getting a Women's Studies-Gender Issues course offered at Mohawk College.

1993-96          Co-founder and co-editor of The Call Magazine, an academic journal for language teachers in Ontario's community colleges. 

1992-94          Executive member of College Association for Language and Literacy (CALL), representing the Niagara region and Executive member of Ontario Council of Teachers of English, Communications, and Language Arts (OCTECLA), representing colleges.

1992                Co-chaired with Kathleen Troy, CALL '92 conference hosted by Mohawk.       ►   The conference attracted 200 Ontario community college language teachers –  the most successful CALL conference to date.

Education

 1985                Completed all exams and coursework for a Ph.D. in English, McMaster University. Area of Specialty: Canadian Literature. Completed M.A. (English), McMaster University in 1981.

 1977                Completed coursework towards an MEd (Curriculum) at Brock University.

 1976                Completed B.A., Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. .

 1974                Completed Professional Development Program leading to a BC Teaching Certificate, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University. Granted an Ontario Teaching Certificate following two years of successful teaching in Ontario.

►   I am a member of the Ontario College of Teachers.