Please consider me in your search for a Communications Officer. As my resume details, I have experience creating internal and external communications for many audiences and organizations.

After completing my Education degree at the U of A (with a major in art) and serving as a writer/production editor for the Students’ Union Gateway, I joined The University of Calgary as a Communications Officer II. In this position, I worked with university administrators to develop and implement communications strategies for students, staff, faculty and the public. I also served as co-editor of the bi-weekly Gazette and provided news and feature articles. Profiling new staff members, like Beatrice Medicine, was also a responsibility. In many cases, I provided photography, illustration and design skills, as well.

After almost five years with the U of C, I accepted a position as a Journalism Instructor at the then Grant MacEwan Community College. Moving to Vancouver, I joined Southam Business Communications in Vancouver as Western Editor for Canadian Forest Industries Magazine, providing copy on all aspects of the business including harvesting, safety and milling. I then settled in Nanaimo, writing for The Nanaimo Business Examiner and, as daily reporter for The Nanaimo Daily Free Press. I then joined forest equipment manufacturer T-MAR Industries in Campbell River as the company’s Marketing Manager. Part of my duties included conducting customer surveys; producing advertising copy, brochures and videos; and launching the company’s newsletter, The T-MAR Times.

A downturn in the industry led to leave T-MAR and spend 10 years overseas teaching in Libya, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, Norway, the UAE and Japan. Highlights of my years overseas include co-authoring mathematics workbooks for vocational students and producing a student-illustrated video of my children’s story about life from an apple’s point of view, The Apple of Albert’s Eye. My international teaching broadened my awareness by allowing me to meet and interact with people from many different cultures and faiths.

Returning to Canada in 2012, I launched my WordPress website to highlight my creative abilities in writing, photography, art, music and video production. I used my blog and twitter to promote my work as an artist and my fundamental belief in a better world for all. I have a working knowledge of MS Office, Illustrator, Photoshop, WordPress and Movie Studio.

Shortly after returning to Canada, I settled in Prince George. The fact that it is centrally located in northern BC and also near a number of First Nations communities, gave me the opportunity to meet and become friends with a number of people of First Nations ancestry. As a Residential Care Aide and Community Support worker, many of my clients were of Indigenous background and, regrettably, many of those were dealing with issues of drug use, alcoholism and self-esteem. My work as a Property Manager and, later, a Volunteer for the Salvation Army’s food recovery program further heightened my awareness of the challenges the community faces. I believe this experience makes me an ideal candidate for helping you to craft messages that will help forward meaningful change for CT6FN.

I’m a creative thinker and visualizer with a gift for turning old ideas into fresh expressions of what was meant before they became clichés. This has allowed me, with confidence, to add creative to the name of my website and to make thinking “outside the circle” an ongoing part of what I have to offer. Let me suggest, then, that we meet to discuss the contribution I could make to your organization in this role.