Please consider me in your search for a Communications Specialist.
I completed my Art Education degree at the University of Alberta. Courses extra to my degree include physics, organic and inorganic chemistry, zoology, biology and mathematics. My higher-level English studies led to an offer to complete an Honors English Degree. During my last two years of study, I also served as a writer/production editor for the Students’ Union, Gateway.
Upon graduating, I joined The University of Calgary as a Communications Officer II. In this position, I worked with university administrators to develop and implement strategic communications plans for students, staff, faculty and the public. As co-editor of the U of C bi-weekly, Gazette, I sought to write engaging, creative copy. My article, New ways to slice the mapping pie and its accompanying commissioned illustration and my profile of new staff member, Beatrice Medicine, are two examples. In addition to supplying photography, illustration and design skills, I was also involved in producing press releases and answering media inquiries.
After almost five years with the U of C, I accepted a position as a Journalism Instructor at Grant MacEwan where I taught newswriting, photography, graphic design and mass media. Moving to Vancouver, I became Western Editor for Canadian Forest Industries Magazine, providing stories on harvesting, safety and milling. Settling in Nanaimo I freelanced as a weekly reporter for The Nanaimo Business Examiner writing on business-related issues, including the development of a submersible camera. Working for T-MAR Industries, I launched the company’s newsletter, The T-MAR Times.
A downturn in the industry led to 10 years overseas teaching in Libya, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, Norway, the UAE and Japan. In that time, I developed lesson materials using language carefully chosen for ESL students that ranged in age from grade-three to adult. Highlights of this period include the co-authoring of a series of mathematics workbooks and a number of video productions: the student-illustrated video of my children’s story, The Apple of Albert’s Eye, in Saudi Arabia; God is Love, in Al Ain with my Emirati students; a documentary, Truck Logging in Africa, in Cameroon; and my video application for the position of Traveling Ambassador for Air Transat, in Dubai.
I am not sure if creating PowerPoints would be part of my responsibilities but here is a sample of a PowerPoint I created as an art teacher.
Returning to Canada in 2012, I completed the first semester in the Hearing Aid Practitioner Program at MacEwan University. At this time, I also launched my WordPress website to highlight my creative abilities in writing, photography, art, music and video production. I use my website and blog to promote my belief in a more positive world. I have a working knowledge of MS Office, Illustrator and Photoshop and have used a number of video editing programs.
Moving to Prince George, BC in 2013, I served the community in several capacities including as a Community Support Worker and Residential Care Worker, a Licensed Property Manager and as a volunteer in the Salvation Army Food Recovery Program. I also completed a major art commission, The Spirit of Prince George, 2015 for Timberspan Wood Products, Inc.
In 2021, I returned to Edmonton, my birth city. Since then, I have worked as a custodian in homeless shelters and, currently, as a second-cook for Horizon North at the MEG Energy site near Conklin, AB. My schedule is two weeks in camp and a week out and I return to site, May 15. I can be reached in camp by text message and would be available for a Zoom interview.
In my spare time, continue to make art and write about issues that are important to me and rely on the Edmonton Public Library Strathcona Branch as an information and printing resource. I am involved in the community as a member of the Edmonton Interfaith Society and the Alberta Craft Council.
I am a passionate believer in the equality we share with each other and our Creator. That belief led me to approach and receive the approval from the MEG Energy site to post a document outlining the concept of Pure Non-dualism, which I post below on the webpage version of this application letter. It is just one example of my abiding interest in the respectful communication of concepts and ideas designed to stimulate conversation about what it means to be alive, an interest that I believe the library shares, among many others.
I also believe the samples provided demonstrate my competence in English, my innate ability to tell a compelling story and my creative abilities in a variety of media. Accordingly, let me suggest we meet to discuss the contribution I could make to the city library in the position of Communications Specialist.