Discipline/Teaching Area: Centre for Innovation in Teaching & Learning
I am a Teaching & Learning Specialist in the Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning. Through my work in the Centre, I collaborate with the College’s amazing faculty and staff through consultations, collaborations, and programming to advance the high quality and personalized learning experiences we offer at College of the Rockies. As part of this work, I serve on the College’s Curriculum Standing and Program Quality Assurance Committees.
I am a white woman born on Treaty 29 territory (Huron Tract Purchase) to a multi-generational settler family with English, Irish, and Belgian origins. I have a Bachelor of Health Sciences (BHSc’08, Western University), a Master of Science in Anatomy (MSc’10, Queen’s University), and a PhD in Curriculum Theory (PhD’16, Queen’s University).
With over 10 years of experience in Educational Development I have previously worked in a range of roles related to eLearning and curriculum development at Centres for Teaching and Learning in southern Ontario. I teach post-secondary courses related to teaching and learning in face-to-face, blended, and online formats, and am an FDW-certified facilitator of the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW).
I live in Cranbrook with my husband, two daughters, and collie-shepherd pup. We came the Kootenay region in search of all the adventures – skiing, hiking, canoeing, biking – and take every opportunity to find another local waterfall or trek down another path.
My current research is focused on bringing new definitions of authentic learning into teaching practice. What is ‘authentic’ in learning is being reimagined toward students’ social and collective well-being, belonging and empathy among learners, and social justice for a world in need of transformative change. My research looks at how these ideas can be engaged in College classrooms.
I ground my practice in the belief that learning is transformational when it is authentic and driven by meaningful inquiry. Regardless of my role, my mindset is that of a coach, mentor, and guide who enlivens concepts by offering questions, strategies, and resources intended to empower others to navigate their own connections and applications to the ideas we’re working with. As a well-educated, cis-gendered, able-bodied woman (she/her) who identifies as a white settler-Canadian I hold many privileges, particularly in relation to education and belonging within spaces of higher education.