Welcome and thanks for visiting!

I am a mother and postsecondary educator, passionate about relationship-rich education and experiential learning, and I incorporate both concepts into the design of my classes through partnering with industry clients to bring live case studies into my classroom, as well as collaborating with colleagues from other faculties and programs to provide multidisciplinary cross-program experiences to my students. I am also engaged in a variety of academic and professional initiatives.

Outside of work I enjoy spending quality time with my son and husband, travelling, baking, and reading. Here’s a fun map Padlet I started with my son to track places I’ve been to, and dream of new destinations!

Below are some highlights of my professional life.

Awards

• President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching
• League for Innovation Award
• Distinguished Faculty Award

Teaching & Learning

Experiential Learning

Launched the Projects.Education in 2015; a collaborative experiential learning platform to connect students with alumni, industry, and students from other programs through various extracurricular projects.

Industry Collaboration

Worked closely with local businesses and organizations in Ontario to embed live business case studies into my teaching and course work design, giving students the opportunity to interact with, and solve real business problems. The following are examples of industry projects we used in the classroom in collaboration with local organizations: App Prototype Design, Arts Milton, Lisa’s Pet Care Services, Playful Strides Therapy, X-Ray Magic, La Moda Hair Studio, Cleo focus group, and many other.

Cross-Program Collaboration

Collaborated with colleagues in other programs and faculties within the college to design multi-disciplinary project experiences for our students as part of our class work. The following are examples: The Fashion History Project, Bakers’ Online Presence, Blogging for BAKE 204, Success: A Digital Era Edition Webinar Series, and many other.

Community Involvement: The Toronto WordPress Group

Joined the Toronto WordPress Group as a co-organizer in Summer 2023 and launched the Diverse Speaker Series in collaboration with my students. These events feature industry guest speakers and cover a variety of topics related to the Digital Business landscape. Hosed both virtually and at Humber’s Lakeshore campus, our Meeups are moderated by Humber College students and are free and open to the community.

Applied Research & Funding

WordPress Websites to Support Small Businesses in Ontario

• Received funding from Ontario Centre of Innovation through the Office of Research and Innovation to partner with and support small businesses in Ontario on building sustainable online presence using WordPress, the free and open-source content management system. The following are examples of some of the projects we completed with business partners: Regenesis Fitness, Unique Sand Casting, Purple Stage Door Productions, and many other.

• Received funding through the Longo Centre for Entrepreneurship to hire multidisciplinary teams of students to support experiential learning projects inside and outside the classroom.

International Engagement

• EDC Kenya (Entrepreneurship, Digital Livelihoods, and Creative Arts Kenya): Led a multidisciplinary team of students on a project to empower female refugees in Kenya in partnership with the International Development Institute.

• COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) in partnership with students from the Digital Business Concepts Program at Fontys Academy for the Creative Economy, The Netherlands.

Conference Presentations

• Commonwealth Fashion Council Symposium (Virtual, UK)
• WordCamp Montclair (New Jersey, USA)
• CBIE Conference Canadian Bureau for International Education (Toronto, Ontario)
• Innovations Conference, League for Innovation in the Community College (Seattle, Washington, USA)
• WE ARE – International Theme Week, Fontys Academy for Creative Industries (Tilburg, Netherlands)

Photo credit: Anton Lewis