Career Connections Day 2022

Annie Montague, MA’19

Regional Manager, BC, Frontier College (Literacy Non-Profit)

Catherine Wilde, MEd’07

(Acting) Director, Development and Partnerships, Canadian Bureau for International Education

Claudius Soodeen, EdD’18

Faculty Development Consultant, Red River College & Instructor, University of Winnipeg

David Cory, MA’95

Leadership Development Consultant, The Emotional Intelligence Training Company

Joan McArthur-Blair, EdD’05

Co-President, Cockell McArthur-Blair Consulting

Karen Evans, EdD’06

Former Vice-President, Students, University of the Fraser Valley

Leslee White-Eye, MEd’02

Structural Readiness Coordinator, First Nations with Schools Collective

Linda Davis, PhD’93

Vice President of Academic Affairs, The Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute

Lyn Daniels, EdD’16

Director of Instruction, Aboriginal Learning & Co-Chair, Surrey Urban Indigenous Leadership Committee

Marilyn Hoar, MEd’96, PhD’04

Chief of Education, UNICEF Nepal

Spring Gillard, MA’16

Coordinator, English Conversation Program, UBC Learning Exchange

Sunita Wiebe, PhD’06

Director, Office of Academic Quality Assurance, Langara college

Jacquelyn Brinkman is the Director of Graduate Student Professional Development in the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, University of British Columbia.  Her current work focuses on improving the graduate student experience through offering professional development programs, orientation, and the Three Minute Thesis.  Jacqui completed her BSc (Biology) at the University of Victoria and her MSc (Biology) from McGill University. Jacqui’s past experience includes managing postdoctoral and undergraduate student educational programs within the UBC Faculty of Medicine. Prior to joining UBC, she worked as a lab-based researcher both within academia and the biotechnology industry.

Annie Montague, MA’19

Regional Manager, BC, Frontier College (Literacy Non-Profit)

Annie is a guest on the on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples – Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations – where she researches and designs environmental and sustainability-oriented educational initiatives. Working within institutions, non-profit organizations, and schools in the lower mainland of BC and internationally, Annie promotes community learning with respect to the increasingly interconnected and complex world we collectively inhabit. Annie values equitable, creative, and empowering asset-based community development and has worked with myriad age and demographic groups. Annie holds a MA in Educational Studies from the University of British Columbia; her award-winning Master’s thesis details six months of an ethnographically-oriented case study she conducted with preschoolers at world-renown Green School in Bali, Indonesia. Her research provided a critical lens into the intersection of social-sustainability and early childhood education, and the need for greater relationality and attunement to addressing systemic power structures in these fields. When not leading community engagement initiatives in Vancouver, Annie can be found promoting outdoor early childhood education, writing postcards to friends and family near and far, or seeking sunshine in the red rock deserts in the ancestral homelands of the Shoshone, Paiute, Goshute, and Ute Tribes (also known as Utah, her home state).

Catherine Wilde, MEd’07

(Acting) Director, Development and Partnerships, Canadian Bureau for International Education

I have been very fortunate to develop a career that has combined several interests in international development and adult education. I am originally from Edmonton and started my career in Calgary, working with CUSO, a Canadian international development organization. A short-term secondment to the CUSO Ottawa office led to 13-years of living and working in Ottawa. At CUSO, I coordinated youth internship programs with colleagues in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the Americas and the Caribbean. After completing an online Master of Education in Adult Learning and Global Change (ALGC) at UBC, I took on other roles directly in education. During a brief period living in Vancouver, I worked as an instructor on intercultural communication programs, teaching international students at UBC’s Centre for Intercultural Communication. After moving back to Ottawa, I took a role with the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE), managing a Global Affairs Canada International Scholarships Program. Most recently, with CBIE in 2021, I led an alumni extension program for the African Leaders of Tomorrow program that included developing an online leadership program for alumni. I am currently managing development and partnerships at CBIE. As an education practitioner with 15+ years of progressive experience in higher education, global learning, and roles within the not-for-profit and post-secondary sectors, it is an honour to champion student and faculty mobility through my work in international education. I love learning and continually evolve my skills in collaborative, team-focused environments. Personally and outside of work, as an avid hiker, canoeist and cross-country skier, I revel in being active in four seasons. I look forward to engaging with new UBC alumni.

Claudius Soodeen, EdD’18

Faculty Development Consultant, Red River College & Instructor, University of Winnipeg

I have been in the post-secondary education sector for many years and am currently the Faculty Development Consultant in the Centre for Learning and Program Excellence. I’ve been at Red River College since 2010, first as an Instructional Designer, then as an Educational Developer. I also practice what I preach (or try to) as an instructor at the University of Winnipeg, teaching face-to-face and recently, online! Prior to RRC, I worked at the University of Winnipeg in the Centre for Distributed/Distance Learning and ran my own Media Services Company. I am a lifelong learner with a B.A. Administrative Studies/ Justice & Law Enforcement (UWinnipeg), an M.A. Educational Studies (Athabasca), an EdD (University of British Columbia), a Graduate Diploma in Instructional Design (Athabasca), and a Certificate in Law (Queen’s). My dissertation was titled “Educational Leaders’ Understandings of Internationalization: A Case Study”. Areas of interest: Internationalization of higher education, academic integrity, effective teaching in face-to-face, online, and blended modes, teaching teachers how to teach (aka Faculty Development), professionalism, law and education, leadership of higher education, teaching atypical learners (e.g. neuro-divergent and otherwise challenged students), and educational technology.

David Cory, MA’95

Leadership Development Consultant, The Emotional Intelligence Training Company

David Cory, B.Ed., M.A. (Adult Ed) is a leadership development coach, trainer, and consultant known for his expertise in applying the concept of emotional intelligence to individual and organizational performance improvement. Following his M.A. in Adult Ed, David went to work at the Open Learning Agency where he created and managed several provincial welfare to workforce programs and was also involved in leadership development as part of the workplace training division of the OLA. When the OLA reorganized and teaching leadership courses was no longer an option, David founded one of the first companies in North America to focus on the development of leadership based on emotional intelligence in 1998. As interest in emotional intelligence as the basis for leadership and organizational effectiveness grew around the world, David began traveling the world and would not have stopped if it had not been for the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions to travel. David’s company is the global leader in teaching executive coaches, counsellors, and Human Resource professionals to use the world’s first scientifically validated online assessment for emotional intelligence, the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0) and is the first choice of orgnaizations looking to integrate the concept of emotional intelligence into their leadership development programs. A few career highlights so far include developing a leadership course based on emotional intelligence for the citizens of the Republic of Botswana and training 36 trainers to deliver the course. Also, being an invited key-note speaker at an international EQ conference at the Harvard Medical School and the closing key-note speaker at the World HRD Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. But even more than the incredible places and world travel experiences has been the wonderful, dedicated and committed people that David has had the pleasure to work with.

Joan McArthur-Blair, EdD’05

Co-President, Cockell McArthur-Blair Consulting

Dr. Joan McArthur-Blair, Co-President of Cockell McArthur-Blair Consulting is an inspirational writer, speaker and facilitator. She believes positive leadership matters in the world and all of her work is around enabling and fostering that generative possibility. Joan specializes in the use of appreciative inquiry and appreciative resilience to foster leadership development, strategic planning and innovative strategies for organizational and team development. She also provides short term leadership through executive-to-go services. Joan has fulfilled faculty, department head, dean, vice president and president roles over her career at four diverse Canadian colleges and now co-leads a highly successful consultancy focused on ‘making magic – facilitating futures not yet imagined. She has a special interest in igniting pathways for women in leadership and is committed to the responsibility leadership provides for advancing equity and diversity. She has co-authored Appreciative Inquiry in Higher Education: A Transformative Force (2012) and Building Resilience with Appreciative Inquiry: A Leadership Journey through Hope, Despair, and Forgiveness (2018); and 2nd edition of Appreciative Inquiry in Higher Education: A Transformative Force (2020). As well, she has published many articles on appreciative inquiry and leadership; and embeds her poetry into her academic writing. She believes that words shape our world and are a powerful force for good.

Karen Evans, EdD’06

Former Vice-President, Students, University of the Fraser Valley
I am a lifelong learner. Over the past 30 years I have worked with students and clients in a variety of roles, in both the public and private sector. I have worked as a banker, a post secondary educator and a business development consultant. In 2015 I retired from the University of the Fraser Valley, as the Vice- President Students, after serving in a variety of leadership roles, including University Secretary, Registrar, Associate Vice- President Teaching and Learning, and various Dean appointments involving International Education, Business, Information Technology, Continuing Studies, College and Career Preparation. Throughout my career, my focus has always been on development of the individual , whether it be in higher education or in assisting individuals in achieving their business/career goals and objectives. Most recently I have been involved in an anti-racism initiative and am learning more about the topic of white privilege. It has been very educational and useful as I come to terms with the injustices, including racism, that accompanied settler behaviour and the colonization of Turtle Island. I completed my Doctorate in 2006 and my thesis focused on educational policy issues related to the intersection of private interests in the public sphere and on the commercialization of higher education. I have taken professional development certificates in intercultural studies, quality assurance (ISO 9000) and lifeskill instructor. I am currently working as a volunteer board member for a multicultural and immigrant services organization on Vancouver Island. I am a beginner potter and have a great love for photographing nature.

Leslee White-Eye, MEd’02

Structural Readiness Coordinator, First Nations with Schools Collective

Leslee White-Eye is a committed champion of Indigenous education. As a former teacher at her home community school at Chippewas of the Thames First Nation she has seen first hand the challenges faced by First Nation schools and their successes when a culture-based education program is implemented. She is also the former Chief of the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation and understands the difficult road that is nation-to-nation relations in Canada for those in pursuit of UNDRIP Article 14. Prior to being Chief, Leslee was an Education Officer for the Ontario Ministry of Education writing curriculum, supporting school boards in Indigenous education and coordinating the development of the first two Native Studies textbooks to be added to the Trillium List, Ontario’s approved textbook list. Leslee was honoured to receive an Honourary Doctorate of Laws from Western University. She earned her Political Science and Master of Education degrees at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and her teaching degree at Nipissing University in North Bay. She currently sits as an Independent Trustee on Wasauksing First Nation’s M’tigo Min Trust. And is a board member of Kings’ University College in London, Ontario and board member of the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE). She is Anishinaabe Ojibwe Kwe, mother, wife and community advocate for all things resulting in collaborative problem-solving.

Linda Davis, PhD’93

Vice President of Academic Affairs, The Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute

Dr. Davis has served in higher education administration at the senior level for more than 20 years. This journey has taken her from The College of The Bahamas (COB) to the former Wheelock College (Boston, MA, USA) and back to University of The Bahamas (UB), where most recently, she served as Provost. Beginning her career in higher education as a faculty member at COB in the Humanities, followed by Teacher Education, she subsequently moved into the administrative track, first as Assistant Chair, then Dean, two Vice Presidential level positions, and the international deanship at Wheelock before being appointed UB’s first Provost. This range of experiences enabled Dr. Davis to explore multiple perspectives and philosophies that inform education and operations in the academe. As a curriculum specialist, she has a specific interest in connecting theory and practice through experiential learning and co-curricular engagements. Her perspective on academic leadership is grounded in the philosophy of the power of teams. She believes in leveraging the talents of each team member to achieve the greatest success, whether it involves faculty, staff, or students. She is a parishioner of St. Francis Xavier Cathedral and has served as a member and Chair of the Catholic Board of Education. Her civic and community outreach has spanned national, regional and international engagements, including such programmes as The Bahamas COVID-19 Vaccination Drive; Consortium Visiting Haiti-Post-Earthquake (2010); and various service-learning experiences that have taken her to South Africa and Ghana among other locations. Dr. Davis completed her undergraduate education at the College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota (BA, English) graduate studies at the University of Ottawa (MEd, Psychopedagogy) and University of British Columbia (PhD, Social and Educational Studies). She is a 2005 graduate of the Harvard Institute for Educational Management (IEM) and a 2020 graduate of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), Millennium Leadership Initiative (MLI), May 2019 – April 2020, Coaching for Aspiring Presidents and Senior Higher Education Leaders.

Lyn Daniels, EdD’16

Director of Instruction, Aboriginal Learning & Co-Chair, Surrey Urban Indigenous Leadership Committee

Dr. Lyn Daniels (Ed D), is Cree and Metis and belongs to the Kawacatoose First Nation located in southern Saskatchewan. She has worked in several school districts in BC and for the Ministry of Education as an admimistrator, coordinator and consultant in Aboriginal Education and is currently the Director of Instruction, Aboriginal Learning, in Surrey Schools. Lyn completed a Doctor of Education degree at UBC in Policy and Educational Leadership in 2016. Lyn’s research focused on Aboriginal college students’ memories of public education and how they compare to the memories of former Indian residential school students and educational policy in the colonial past and present.

Marilyn Hoar, MEd’96, PhD’04

Chief of Education, UNICEF Nepal

Marilyn taught school in Alberta after receiving her B.Ed at UofA in 1978. Joining Educational Studies at UBC in 1996, she received her MEd in Education Administration and Leadership, submitting a Graduating Paper titled “Community Mapping: Connecting Schools and Communities”. Her PhD in Educational Studies at UBC in 2004 included a dissertation titled “Relationships, Status, and Traditions: School and Community in a Fijian Village”. She supported staff development with teachers at the Monument Valley High School on the Navajo Reservation in Utah, the Aga Khan School in Tajikistan, in schools in Qatar and Abu Dhabi before joining UNICEF in 2010. As Chief of Education in Uzbekistan, she worked with the Government on improving Child Friendly Schools, Early Childhood Education, reducing institutionalization, and eliminating child labour. In 2015 Marilyn was in Kathmandu when a large earthquake destroyed 8000 schools in Nepal. The next 4 years were spent working with the Ministry of Education and NGOs to rebuild the education system to ensure that all children were able to attend school, as well as initiatives to address gender-based violence including child marriage. Moving to Nairobi, Kenya in 2019, Marilyn led the UNICEF education section to support refugee education, Early Childhood Development, and digital learning, as well as supporting the government to respond to the Covid crisis. Marilyn is now retired with her husband on their farm in Alberta.

Spring Gillard, MA’16

Coordinator, English Conversation Program, UBC Learning Exchange

Spring Gillard is an educational planner with nearly three decades of experience in the field. She is currently the Coordinator of the English Conversation Program at the UBC Learning Exchange in the downtown eastside of Vancouver. She has developed and delivered experiential educational programs for a variety of clients from non-profits to government, educational institutions to corporations. She also co-facilitated a tour-based course in applied sustainability at Simon Fraser University for six years. Drawing on her communications background, Spring is known for her innovative curriculum design and unique approaches to engaging with community. For many years, she was actively involved in the local food scene, working with diverse populations and cultures in an effort to increase access to healthy food. Spring is the author of two books on food security and blogs at www.compostdiaries.com/. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Victoria and a Master of Arts in Education from UBC.

Sunita Wiebe, PhD’06

Director, Office of Academic Quality Assurance, Langara college

Sunita Wiebe has nearly three decades of experience in post-secondary education as an instructor, program developer and administrator. Her doctoral dissertation, which was on fractures in conceptions of “good” academic writing, involved data gathering from nearly 700 participants and drew upon her own experience as a graduate student and instructor attempting to untangle perceptions of quality within the academy. Since graduating from UBC with a PhD in 2007, Sunita has worked in a variety of public and private post-secondary institutions in the Lower Mainland. Her experience includes faculty development, curriculum review, policy development, strategic planning, program review, academic quality assurance and project management. Sunita has successfully co-led the design and launch of five applied baccalaureate programs. She is currently the Director of the Office of Academic Quality Assurance at Langara College where she is responsible for overseeing the College’s academic quality assurance processes and recently led the College through its successful Quality Assurance Process Audit (QAPA). Sunita is a passionate advocate for the transformative power of higher education, having experienced it personally as the first in her extended family to pursue a university degree. Born and raised in Malaysia, she is the granddaughter of immigrants from South India.