My Working Life

Welcome to my working life. It continues to be diverse and very exciting. After an early start working for my dad's consulting company in Ottawa as Office Manager I developed a really great skill set in administrative capabilities, gaining a thorough knowledge of running an office and dealing with clients, interest groups and the public. I then moved on to run an NGO in Toronto before returning to school where I did course work at the University of Toronto in Anthropology and English.

I moved out west in 1985 and began a wonderful long involvement with the artist run centre movement in Canada by working as an Administrator with the Western Front Society, I joined the BOD of the Unit 306 Society (grunt gallery and former Pitt Gallery in Gastown), as well as participating in various key artistic community driven projects such as the VAC and early Artropolis. These working experiences enabled me to hone my various skills in hyper creative environments. Along with the administration I branched out into curating performance art and making my own art videos, performance art and creating spoken word poetry.

Cut-backs in the Canada Council forced me to rethink my options in 1990 and I took a job at the welfare office, which really grounded me in social justice issues. I edited and ran an in-house magazine while I was there that focused on women's health issues both within government and from the client perspective. This led to a great gig as an administrative assistant and later a program coordinator with the Provincial Ministry of Women's Equality. There I formed a solid analysis that has served me well with my personal philosophy and art making. In 1998 I joined the Provincial Ministry of Community Development as a Program Analyst/Community Development Officer and experienced the fantastic opportunity of working side by side with the Province's top dogs in the Social Justice arena.

I'm now fully occupied by my role as Practicum Manager in the Provincial Ministry of Health Services, designing systems for paramedics with my work linking closely to the provincial emergency health services team. I've been employed by MOHS BCAS since 2002 and have learned much about the world of emergency response and some of the tactical analysis needed to help manage the Human Animal in crises. My volunteer endeavours through an active BOD membership with the grunt gallery continue to round out my career and I am feeling busy and grateful these days.