How long have you been living in Thompson?
I’ve been here for about a year-and-a-half now. I’m from Newfoundland originally.
What do you do for a living?
I am currently a lawyer at Law North. I practise mostly criminal, some family, some child protection, some wills and estates. Before I was a lawyer I was a teacher for a number of years so I have a bachelor of education, a master’s in education. I’ve taught cultural programming, college-level, high school, junior high. I’ve taught in public schools, I’ve taught in band-run schools and post-secondary. With my master’s in education I actually specialized in literacy education so I have a lot of ideas in terms of what I think education should look like but there’s also a variety of ways that that could translate in terms of contributing to the school board.
Why do you want to be on the school board?
Having a background in education, however not having been a teacher here would give me a unique perspective. I’ve been on different committees within schools but never on a school board before. I thought it would be a good way to get to know the community a little bit better and try to contribute outside of work. I like to see different new trends, the different avenues that the school board takes in terms of how they make decisions.
What is the most important educational issue you want to address if elected?
My specialization is literacy so literacy within the community is important to me but I’m just interested in education in general.
Why should someone vote for you over the other candidates?
With my experience as a teacher and as a member of the Thompson community I’d have a lot of good input in terms of making decisions relevant to the school. I don’t have the bias of having children in the school myself so I’m also able to view that from an outside lens. That might be helpful in a way. It’s a good way to give back to the community and get to know people
Anything else you want to add?
I look forward to getting to know a little bit more about what’s happened in the past with the school board and the different issues that they’ll be facing this year, just learning a little bit more about the role and the community itself.
