Education & Learning:

• Bachelor of Computer Information Systems

• Completed a co-op with a company that used data about customers to create websites

• Teaching English as a Second Language certificate

• Master of Research

• MS Office webinars in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and Adobe InDesign

• Numerous workshops and webinars on coding and applied machine learning platforms (e.g. Google Prediction API, Microsoft Azure)

 

I have an unusual skillset in that I love to read, synthesize information, and write reports, but I also got hooked on statistics that illustrate my conclusions are based on solid numbers. During high school and much of university I could just use Google Docs and Sheets, but the more work experience I gained the more I realized I needed to be proficient with MS Office and Adobe InDesign.

 

Employment Experiences:

• First summer job was as an admin assistant at a gardening store. I helped develop an in-store campaign to try a new organic weed deterrent. I was hired back for the second summer and was allowed to set up some research on customer buying habits.

• My next summer job was at a bookstore where I tried to not spend my paycheck on books. I helped to upgrade their software program for more accurate inventory counts.

• Post-university I taught English in Japan and was exposed to some leading-edge software for teaching and communicating with students

• Next, I taught English to refugees in Europe awaiting processing to come to Canada, which led to a contract with Doctors Without Borders to contribute to a fundraising campaign where I developed a survey and presented the findings. The challenging part was to apply the survey in six different countries and collate the data to determine global trends and issues. This experience helped me to realize I needed to learn better research techniques and I went back to school.

• My first job post-master’s was with the Red Cross, collecting and analyzing data on existing supplies and gaps in equipment needed. The report I created contributed to the content for a grant-writing project.

• Since working with the Red Cross, I have collected and analyzed data for a variety of governmental organizations like the World Health Organization where I determined infrastructure supplies for water campaigns.

 

I discovered the concept of social enterprise while working at the bookstore and was hooked. While I was teaching English to refugees, I surveyed the people, determining their daily language learning needs as well as those related to their careers. The goal was to target the language programs to create an easier transition to the new country. Doctors Without Borders were able to also use my survey to better communicate with their patients. It was the job at Red Cross that helped me realize I was interested in large data collection specifically focused on global trends

 

During my contract with the World Health Organization, I realized many of the staff had innovative ideas for improving existing programs. I let the management know and they asked me to create an anonymous survey, so they could access and implement some of those ideas.

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Community Experiences:

• I volunteered to write grants for my favourite environmental charity, but what I didn’t initially realize was that I also needed to research to find appropriate grants as well as build the data to support the “ask”

• This lead to a board position as a community director, which I held during six years of university

 

This volunteer position was a great way to gain experience while I was attending university. We established some timelines for major grants and they allowed me to come and go as it worked with my study schedule. When my volunteer role evolved into a board member, I saw a style of big picture decision-making that was totally new to me.

 

Contextual Experiences:

• Belonged to the environment club and developed a campaign to raise awareness about reducing light pollution

 

Because my work often involved contracts, I had time to investigate other ideas. During a discussion with a friend who was involved with a startup, I helped determine which social cause their clients would best respond to. This led to other small contracts for startup social enterprises.

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Relationships:

• My friends have a lot of the same values as I do

 

Many of my friends are entrepreneurs with who are also concerned with the health of our planet. We love discussing issues and throwing around ideas of multipronged strategies for creating a better environment for the animals and the people.