I advocate for students and work to understand and support their unique learning challenges. And I facilitate a variety of experiential outdoor adventure programs with the intention of challenging self-perceptions, creating connections to natural places and processes, and developing an interest in lifelong wilderness adventure and recreation. I'm fortunate to live and facilitate worthwhile programs in the heart of the Columbia Valley, an iconic and renowned Canadian destination for wilderness pursuits.

I enjoy exploring and guiding, interpreting wilderness flora and fauna, as well as natural and human history on remote white water river expeditions in Canada's North. Talented at making wild places accessible, exciting, and highly enjoyable. I'm motivated by opportunities to reconnect with natural places and processes, and honored by the responsibility of supporting new and old friends and acquaintances as they rediscover their own connections to wilderness and celebrate the many magical moments experienced along the way.

As Co-founder of Momentum Outdoors, I've been involved in and responsible for all aspects of business management, including product development, promotion, risk management, staff training, and program facilitation. Momentum Outdoors' programs include a variety of instructional adventure programs, such as: white water canoeing, canoe tripping, sea kayaking, nordic skiing, wilderness first aid, wilderness navigation/GPS, and water & ice rescue. We also lead single & multi-day excursions by white-water raft, canoe, and sea kayak.

With ten years experience teaching wilderness emergency first aid and with over twenty-five years experience leading adventure programs in high-risk, remote wilderness environments, I enjoy opportunities to share critical life-saving strategies and experiences that go beyond those protocols mandated for the urban emergency care-giver. These environments demand a higher standard of care, of preplanning, of improvisation, and of the ability to diagnose, to rule out, and to treat - over a longer term - the broad spectrum of traumatic and medical conditions capable of complicating wilderness experiences.

With more than two decades experience teaching moving water paddling skills, and having enjoyed the benefit and pleasure of working alongside the industries' most renowned instructors, leaders, and explorers, I enjoy teaching beginner through advanced programs in white water canoeing, kayaking, water rescue, trip planning, wilderness first aid, and wilderness leadership.

Within this position at St. Andrew's School, I enjoyed an opportunity to gain additional experience with a combination of grade 1 reading and French; as well as, a split grade 7 and 8 class, facilitating science, literacy, phys ed, and French curriculums. In addition to teaching, I coached volleyball, soccer, track and field, and baseball and co-lead a variety of extracurricular excursions and year-end trips. It was exciting teaching in a normalized post-covid climate; re-introducing team based games and initiative tasks, enriching extra-curricular excursions, and refocusing on the academic and interpersonal developments that need time and focus as our school communities readjust and return to a rigorous new normal.

High Support Special Education, as well as, numeracy, literacy, pathway and life-skills teacher in elementary education.

At Bishop Smith Catholic High School, I teach within the Canadian and World Studies curriculum area, facilitating History, Geography, English and World Religion classes. My goal as a History teacher is help students understand our national identity: how it developed over time, the domestic and global events that contributed to shaping our country, and the decisions that resulted in our collective national sense of what it means to be Canadian. As an English teacher, I work to inspire an appreciation for literature and to increase literacy levels orally and in writing. And through the exploration of World Religions, my objective is to increase understanding and compassion between cultural and religious groups, to discover that many belief systems and their devotees have much in common, and to explore humanities accumulated knowledge, beginning the process of distilling our findings into a wholistic understanding of humanity and society.

Within this role I evaluate individual strengths, needs, and accomodations; as well as develop Individual Education Plans, track student success, network with families and school staff, facilitate programming and support students directly. This position has been rewarding in it's capacity to create meaningful personal successes preparing remarkable and sometimes vulnerable students for school to school and school to community transitions. I enjoy working one-on-one with a variety of high support students at the elementary and secondary levels.

Since beginning at Iroquois Falls Secondary School I've worked to develop and facilitate a variety of programs including three unique four-credit, integrated, interdisciplinary, experiential education programs designed to introduce students to the skills, knowledge, and experiences associated with environmental and adventure leadership. These programs combine Communications Technology, English, Geography, and Phys. Ed. within a context that relies on removing students from traditional classrooms, using natural environments and team-based initiatives to develop a range of soft (interpersonal) and hard (activity specific) leadership skills. Among other worthwhile topics, students explore the roles of Provincial and Federal protected areas, the issues surrounding competing demands on our natural resources and strategies for accommodating multiple users, as well as, technologies for minimizing our ecological footprint while pursuing worthwhile development. Participants spend time on skis, snowshoes, mountain bikes, and their feet; and complete each semester with a two week kayak or canoe expedition, which they plan and self-lead. Students gain industry-standard certifications in wilderness first aid, canoeing, GPS, and water rescue. They discover new skills, interests, and abilities. They grow, learn, laugh, develop positive and powerful connections to classmates as well as natural places and processes. Some pursue pathways leading to careers rooted in the many aspects of the Environmental Sector. And some pursue other worthwhile careers with a new and/or bolstered understanding of leadership strategies and an appreciation for wilderness recreation, adventure, and environmental stewardship. BooM!

In my position with the Inuglak School I supported the development of cross-curricular numeracy and literacy, and facilitated programs oriented around healthy active lifestyles and experiential Atmospheric, Aquatic, and Terrestrial Environmental Science. I assisted students as they connect with their rich cultural and land-based traditions, encouraged relevant discoveries and a fuller understanding of the natural world around them, and supported the development of individual interests, career goals, and pathways to occupational successes.

Facilitated corporate and therapeutic programs designed to remove participants from comfortable settings and introduce stress-based challenges. Although low in actual risk, obstacles and elements are perceived as high risk, intentionally designed as such to encourage authentic participant responses, within relatively controlled environments, creating opportunities to process decision-making biases and/or communication skills for team & individual growth.

Primarily responsible for facilitating moving water rescue and wilderness first aid programs delivered to members of the emergency services, as well as the MNR and Dept. of Oceans & Fisheries, I was also involved in leadership training, rescue and wilderness first aid programs oriented to summer wilderness adventure company staff & recreational paddlers/outdoor enthusiasts.

Taught flat and moving water canoe programs, as well as, the 2nd Year backpacking programs. I was responsible for planning program logistics, risk management, and facilitation.