Writer, Instructor, and Teaching & Learning Consultant

Longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2015, Barbara's poetry is published in Room, Grain, The Antigonish Review, The New Quarterly, and in Pink Flamingos (Wintergreen Studio Press, 2022). In 2022, she completed her PhD in Education, and published a dissertation titled Learning Through Spiritual Encounters, which she is currently adapting for a wider audience. She has performed her poetry at various venues in Kingston, Ontario, Canada such as The Union Gallery, 100 Thousand Poets for Change at The Spire, Artfest, Earth Day, Dia de los Muertos, CFRC's Finding a Voice, and the monthly literary arts reading series And the Journey Continues held at the Elm Cafe. Barbara has held public performances at The Banff Centre, The Toronto Fringe Festival and various venues in the United Kingdom (where she lived for approx. six years in London and Broadstairs, Kent). Barbara was a full-time secondary school drama teacher in Ramsgate, Kent for four of those years, with a focus on emotional literacy. She is a featured artist in the YGK Spotlight project by the Kingston Arts Council, and her writing has been been supported by the Ontario Arts Council.

 

An adjunct professor at Queen's Faculty of Education (Arts Education, Language and Literacy, Teacher Training) and St. Lawrence College, Barbara is also an Ontario certified drama teacher (Ontario College of Teachers, 2005). She has been publishing, performing, and teaching locally and internationally as an arts educator for over twenty years at locations such as Young Peoples Theatre, Kingston Frontenac Public Library, Kingston Community Health Centres, H’art Centre, Great Big Theatre Company, Juvenis, and Arts Express. ​She has also delivered professional development workshops at the Ontario Fire College.

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Most recently, Barbara wrote a creative business plan for a Florida-based company, Harmony Happens, distributors of outdoor musical instruments for intergenerational community use. She was also hired by a professor and researcher at Queen's University to assist him in writing Teacher Guides for two recently published children's books, and editing content for a creative project inspired by famous educational philosophers. Barbara is currently participating in the CEO Program for Women Entrepreneurs at KEYS, Kingston.

 

She is a proud toddler mom, and loves to go for walks by the lake and play in her vegetable garden.