What brought you to UPEI?

I'm PEI-born and raised, and decided to stay and raise a family here. PEI has so much to offer with all four seasons of outside adventures. When I decided to go to university, UPEI was the only place I thought about—I've never left the campus since being a student. UPEI feels like my second home!

Why did you choose to teach here?

As an undergraduate student, I had the most amazing mentors and I found that I had a passion for teaching. I was able to continue in my area of Foods and Nutrition and teach at the same time. So, I stayed at UPEI doing what makes me happy, and I feel very grateful for the opportunity to do so.

What courses are you teaching currently?

I instruct the labs for Introductory Foods, Advanced Foods, and Quantity Food Production. I get to teach second-, third-, and fourth-year labs and therefore I get to know the students as they go from year to year in the Foods and Nutrition program. And, I teach about food science preparation, product development, management, and production.
 

What kinds of research are you involved in, and what is your area of expertise?

While completing my Master of Adult Education degree at St. Francis Xavier University, my research focused on the facilitation of critical reflection for first-year university students enrolled in Foods and Nutrition courses. My aim was to develop the student’s ability to be critically reflective, so they would gain an understanding and be more empathic with those they were interacting with at the student level and would be interacting with in their future work environments. I anticipated that they would be able to use their critical reflection ability throughout the remainder of their lives as a tool to better understand the situations they face in their various communities of practice. 

"As an undergraduate student, I had the most amazing mentors and I found that I had a passion for teaching. I was able to continue in my area of Foods and Nutrition and teach at the same time. So, I stayed at UPEI doing what makes me happy, and I feel very grateful for the opportunity to do so."

Also, I see the benefit for facilitators to implement a variety of critical reflective techniques in order to address students' diverse learning styles, continue to have dialogue in person or journalling, and devote time to personal development. Critical reflection can benefit both the facilitator and the learner moving forward in a positive manner with excited anticipation for new experiences to encounter and share with others.

What do you find unique and interesting about UPEI’s Foods and Nutrition program?

The faculty in our program care about each student, and we all treasure our content area and all that we do.