What do you do at the CIC?
I’m Communications Coordinator at the CIC. That’s one title with a lot of different hats. My primary role is to work with anything written that our members and wider audience receive, from membership renewal emails to the content on our website. This includes coordinating and posting stories to CIC News, and building and sending the CIC Newsletter. I work closely with our graphic designer and webmaster to make sure the style and content of our work can be easily turned into something that looks great and is easy to read. I also coordinate the translation process for anything we want to be bilingual as we try to offer more content in both official languages. In addition, I work behind the scenes to make sure members receive content tailored to their interests, and that our member contact information is secure, by managing our email marketing system, processes, and mailing lists.
How has your background led up to this work?
I’ve taken a bit of a convoluted path, and two international moves, to get here! I have degrees in professional writing and anthropology from York University, and completed an MA in Landscape Archaeology at the University of Bristol, England in 2009. I’ve always been interested in communications, particularly using storytelling to teach history and archaeology. I started my career focused on archaeology communication, education, and outreach first within museums, and then for not-for-profit organizations in England and Wales. When I moved from England to Colorado I switched my focus from archaeology to broader STEM education and outreach, and realized how much I enjoyed the communications aspect of my work. My move from the US back to Canada was a perfect opportunity to focus more on STEM communications, and that’s what brought me to the CIC.
What else should people know about CIC?
The national office team is full of passionate, creative, and dedicated minds, and members only get to see a fraction of the work they do. Each member of staff here really works hard to make sure we’re bringing you the best content and programming we can. We’re all full of ideas. We’re always thinking of ways to make membership more meaningful. We’ve each got a list of “passion projects” we hope to see become reality for the CIC, so it’s worth sticking around to see what new programs and events our staff build and offer every year.