Past Director and Research Associate, Skylight
Room A150, Chemistry/Physics Annexe
Tel: (604) 822 4691;

Joanne completed an MSc in anthropology at the Université de Montréal, an MEd in education at the University of British Columbia and a PhD in anthropology at McMaster University.    

Her interdisciplinary interests in learning at the post-secondary level have been informed by her varied professional background.  Her previous positions include: Co-ordinator for the Black  Student Retention Project in the School of Engineering at the University of Virginia, Project Manager for the Native Community Care:  Counselling and Development Program at Mohawk Community College, (Ontario), and Learning Skills Co-ordinator at Simon Fraser University.  For several years she also worked as an educational consultant.

Joanne’s current research interests include enhancing reading comprehension at the post-secondary level, developing problem solving heuristics, using visual guides to develop deep structure learning, and exploring the new pedagogical possibilities offered by simulations and wiki type technologies.  As an anthropologist, her research methodology and theory is qualitatively based and uses an ethnographic approach for data collection.   

Joanne team teaches a graduate course for the Life Sciences (BIOL 535) on fundamentals of teaching, and facilitates Instructional Skills Workshops and Narrative Skill Workshops for the Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth.