Learner uses course materials to enhance community gatherings

I was born in Kingston, Jamaica. My interest in music, theatre, and the literary arts led me to abandon my academic degrees and a career in Forensic Science to take up a position with the British Council Caribbean as Arts & Education Officer. I worked for several years as the British Council Manager in my homeland, performing in my spare time with the Jamaica Musical Theatre Company, the National Chorale, and the Carifolk Singers. A small book of my poetry—Weights and Measures—was published by the Calabash Foundation in 2005, and my poems have garnered awards and been honored by publication in several anthologies. I served (and learned) alongside Jamaica’s first national poet laureate, Professor Mervyn Morris, as a judge for the Cultural Development Commission’s annual poetry competition. In 2008, I migrated to the US to live with my second husband, Julian Daniels, whom I met while on Bahá’í pilgrimage in Israel. My first teaching experience was as a poetry tutor at the Phillip Sherlock Center for the Creative Arts. Later, I participated in one of the first Wilmette Institute Science & Religion courses, and have since served as faculty on that course and others. In March 2012, I gave a presentation on World Peace at a Peace Conference hosted by Lander University. This experience inspired me to create a board game called Heart to Heart, featuring short quotations on unifying spiritual themes from 10 of the world’s religions and cultures. The game led to a website, a video channel, firmer friendships, a lot of learning, and a good deal of fun! After having served as a member of the Wilmette Institute Board, and also working part-time for the Institute as Marketing Coordinator and Course Creation Assistant, in March 2019, I filled the position of the Institute’s first Registrar. In the summer of 2023, I began an independent study of Media Literacy. I wanted to know how I could help friends in my social media circles free themselves from unhelpful online search habits and the lure of the "Internet rabbit hole." Through the Association for Baha'i Studies (ABS), I co-facilitated a reading group on media literacy and participated in the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) Media Literacy Week. In May 2025, I completed a course called Empowering Students through Constructivist Media Decoding, offered by Project Look Sharp in association with Ithaca College. The resource I created for my course project - The Painted Church - was selected to be in NAMLE's Media Literacy Week 2025 Resource Showcase. After the death of my second husband, I reunited with an old friend from Jamaica; we are married and living in Jamaica, New York. I am currently a student in WI's Social Transformation Certificate Program. The experience has made me more aware of the needs and the challenges of our student community, and has transformed my administrative and teaching work.See Faculty Bio