Educator / Coordinator, Learning Centre, John Abbott College, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, QC. Born: USA.
Brenda Rowe is a career educator who has worked with the public and private sectors, designing and delivering workshops in learning skills, life skills and human development, for community organizations and businesses in the Caribbean, U.S. and Canada.
Career: Brenda designed Career Focus job re-entry programs for women (1982-98); joined Faculty of Women Studies, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University, and taught courses on Black women’s culture, women’s studies, and feminist research methods (1994); Co-Founder and Vice-President, Excel Youth and Visible Minority Group (1998), and was a key organizer of the 1999 Science Technology Fair; served as Coordinator, Centre for Native Education at Concordia University (1999). In 2000, Brenda became Coordinator of the Learning Centre at John Abbott College, where she is responsible for its administration and is involved with the assessment and implementation of programs and strategies to assist students with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and students in need of academic support. She has also serves as direct supervisor to several departments at the college: the Cultural Diversity Office, Student Success Services, Special Needs Services, and the Aboriginal Student Resource Centre.
Community: Good Samaritan Centre; Black Community Council, Quebec; Black Community Resource Centre; West Island Black Community Association; Youth in Motion; Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Black Community Centre; Jamaica Association of Montreal; Minority Apprenticeship Program; provincial and national committees for the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Honours: Including, inclusion in Who’s Who in Black Canada 2 (2006); award for services rendered, Excel Youth Science & Technology Conference (1999); Outstanding Service Award, Westmount, SDA, (2000);Â Montreal Mayor’s Black History Month Calendar (2002); Taste of the Caribbean Woman of Merit Award (2010).
Education: Master of Education, Iowa State University (1977); Bachelor of Science, Psychology & Sociology, Oakwood College (1974).
Favourite book? Any book that lifts and directs the human spirit to take positive action.
Favourite quote? “God doesn’t look for leaders who have never failed.”
Given the chance, what would you love to do that you haven’t done yet? Visit special places on each of the world’s continents.
What inspires you? My mother’s positive outlook on life.
Why do you do what you do? Because I enjoy it. I believe it to be my spiritual calling…it benefits those placed in my path.