It is with great pleasure that I announce that Therese Gormley Hirmer has accepted the position of Manager, Academic Upgrading and will be joining Humber and the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences effective July 15, 2013. In this position, Therese will not only oversee the day-to-day operations of our Academic Upgrading Department but she will also be working very closely with the Dean and Associate Deans in LAS as well as other members of the Humber community to identify opportunities to grow and expand our Upgrading programs and services while continuing to ensure the quality and excellence that are synonymous with any Humber educational experience.

Therese holds a Master of Education degree in Teaching, Learning and Development as well as a Bachelor of Education degree in Adult Education from Brock University. She also has a degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas, and is TESL Ontario Certified.

Therese has spent over ten years in post-secondary, teaching a variety of language, communications and academic upgrading courses and at several institutions, including Seneca, Centennial, the University of Guelph and Brock University. As a teacher, she has gained valuable insights into the challenges students face when pursuing their post-secondary dreams and has used these to create opportunities to refine her teaching practice and allow her students to become active stakeholders in their future careers. She is co-author of Going Places: Paragraph to Essay (2013) and is currently working on a second text, On The Go: Sentence to Paragraph (2014) that will again focus on communication skills in the post-secondary environment.

Prior to teaching, Therese worked in a variety of businesses in south-western Ontario, in various managerial and leadership roles. Her considerable management experience coupled with her extensive experience teaching and implementing new online instructional methods in language and communication courses will allow Therese to foster a vision of excellence and innovation that will undoubtedly position our Academic Upgrading programs and services as leaders in the community.

Please join me in welcoming Therese to the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences and to the Humber community.

Paula F. Gouveia
Dean, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences