WEA Directors are actively engaged in adult education as teachers and learners. Each contributes to WEA’s role in helping adults to learn and to the broader community of adult learning through their work and volunteer contributions. The WEA currently has two projects, Learning Curves a newspaper for adults returning to school and University in the Community in partnership with Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre and Woodsworth College (University of Toronto).
Andrew Oliver, President
Andrew Oliver is a graphic designer and communications professional who has been working in Toronto since the early 2000’s. He’s currently employed as a senior designer at a local studio and the current president of the WEA. While getting his diploma in Graphic Communications from George Brown College almost 20 years ago, he started with Learning Curves doing the layout of the newspaper. He’s very passionate about design in all mediums and thrives on continually learning from the people around him. He’s a strategic thinker and strong believer in the utility that design can offer and that his creative problem solving skills are used to help grow the organization and help it succeed well into the future.
Wendy Terry, Secretary
Wendy Terry earned a Masters of Education. in International Education from Harvard in 1996. She had completed a BA majoring in Psychology at York University after seventeen years of night school. In 1976, she earned a Certificate in Business from Ryerson, after completing her high school at night school. She was the founding coordinator of the Continuing Education Students?Association of Ryerson and in 1981 received an Honorary Award from Ryerson for this contribution. From 1982-84, she was President of the Ontario Association for Continuing Education and in 1995 received OACE’s Norman High Award for outstanding leadership in the field of adult and continuing education. From 1992 to 2000, Wendy represented the International Federation of Workers?Educational Associations at UNESCO and she was the Executive Director of The WEA from 1983- 1993. She is author of The WEA report Unravelling the Tangle and Learning Information Services for Adults in Canada, published in 1991 by Learnxs Press and a Chapter entitled “Workers?Educational Associations, Liberal Arts Learning for Active Citizenship?published in 2003 in “Community and the World: Participating in Social Change?by Torry Dickinson. For the past twelve years she has worked with newcomers at Overland Learning Centre, a community school for adults, as Job Resettlement Counsellor, Coordinator of a Co-op program and as an ESL instructor.
Anne McDonagh, Vice President
Anne is a retired adult education teacher and has an honours degree in English from the University of Toronto. She was Head of Co-op for the East York Adult Learning Centre when she retired. She also worked in adult education teaching English and business communications at George Brown College, Humber College and Dixon Hall. Currently she is a member of the Board of Directors of the Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre in Toronto and chair of the Board’s Social Action Committee. She is also on the Board of Directors of The St. Clair West Affordable Housing Group. Anne was the facilitator for The WEA Educational Exchange, a learning co-operative project in 1999. This project led to the idea of a liberal arts program in the community, which evolved into University in the Community, a program run by a partnership of Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre, The WEA and Woodsworth College. It is funded by the Trillium Foundation. In 2005, Anne received an Arbor Award from the University of Toronto for her work in establishing University in the Community. Anne is Editor of Learning Curves and contributes many feature articles as well. She also tutors and does some career counselling.
Gerard Nuberg, Treasurer
Gerard is the Quality Control Manager at Chemetics Equipment, a division of Aker Kvaerner, Canada, Inc. He undertook a media awareness project in 1987 for The WEA’s Adult Learning Information Line (1987-1997) at a time when he was in transition from radio producer/announcer to a technical career. Part of this transition involved returning to school while working. In subsequent years, Gerard has continued his pursuit of certification. He has worked around the world for Chemetics as a project manager and quality assurance manager on projects as long as six months, for example, in Taiwan. Recently, he began a master’s level project management program administered by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the University of Calgary, in Houston, Texas.
Deborah Visconti
Deborah Visconti has worked as a legal assistant for the past 42 years. During that time she attended university on a part-time basis, and after almost 20 years earned an Honours Degree, with distinction, from the University of Toronto in English literature. She is passionate about learning and particularly enjoys reading, writing and going to the theatre.
Louise Bruff
Louise Bruff, originally from a small town in Jamaica, has been in Toronto for over 30 years and considers herself a Torontonian. She worked at a packaging job for many years until she had to quit because of carpal tunnel syndrome. She did not have the opportunity to get an education until University in the Community started at Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre. Louise says that University in the Community changed her life. She is our most loyal student having taken all the courses we have offered.
Rumana Khalifa
Rumana Khalifa was born and educated in Eritrea. In university she specialized in languages, including French and Italian. She speaks English, Italian, Amharic, Tigrinya, Tigre, Arabic, French and Spanish. Before she cqme to Canada Rumana worked in and visited many countries. Before coming to Canada, she worked in the Middle East and in Africa.. In Canada she worked at the Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre, for Legal Aid Ontario and for the Eritrean Canadian Community Centre. While working at these jobs, Rumana earned her Child and Youth Worker diploma, and now works for 211 doing counselling over the phone.
Sal Ahmed
Sal Ahmed is a newly-appointed Board member of the WEA but he has volunteered for Learning Curves since 2011. Passionate about marketing and data analytics, he is currently working as marketing and communications director for a cyber security company. In addition, Sal is the educator-manager of a data analytics training company and is a host of a TV show called ¡°Learn Now¡±. He has an MBA degree in marketing and an undergraduate degree in Information Technology.
Mina Wong
After early years in China, Mina Wong attended school in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario. These relocations allowed Mina to experience different school systems and post-secondary institutions. After eclectic work experiences in public and private organizations, Mina has been a teacher of education and social sciences for the last twenty years. As a teacher, Mina focuses on invitational and collaborative approaches, with special interests in research, leadership, curriculum design, and lifelong learning. Mina currently teaches project leadership at Seneca College. In her free time, she studies Chinese and French, and learns to write stories. She also enjoys a short vacation with family each winter in Alberta.