Theresa Southam

Move to the Mountains

I looked out of my dormitory window and thought, "I'm home."

Theresa moved to Columbia Basin in 1990 to attend the Creative Writing Program at David Thompson University and live in the mountains. Later, after taking courses in university arts and sciences at Selkirk College and graduating from the Fine Woodworking Program, she travelled extensively. Upon returning home to Canada, Theresa launched an environmental communications company, which over the next twenty-five years created, maintained and evaluated national and regional education projects. While running the company, Theresa attended Simon Fraser and Royal Roads University and taught at Selkirk College including teaching for five years at the Osoyoos Indian Band Community Centre and school. She loves her current appointment because every day, she rethinks what is taught, how it is taught and how learning is assessed.

Back to Selkirk College

As a consultant, I was always thinking about who I wanted to communicate with and what we would accomplish. Teaching and learning have been a natural extension of this life work. 

Recently, Theresa has launched and served as the principal investigator on a number of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) applied research projects including: a case study on the utility and effectiveness of the Selkirk Teaching Innovation and Research (STIR) fund, developing a set of guidelines for incorporating contemplative practices in the classroom (one of five institutions selected by an American foundation out of Amherst Massachusetts) and a project with the Rural Development Institute to help establish a baseline for defining and conserving mountain culture over time.

Today

If I can keep contributing to society through retirement, I'll be a happy camper.

Theresa is still known province-wide for her role in several key initiatives including community-based wetland conservation, fostering an environmental responsibility ethic, First Nations and Inuit tourism training, behaviour change projects, educational studies and strategies, and developing networks and strategies. 

As department head of the Teaching & Learning Centre, she has further developed her leadership, networking, strategic planning and management skills in an educational institution setting. 

Theresa continues her research as an ISI Fellow at Fielding Graduate University. She recently published Transforming Trauma through Social Change: A Guide for Educators with Fielding University Press and is the co-editor, with Marie Sonnet and Patrice Rosenthal, of the book Driving Social Innovation: How Unexpected Leadership is Transforming Society. She wrote the blog "Is Being an Ally Enough?" for Fielding in 2022, which links to her longer piece on decolonization in the Journal of Anthropology and Aging. Her dissertation is called 27,000 Sunrises: Everyday Contributions of Grateful and Giving Age 70+ Adults.