Career Buzz

In this episode, ⁠Erica Mattison⁠ interviews ⁠Dinuka Gunaratne⁠, a post-secondary leader with extensive experience supporting the success of university students throughout Canada and the US. Together, they explore how to lead a rewarding career with the help of self-reflection through story telling, mentoring relationships, and feedback from trusted allies.

Through leadership roles with numerous professional associations, Dinuka is a major contributor to graduate student career development and student affairs. As a certified Anti-Racism Response trainer, Dinuka is deeply committed to fostering diversity, inclusion, and belonging, informed by his experience as a first-generation immigrant and former international student. Currently, he serves as the Director of Career Development and Experiential Learning at Northeastern University Vancouver Campus in British Columbia, Canada.

Part 2 of The strategic importance of water – an irreplaceable and un-substitutable resource with Stephen Armstrong and Bryan Karney

For centuries, wars have been fought over resources. The need for land, oil, trade routes and other commodities have all led to deadly conflicts throughout history. But soon we could be seeing more fighting over arguably the most precious resource of all - water. Now to set the stage 97% of earths water is salt and 3% is freshwater. 97% of the fresh water is frozen in ice caps and glaciers so a fraction of a fraction is accessible. As the effects of climate change get worse, and the planet gets hotter and drier, the fight for water is only going to intensify. So - where could we see water wars? And how likely are they to actually happen?

Bryan Karney Bio:

Bryan Karney is a professor of Civil engineering at the UofT and he is phased retirement after holding the position of Vice Dean Multidisciplinary Programmes in the faculty of applied science and engineering.  Professor Karney’s research interests reside in the design, analysis, operation and optimization of various water resource and energy systems. He specializes in the design and analysis of water distribution systems, with interests in infrastructure renewal, transient and water hammer analysis and system optimization. Professor Karney also studies the implication of climate change to system design and performance, and particularly energy use.  He is a Professional Engineer in Ontario and holds a BASc, MEng and PhD in Civil Engineering from UBC.    

Who You Are Matters! How do you get to know who you are? Guests Mark Franklin, host of Career Buzz and Rich Feller created a tool that helps do that and are here to tell you all about it. Do you need a plan when it’s time to look for a new role? Debra Boggs stresses the value of having a Job Search Strategy. Join Hoda and her guests in their journey to increase Career Literacy.

Guest links:

Mark Franklin - https://onelifetools.com/pages/conversations-matter

Rich Feller - https://richfeller.com

Debra Boggs - https://www.dscareermanagement.com/about

If you ask Carolyn McBeath it takes being confident and resourceful, being curious and a critical thinker, being able to read a situation and creating backup plans. And being very, very forthcoming.

Carolyn McBeath works as an Overseas Site Manager where she is the key in-country liaison between her Canadian employer, Voyageur Aviation, and United Nations Missions in international hot spots including East Timor, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan.

Join Mark Franklin in this episode as he speaks to Carolyn from her home near Ottawa, just one day after returning from Central African Republic.

In this week's episode of Career Buzz, join Erica Mattison with Geraldine Barney.

Being an artist is central to Geraldine Barney’s identity. Throughout her career she’s discovered the personal importance of developing a creative practice involving a range of media from prints, to paintings, to songs. As she creates, she honours her Indigenous culture and connection to the land where she grew up on a Navajo reservation. 

Geraldine’s career has included a wide variety of settings, from higher education to home improvement stores. Her passion for her craft has helped her stay true to herself and her values.

In their conversation, Geraldine shares how her art is shaped by her connection to her ancestors, to nature, and to her community.

About Geraldine Barney

Geraldine Barney’s artwork explores the relationship between the traditional Navajo values and beliefs she grew up with on the Navajo Reservation in Northwest New Mexico with contemporary city life off the reservation. Living in two cultures is a prominent theme in her art and her music.

Geraldine studied printmaking at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM and at the Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO. Although a printmaker at heart, Geraldine is currently working on a series of landscapes (both real and imagined) that invoke her passion for the land of the Southwest and her connection to the Navajo reservation. 

Geraldine is also a singer and song writer whose work is included in two Smithsonian Folkways CD’s; “Music of New Mexico: Native American Traditions” and “Heartbeat: Voices of First Nations Women”.

Follow Geraldine on Instagram at @geral.dine.barney and on Facebook at Gerri Barney.

In this episode, host Erica Mattison and guest Amandine Le Roux Hancock explore how to enable your curiosity to guide you to a rich career that is an expression of who you are. They get into topics including mindfulness, work-life harmony, resilience, movement-building, the value of grounding our career and life choices in love and playfulness. As Amandine asks, “What are we on the planet to do, if not to try things?”

Solving huge challenges like climate change presents an opportunity for each of us to draw upon our unique strengths and lived experiences. And that’s what Hessann Farooqi is doing through his career.

In this episode of Career Buzz, guest-host Erica Mattison speaks with Hessann Farooqi, Executive Director of The Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN), about the importance of relationship building and other valuable skills for leaders of nonprofit organizations. Hessann shares how he combines his passion for public policy with his dedication to advancing climate solutions on the local level.

They originally met when Hessann was an undergraduate student at Boston University. Erica hired him as an intern for the Boston University Sustainability communications team. Find out how he’s honing skills in public speaking, relationship building, and research and analysis to grow a grassroots movement rooted in climate justice.

BCAN is a community-based nonprofit organization that organizes residents to advocate for local climate justice action. It brings together residents, community groups, and policy makers to equitably transition Boston from fossil fuels and improve its resilience.

Learn more about the Boston Climate Action Network at Bostoncan.org and Hessann Farooqi via LinkedIn and Twitter.

Hessann Farooqi Bio:

Hessann Farooqi is the Executive Director of the Boston Climate Action Network. He is the youngest person and the first person of color appointed to lead BCAN in its more than two decade history.  Hessann studied economics at Boston University, worked in the United States Senate, and served on various federal, state, and local political campaigns. He also serves as an Environmental Justice Advisor to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council on the development of their Greater Boston Climate Action Plan and supports MassRobotics on their Climate Robotics Working Group. He previously served as an advisor to The White House and Department of Energy’s Opportunity Project. 

Over the last five years, numerous critiques from reputable sources like CBC, HBR, Forbes, NBC, Times Higher Education, The Atlantic, and the Brookings Institution have questioned the adequacy of current higher education systems. With the explosive growth of AI in the past year, every sector, including higher education, has been significantly disrupted. 

Join Join Stephen Armstrong of Innovation Nation on this episode of Career Buzz with guest Dave Goldberg. Dave is an AI trailblazer who, 15 years ago, made a career shift to tackle this issue directly - with the aim to revolutionize higher education fundamentally. He is currently the President and Head Coach at ThreeJoy Associates, Inc.--Transforming Engineering Education. 

Are you geared up for what’s next in your professional life? Get inspired by Ann Nakaska as she imparts valuable insights for future career advancements. Ever imagined enjoying your work? Dr. Mike Rucker provides unique strategies to make it possible. Join Dr. Hoda Kilani, Hoda’s Career Info, and her guests to enhance your Career Literacy.

In 2022, just when Anastasiia Zhemchugova landed her dream job in an international law firm in Kyiv, Ukraine, war disrupted her career and life.

Her firm had an office in Prague so she worked there for a while but without the local language skills it was complicated. Then, a perfectly timed opportunity emerged – from Canada. Years earlier, pre-pandemic, Anastasiia had applied for a law internship with the Canadian Parliament. Their offer came just in time. She accepted and arrived in May, 2022. Then, Anastasiia got into a career boosting bridging program for internationally educated women lawyers. Run by the University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies, the Brief Law program and the School’s Blueprint Career Services, led by Ann Park, helped Anastasiia get ready for life and law in Canada where she’s now doing a law degree at York U's Osgoode Hall.

Join Mark Franklin to hear and learn from both Anastasiia and Ann's insightful career stories.