About

I’m Kathleen Smith – Welcome!

“Freedom and responsibility are like the heads and tails of a coin“

KATHLEEN W. SMITH Biography / CV

Chairperson, Mentors Entrepreneurs & Leaders Group (MEL), March 2021 to the present

  • Held four virtual meetings for the Entrepreneurs of MEL, and encouraged them to post entrepreneur-related material on the MEL Facebook page.
  • Post MEL members’ achievements and news on the MEL LinkedIn page, and attract more followers to that page
  • Posts on the MEL Facebook page

Vice-Chairperson, Mentors Entrepreneurs & Leaders Group (MEL) October 2019 to March 2021

  • Develop and maintain the MEL website (ongoing), including adding numerous resources to the website
    • Sought feedback about the website in individual conversations with many MEL members and implemented most of the suggestions
    • One suggestion was “Don’t forget the favicon!” (Thanks, Doug Bannister.) I set up a contest, adjudicated by the MEL executive, to design a favicon (site logo); see the Administrative tab on the MEL Group page (scroll down on that page) for information about the winner.
  • Set up a Survey Monkey poll to assess interest and potential financial support for a paid website
  • Set up a MEL YouTube channel to support the website
  • Evaluated several web hosting services for a future paid web host provider for MEL, and identified banking arrangements to support this
  • LinkedIn
  • Ongoing liaison with Mensa Canada
  • Appointed people to the roles of Secretary and Treasurer (pending the next election), and Elections Officer
  • Encourage individual MEL members to submit articles for the website
  • As Coordinator of Inquiring Minds, I hosted a panel discussion on Leadership in October 2019, for the purpose of promoting the MEL Group to members of Toronto Mensa and their invited guests

Coordinator: Inquiring Minds (speaker series & events), Toronto Mensa December 2016 to the present

  • Recruit speakers for Inquiring Minds (see the page Mensa Role for selected past speakers and events)
  • Host the speaker series (and events before the pandemic)
  • Pivoted from in-house speaker events to Zoom Webinar because of the pandemic

Postdoctoral Research Fellow / Associate: Goel Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, York University, Toronto 2014-2017

  • Designed and supervised the implementation of research studies
  • Analysed data and co-authored publications
  • Mentored graduate students and Honours Thesis students
  • Supervised research assistants and volunteers

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in a collaboration at L’Université de Picardie Jules Verne (France) and University of Sussex (England) January 2011 – December 2013

  • Designed research studies: behavioural and neuroimaging
  • Recruited and tested research participants using fMRI and behavioural measures
  • Analysed data and prepared manuscripts for publication

PhD (Psychology: Cognitive Neuroscience), York University 2010

  • Prepared and defended doctoral dissertation
  • Co-Chairperson, Psychology Graduate Students Association for two years
    • Organized and chaired the faculty/student in-house Psychology Conference (a 2.5 day event)
  • Graduate Student representative on Promotions and Tenure Committee for two years
    • participated in revising P&T policy
  • Research Practicum 1: with Professors Jennifer Steeves and Laurence Harris
    • Familiarized myself with eye-tracking technology and conducted a research study
  • Research Practicum 2: working with Distinguished Professor Leslie Greenberg in the Emotion-Focused Therapy Lab
    • Published a research article with Professor Greenberg
    • Actively contributed to case consultations in the lab meetings
  • Presented research posters at various conferences in Canada and the USA
  • Gave a research talk at a conference in Barcelona
  • Course Director: Statistical Methods II
  • Teaching Assistant
    • Led two-hour full class statistics tutorials weekly for three years
    • Marked essays
    • Invigilated exams
  • Published a book review in Psychology of Women Quarterly
  • For the Masters degree, I collected neuroimaging data at (what is now called) Western University, analysed the data, wrote and defended the Masters thesis.
  • As preparation to apply to graduate school I completed the Honours Specialist (Undergraduate) Program in Psychology at the University of Toronto.
    • Completed a third-year project (involving 40 research participants) under the supervision of Dr. Jordan Peterson. Subsequently I decided to recruit an additional 40 people, then spent the summer figuring out how to analyse the data from the disparate measures. At the end of the summer I reported to Peterson, who agreed that we would publish some of the results. That was my first publication.
    • Completed a fourth-year Honours Thesis under the supervision of Dr. Bernard Schiff, who taught me a great deal about precise writing for professional journals.
  • To develop references that would allow me to apply to the Honours Thesis Program I volunteered for one year in the lab of Dr. Sue Goldberg, Psychiatry Research, Hospital for Sick Children (HSC). At the end of that year, I was offered a paid summer position in the HSC clinic of Dr. Denis Daneman, where I conducted behavioural research involving 60 children (age 5 to 16) who had been diagnosed with diabetes.

Counsellor in Psychotherapy

  • Certificate: Counsellor in Psychotherapy, Lifespace Institute (Dr. Barbara Forest)
  • Internship at the Donwood Centre (treatment centre for addiction)
    • co-facilitated client therapy groups and (separately) family support groups

Investigator / Inspector: Canadian Public Service

For several years, I conducted investigations and
inspections in the domain of consumer fraud protection. I led teams of inspectors in gathering
evidence at various sites and took enforcement action as required. On occasion, I prepared
prosecution briefs, liaised with Crown Prosecutors, and interacted with media (print, radio, TV).

I proposed changes to the methods for conducting investigations, and was tasked with re-writing and teaching the two-week Enforcement course to managers and colleagues from across Canada.


I was presented with the Merit Award for “an exceptional and distinguished contribution to the
effectiveness and efficiency of the Public Service” for substantive contributions above and
beyond the job description,

Personal

I am very happily married to Bruce.

When I returned to university to pursue the Psychology degrees, I kept an academic journal of my progress in pursuit of answers to a particular question; now I am working on a book.

As a young person (age 4 to 15), I was fortunate to receive rigorous training as a classical pianist and performed a piano concerto in public at age 13. My piano studies came to an abrupt halt because of family circumstances. Now, finally, I have returned to playing, and am continuing my development as a pianist.