Today, John is Operations & Finance Manager at Sheena’s Place, a downtown Toronto centre supporting those affected by eating disorders through a wide range of support groups and services. Previously, John oversaw the delivery of services to twenty-eight resident families, program planning, volunteer management and building operations as House Manager at Ronald McDonald House Toronto for more than fifteen years. John became Director of Operations following the organization’s 2012 four-fold expansion to become the largest of more than 300 Ronald McDonald Houses worldwide. Additionally, John has served as Board President at his downtown condominium for several years.
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A longtime volunteer of Ronald McDonald House Toronto, John was thrilled to accept the position of House Manager in 1996. There, he made surprising good use of his layout and editorial skills for many years as de facto editorial specialist. He single-handedly produced all communication materials for clients and volunteers. John graduated from Ryerson University's Certificate in Magazine Journalism program in 1997
John's first wordsmith job was that of Editorial Specialist in the marketing department of the national retailer Fairweather. The struggling enterprise filed for protection from creditors in 1995 and John went to work as Senior Writer, and soon after Editor-In-Chief at an online magazine targeted at post-secondary students. Today, John proudly assists the University of Toronto graduate student community with editing, copy-editing, dangling participle and syllogism repair. He is currently supporting two doctoral candidates, in the faculties of law and engineering. John earned his Diplôme d'Études en Langue Française (DELF B2) in June, 2016. He continues his studies at Alliance Française as he moves toward hid Diplôme Approfondi de Langue Française | DALF C1). At the moment, John fancies the notion of working part-time as a French language tutor in his semi-retirement. John also began just-for-fun studies in conversational Spanish (A1) at the University of Toronto in May, 2016. John's passionate involvement with language has never slowed. In addition to his voracious reading across a wide range of subjects, John is (slowly) at work on his first novel. |