A passionate supporter of adult literacy, Denise works to expose the benefits and expand the role of LBS in her capacity as Community Coordinator. A lover of all things grammatical (ask her about the Oxford comma!), she is also a student of Canadian literature. 

Leo first joined Frontier College in 2017 as a volunteer tutor before becoming an Administrative Assistant. He strives to make life easier for learners, volunteers, and his team in the online environment by providing digital technology support and by implementing and utilizing different tools

Johanna first joined The Literacy Group of Waterloo Region (TLG) in 2014 as ESL Workplace Transition Facilitator (contract position), then accepted an appointment as LBS Instructor and Group Facilitator at TLG –Kitchener Branch in March 2016.

Born and raised in sunny South Africa, she married a Brit and immigrated to the UK. A few years later, the wanderlust struck again and she immigrated to Canada with her husband (probably because she did not find the British weather cold enough!?) Fresh off the boat in January 2011, she courageously survived the initial shock of experiencing real, waist-deep Canadian snow for the first time in her life and learned to drive on the wrong (umm, right side!) of icy, slippery roads.

Career-wise, Johanna managed to keep things “interesting”. After obtaining a BA in English, Psychology and Afrikaans/Dutch and a post grad HED from the University of Pretoria (South Africa), she kicked off her career as a high school teacher, specializing in ESL instruction.  Since then she has worn many different workplace hats such as corporate language adviser; trust officer, corporate editor, technical & soft skills trainer and overseeing a client contact centre. She also moonlighted as a trauma counselor at Milpark Hospital, Johannesburg.  

In England, she did some supply teaching, IT procurement and pension administration before moving across the pond. In Canada she started her own ESL tutoring business, specializing in Business English, IELTS and TOEFL preparation and also volunteered at the YMCA in Kitchener as Lead Adult ESL Summer School instructor and ESL Conversation Circle facilitator. Since discovering Adult Literacy at TLG in 2014, she has refused to move anywhere else since…!

Trish has a background in social work and education and has been in the field of adult literacy for the past five years. She is currently working as an Essential Skills Upgrading instructor for the Toronto District School Board. Passionate about motivating learners and bolstering confidence to achieve their learning goals, Trish loves helping people overcome learning anxiety and showing that learning can actually be incredibly fun! Trish enjoys using digital technology to build community and to enhance both synchronous and asynchronous online learning.

In her spare time, Trish is an avid baker, fair-weather cyclist and gigantic nature nerd.