Snapshot

Gareth Kirkby

I am an asso­ciate fac­ulty mem­ber at Royal Roads Uni­ver­sity, a uni­ver­sity instruc­tor and pro­fes­sional com­mu­ni­ca­tor with a back­ground in jour­nal­ism and media man­age­ment. I have years of results-driven expe­ri­ence in both the pri­vate and non-profit sec­tors. A life-long learner always eager to build new skills and under­stand­ing, my diverse edu­ca­tion includes sev­eral major com­mu­ni­ca­tion disciplines.

I have a pas­sion for shar­ing my pro­fes­sional prac­ti­tioner expe­ri­ence and insights, includ­ing with the MA stu­dents at Royal Roads Uni­ver­sity. I teach a strate­gic approach for social media use in com­mu­ni­ca­tion, mar­ket­ing, and jour­nal­ism. My diverse back­ground in jour­nal­ism and civil soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions informs my teach­ing of com­mu­ni­ca­tion for devel­op­ment and social change. I have also co-taught advanced (qual­i­ta­tive) research meth­ods, and helped with Master’s and Bachelor’s level com­mu­ni­ca­tion the­ory courses. I have taught courses fully online, blended online-residency, and face-to-face in the classroom.

I recently helped launch the Cana­dian Insti­tute for Infor­ma­tion and Pri­vacy Stud­ies (CIIPS), a start-up char­i­ta­ble orga­ni­za­tion and think tank.

My 2014 the­sis for the MA in Pro­fes­sional Com­mu­ni­ca­tion at Royal Roads Uni­ver­sity trig­gered a national con­ver­sa­tion about government’s use of its tax­ing author­ity to affect society’s pol­icy con­ver­sa­tions and its impact on char­i­ties. The the­sis was nom­i­nated for a Governor-General’s Gold Medal, and earned a Pub­lic Ethnog­ra­phy Award. You can down­load my the­sis from the the­sis sec­tion of this website.

My core pro­fes­sional and research inter­ests lie at the inter­stices of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, pub­lic pol­icy, and civil soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions includ­ing non­prof­its and char­i­ties. I am avail­able to con­sult on related projects and issues.

My Career

A com­mu­ni­ca­tion practitioner-educator, I seek chal­lenges on each side of the hyphen. As a strate­gic and inno­v­a­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tions leader with years of results-driven expe­ri­ence in both the pri­vate and non-profit sec­tors, I bring a dynamic wealth of pro­fes­sional work expe­ri­ence and edu­ca­tion to the table. I have demon­strated hands-on award-winning engage­ment in jour­nal­ism and media management.

My pro­fes­sional com­mu­ni­ca­tion expe­ri­ence includes strate­gic plan­ning, strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tion, com­mu­nity rela­tions, media rela­tions, cri­sis man­age­ment, and com­mu­nity build­ing. My project lead­er­ship expe­ri­ence includes social media, web devel­op­ment, web mar­ket­ing, and web man­age­ment. My man­age­ment approach is a focus on coach­ing within a frame­work of ongo­ing change leadership.

I con­tinue to develop my instruc­tional skills through courses and work­shops for both online and class­room teach­ing, and cur­ricu­lum devel­op­ment. I have an inter­est in teach­ing cul­tur­ally mixed classes, and have com­pleted a train­ing course in inter­cul­tural edu­ca­tion, and most recently the Cam­bridge CELTA cer­tifi­cate (pend­ing) for teach­ing inter­na­tional students.

For more infor­ma­tion, see my LinkedIn profile:

ca.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Gareth/Kirkby

My Past-Times

I love to swim, snorkel, kayak, hike and learn new things. My TV and movie view­ing leans heav­ily toward sci­ence fic­tion. My music inter­ests are eclec­tic but with a par­tic­u­lar inter­est in soul, blues, and rock dom­i­nated by gui­tar gymnastics.