Chris Prosser
Executive Director
Chris has working mainstream and adult education for over 20 years, working in various schools and education centres all over the world. He graduated from The University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Chris finds working at TLG incredibly rewarding and feels honoured to be able to help so many people reach their goals.
Lisa McArthur
Program Manager
Lisa McArthur has been working as an adult educator since 2003 in a variety of capacities. They include, but are not limited to, being a certified educational skills assessor, a family literacy facilitator and certified Clear Writing consultant. Lisa has sat on a number of community advisory committees and has evaluated numerous literacy projects.
Lisa also continues two decades of work in the health sector as a chiropody clinic manager, patient educator, and as a Registered Reflexology Practitioner. She combined her experience working in health care with that in literacy to co-develop the Diabetes Essential Skills Kit in 2012.
In her spare time, she is an avid audio book “reader”, likes to travel off the beaten path and recently stepped out of her comfort zone and learned to sail.
Joyce Baker
Administrative Assistant – Kitchener
Joyce has over 13 years administrative experience. She volunteered for a number of years in the General Support Services (GSS) department at The Canadian Hearing Society and was hired on with the organization. She continued working in the GSS department and was given the opportunity to work as a receptionist for their Barrier Free Communication for Employment program for the deaf & hard of hearing. Joyce also worked as the Resource Person for K-W Access-Ability. In this position, she was introduced to the many resources available for people with a disability in the Waterloo Region community.
Joyce enjoys working for non-profit agencies as it gives her a chance to make a difference in someone’s life. When her contract ended at The Canadian Hearing Society, Joyce found her niche at The Literacy Group of Waterloo Region. She provides ongoing clerical support to the Executive Director & staff. Joyce maintains the Literacy and Basic Skills Information Management system for the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. She also assists with organizational evaluations.
Computers are Joyce’s passion, whether it’s producing one-page flyers or using Microsoft templates. She also trains and supervises office volunteers as well as works with The Literacy Group’s financials. On weekends, Joyce enjoys swimming, watching movies and spending time with her very special grandson.
Sue Damon
Program Coordinator – Kitchener
Sue was born and raised in Michigan, for which she takes no responsibility, though she is working assiduously on rehabilitating her accent. Oblivious to the needs of the job market, she got a BA in philosophy, with cognates in English and social sciences, then salvaged her job prospects somewhat by getting certified as a teacher. She married a Canadian with whom she had run an alternative student bookstore in Iowa, and moved to Canada. After three years of trying rather unsuccessfully to herd middle schoolers, she worked for a number of years (the exact number to remain undisclosed) in office administration and in freelance writing, mostly curriculum. In addition, she served her church and denomination in various capacities, and attempted to parent three children, now all young adults. In 2005 Sue began volunteering for The Literacy Group as a tutor and small-group facilitator in the rural program. In 2009, she was hired as TLG Program Coordinator for Kitchener. Her responsibilities include new student intake and assessment, designing student learning plans, matching students with tutors and monitoring matches. She has completed the Teacher of Adults—Literacy Educator program at Conestoga College and now gets paid to do what she previously was willing to do for free…how cool is that?! Sue loves her work, and it consumes much of her time and energy. But in her free time, she enjoys reading, playing the piano and writing music. She and her husband Mark share their book-glutted home with Othello the cat and from time to time their young-adult children.
John Stackhouse
Intake Coordinator and Group Facilitator – Cambridge
John is the stereotypical Jack-of-all-Trades. With a resume that includes military service, restaurant management, contracting, and retail, John brings a lifetime of experiences to TLG. His path in TLG started as a volunteer teaching customer service, then math and language tutor, part-time staff for CAMERA assessments, contract instructor for offsite programs, and now full-time staff member.
During football season, John’s spare time is spent following his favourite NFL team. For the rest of the year, John is getting ready for next season!
Marian Baron
Bookkeeper
Marian has been the Bookkeeper for TLG since late 2016. Her background is in the Financial Industry. Her previous career was working as a Member Services Officer at a local Credit Union in Guelph. She wanted a career change so when a friend suggested working for a Non-Profit or Charity Organizations as a Bookkeeper, she decided that was definitely what she had been looking for. She is currently enrolled at Conestoga College for the Bookkeeping Certificate courses.
Marian is also a huge animal lover and started to foster rescue animals in 2013. To date she has fostered 3 cats and 2 dogs and she has adopted a total of 4 cats and 1 dog, so needless to say she is classified as a foster fail. She loves this kind of failure.
Laurie Mazur
Program (Cambridge) and Modular Program Coordinator
Laurie has a wide background in Customer Service and post-secondary education. She holds a Master of Arts in English Literature, a Certificate in freelance editing and most recently, a diploma from triOS college in Community Service Work. Laurie joined The Literacy Group in October of 2017 as an Intake and Modular Coordinator, a role she truly enjoys. Her combined academic, corporate and volunteer experiences are ideally suited to the needs of the students and the communities she serves. Over the years, Laurie has been an active community volunteer, working with such organizations as the AIDS committee of Guelph and Wellington County, the Canadian Mental Health Association and Action Read. In her spare time, she likes to walk the nature trails in Guelph and Wellington County, sing at open-mic events and spend time with her two feline charges. Laurie’s secret passion is reading ghost stories and her dream is to write and publish a ghost story of her own. Scary…
Wendy Teahen
Group Instructor. Kitchener
Wendy has been working in adult education since 2010. She has taught ESL, computer literacy, and academic upgrading courses. She got her start with The Literacy Group as a volunteer assisting with tutor training and resource development. In April 2022, she started working full-time at TLG. Her responsibilities include organizing and instructing English classes, curriculum planning , and updating TLG’s learner resources website.
Wendy is certified in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) and she holds additional credentials in eLearning Development. In particular, she holds a professional interest in using gamification to increase learner motivation. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, being outdoors, reading, and music. Wendy is pleased to work for an organization that promotes a love of learning.
Stuart Oakley
Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator
Stuart is an experienced communications and marketing professional who has worked in the public, private and not for profit sectors including two large school boards.
He is a committed life-long learner and is excited to be part of TLG.
In his spare time, Stuart enjoys playing guitar, learning new songs and writing songs. He can also be found flying radio-controlled aircraft or driving radio-controlled vehicles to stay connected to his inner child.