Biography

Miriam is from Prince Edward Island, in the land of Anne of Green Gables. Her family has a summer cottage in Cavendish, the birthplace of Anne. Millions of people from all over the world have come to see this beautiful seaside town. Tourism, agriculture and fisheries are the main industries of PEI. 

She studied Political Science and Economics at university. After graduation, Miriam was accepted to be a participant in the Japan Exchange Teaching (JET) Programme. She lived in the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture from 1990 to 1993, where she was an Assistant English Teacher at a high school in a town called Togi. This experience changed her life and she has had lifelong involvement with Japanese friends from Ishikawa and all over Japan. 

When Miriam returned to PEI, she owned and operated a tour company called Contact Canada PEI. The head office is in Vancouver, and there are offices in Tokyo and Osaka, Toronto and Montreal. At the same time she ran Contact Canada, she was developing her first career, which was teaching English to Immigrants to Canada at PEI’s community college. She did this job for 6 years. In 1999, she had a career change, and took a position in the regional telecommunications company, called Aliant. She is still at Aliant, and has been fortunate to have several different jobs within the same company. Most of her career was spent in Customer Service. In 2004, she was offered the chance to move to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador for work. She has lived in St. John’s for more than four years and loves the city very much. 

Her work at Aliant involved Contact Centres for much of her career. She worked in the Residential and Wireless Contact Centres, both as an agent and as a manager. Now she works in a group called Strategy and Planning. This team studies trends in the telecommunications industry and will assist to plan in the company’s direction to be a market leader now and in the future. 

Rotary has been a very important part of Miriam’s life in St. John’s. She is currently the Director of Community Services on her Club’s Board of Directors and will be Club Secretary on July 1st. She would love to talk to you about your community projects and hear what your clubs are doing. Miriam wants to sincerely thank everyone for welcoming her to the Hokkuriku area once more, to District 2610. It is her pleasure and honour to be here.