FALL-1 2026
Ingrid Birker worked at the Redpath Museum at McGill University for over 40 years and continues sharing her love of nature as an accredited Forest and Nature School Practitioner. In the last 2 years she has provided forest school sessions and guided outdoor explorations for a diverse group of participants including the Grade 6 students at Kells Academy, the young forest campers at Explorations Learning and the adults from the Montreal Native Women’s shelter and the Shul Ruelle congregants in NDG. Her experience as an outdoor educator started with her book about finding Fossils in the Building Stones of Downtown Montreal. This was converted into an online downloadable interactive walking exploration in 2021 and has been viewed over 4000 times. The other downloadable GIS StoryMaps she has published include: Quebec’s Mushrooms, Minerals, Trees, Biodiversity and McGill’s Secret Science Spots.
Francis X. Charet has a PhD in Psychology and Religion and has taught at a number of universities including McGill and University of Ottawa and has lectured widely. For many years he was a faculty member at Goddard College in Vermont, the Coordinator of the Consciousness Studies concentration that integrates psychology, neuroscience and the humanities, and until his recent retirement the chair of the Goddard Graduate Institute. He has been a long-time lecturer at E.N.C.O.R.E.
Lilian Elvir is a Docent at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, an entrepreneur and former Art Consultant at Galerie de Bellefeuille. She has studied Fine Arts at Concordia University and Carleton University. As a docent, Lilian was accepted into the MMFA Association of Volunteer Guides in 2018. She had provided guided tours annually for the past 6 years and organized tours to galleries and private collections for the other museum guides across Montreal. She has visited many of the major museums internationally on her travels across Europe, Asia, Latin and North America. Lilian’s teaching approach is to share her passion and interest in an open engaging format. She continues to develop her painting skills, further adding to her knowledge of the craft.
Margo Godin had a career in the corporate world, and at the same time also studied painting, drawing, print making, collage and assemblage in Montreal, New York, Italy and Mexico. Margo chose art as her full-time career and has been active in her art practice and teaching for over 30 years.
Deanne Hall-Habeeb has spent 30 years in Bahrain teaching art to high school and elementary students as well as developing her own practice. She holds a BA in Art and Art Education. Deanne has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in USA, Bahrain and Turkey. In Quebec, she has had many solo exhibitions and has also given workshops on her fabric collage techniques. Deanne has worked in and taught various media: etchings, woodcuts, pen and ink, pencil drawing, fabric collage, painting in oil, watercolour and acrylic. Now in Montreal, she happily teaches at E.N.C.O.R.E.
Bruce Horne is a Life Master and an accredited teacher and bridge director of the American Contract Bridge League that covers all of USA, Canada, Mexico and Bermuda. He has been playing bridge for over 55 years and has taught many groups throughout Montreal.
Lucienne Kroha taught modern and contemporary Italian literature at McGill for over 30 years, as well courses on the recent world literature of migration. She is the author of two scholarly books - The Woman Writer in Late Nineteenth Century Italy and The Drama of the Assimilated Jew: Giorgio Bassani’s Romanzo di Ferrara - as well as numerous journal articles in both English and Italian on related subjects, including the novels and theatre of Luigi Pirandello.
Roxanne Martel has a Bachelor of Music, from McGill and a Fine Arts Diploma from the University of Calgary and was awarded a scholarship at the International Kodály Institute in Kecskemét, Hungary. She has sung with the Ensemble Musica Orbium since 2002, and has enjoyed performing with other prestigious ensembles. Her conducting experience has included the Beckett Players, the Labrador City Community Choir, and the Mount Royal Ladies’ 39 Chorale and several church choirs. Roxanne was also music teacher and choral director at The Sacred Heart School of Montreal for 29 years.
Shizuyo Okada has a BA Hon. & M.T.S. with 500 hour-level designation as a Certified Yoga Teacher and Master Level Meditation Teacher. She is an advocate of transformation yoga and meditation. Highly versatile in her experience with different types of practices, Shizuyo believes in teaching the style and approach to yoga that is most suitable for the needs and aims of the individual or the group. She is also the regional director of Yoga Alliance International for North, Central, and South America.
Georgia Remond is a life skills coach with a focus on restoring resilience after loss and transformation. Through her workshops she guides individuals toward finding the courage to face life’s changes, explore creative expression and cultivate deeper connections with nature as pathways to healing. In her former career, Georgia served as an Executive Director for a non-profit organization and as an instructor at McGill University, bringing both heart in community and structured programs to her coaching practice, blending insight with a deeply human, intuitive approach to guiding people through change.
Bruno Paul Stenson is a social historian who has been giving entertaining lectures since 1984. A fluently bilingual graduate of McGill and Concordia universities, he has earned Bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and in History, a Master’s degree in History, and a diploma in Public Relations Management. His public education efforts earned him the Museum Volunteer Award from the Canadian Museums Association in 2015, the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers from the Governor General of Canada in 2016, and the Château Ramezay Centennial Medal from the Château Ramezay Museum in 2016. His many popular lecture topics include social history, science, and music.
Bob Wegner is a multi-instrumentalist, historian, writer, editor, archival researcher and radio show host. Highlights of his musical career include being selected by Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor to play guitar in multiple incarnations of the “We Will Rock You” musical. Bob’s coffee table book and comprehensive history of the legendary rock outfit Max Webster called “High Class” was endorsed by the band’s frontman Kim Mitchell, reviewed by many of Canada’s biggest media outlets, and is now available i its expanded second edition after selling out the first pressing. His radio show on Montco Radio in Pennsylvania called “Bollocks with Bob” reached thousands of listeners, and he is credited in no less than a dozen books, publications and productions.
Colin Young has over 20 years of study in Chinese Martial Arts: Tai-Chi, Kung Fu and Chi-Kung. He has studied at Concordia University and in China. As well as teaching at ENCORE, he has developed many partnerships and contracts in Montreal with hospitals, senior residences, rehabilitation centres and the Montreal recreation department. Over the years, he has built up a strong reputation not only with his knowledge, but with his unique way of teaching Tai Chi and Chi Kung, his creativity and his ‘‘joie de vivre’’.