Donaleen began her professional life as a Junior High Social Studies and Language Arts teacher in St. Albert, Alberta, Canada. She loved teaching but felt limited by the public-school system, and so left the security of its four walls for the open road of freelance life.

After experimenting with a number of different jobs, from being a researcher for an anti-pollution organization, to being the Executive Assistant for Alberta’s Human Rights and Civil Liberties Association, to serving as art director for National Film Board productions, Donaleen found her way into a writing career, penning award winning, internationally-distributed children’s educational TV programs for Access Network in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

In the ensuing 30 years, Donaleen has written documentaries, dramas, animation scripts, reports, studies, and print collateral for a variety of government, corporate, and educational clients.

She was also a creative writing instructor at the Vancouver Film School and Langara College Continuing Studies Department, and developed a number of different creative writing and journal-writing classes aimed at a range of audiences.

In addition, producers and funding agencies have commissioned her to review thousands of television and feature film scripts in every genre, and she was Story Editor for the fifth season of the CBC/Disney co-production, Danger Bay.

But the toughest assignment of all was one she gave herself. In 2004, her younger brother, Steve, died by suicide. Wanting to bring meaning to this devastating loss, she wrote Did You Know I Would Miss You? – The Transformational Journey of the Suicide Survivor and has just released an updated second edition.

Donaleen says that the death of her brother, whose exceptional creativity didn’t get a chance to blossom in his lifetime, prompted her to be twice as joyful and twice as creatively committed as she might otherwise be.

Becoming certified as a creativity coach and as a Feng Shui consultant reflects that commitment. Like the act of writing that still stirs and captivates her, these pursuits are about living a more engaged, more conscious, more meaningful life – a life in which we embrace all that we are.

Supporting those who choose to live such a life makes Donaleen’s heart sing.