Meet Our Team
Heather MacDonald
Writing Center Coordinator
BA Honours English Language and Literature,
St. Thomas University, 2002
MA Folklore,
Memorial University, 2008
Bachelor of Education,
St. Thomas University, 2010
About: Before coming to the Writing Centre, Heather taught Adult Education, and was also the Learning Strategist at STU for 3 years. Her father graduated from STU in 1974, so she is a second generation STUdent, and feels like this is home. When she is not working with words, Heather is running after her adorable twin girls.
Writing Pet Peeve: Overuse of the word “literally.”
Random Fact about Heather: She plays tin whistles and sings in a Celtic folk band. She recently bought an accordion and is taking lessons.
Brandon Case
Criminology, Criminal Justice, Human Rights
About: Brandon graduated from STU in May of 2020 and is now attending the law school at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At STU, Brandon honoured in Criminology & Criminal Justice and minored in Human Rights. His thesis topic involved studying the construction of accused persons in HIV non-disclosure cases as dangerous, devious and deviant. In his free time, Brandon is probably listening to pop music or planning what concert to attend next.
Writing Pet Peeve: Confusion between your/you’re and there/their/they’re.
Random Fact about Brandon: Brandon’s (somewhat?) guilty pleasure is his obsession with Taylor Swift. Let’s be honest, he’s not guilty about it at all.
Ethan Nylen
Honours in Great Books, Major in Political Science
About: Ethan is a fourth-year student with completing an honours in Great Books and a major Political Science while minoring in Philosophy. Ethan is involved at St. Thomas in the Writing Centre, the Admissions team and as a Cross Country Athlete. Some of his pass times are reading, running, and playing hockey.
Writing Pet Peeve: Ethan's writing pet peeve is run on sentences.
Random Fact about Ethan: Ethan really enjoys roller coasters and hopes to sky-dive some day in the future, despite his fear of heights.
Patricia Forestell
English Language and Literature, Sociology
About: Patricia is a fourth-year student, honouring in English Literature and minoring in Sociology. In future, she would like to pursue a PHD in English Literature at the University of Toronto, work in the publishing industry, and one day become a published author. She grew up in Fredericton, and spends most of her time reading and writing.
Writing Pet Peeve: Not using enough punctuation, and run on sentences.
Random Facts about Patricia: She was born in Toronto, and lived in England for three years.
Kristina Iurchenko
English Language and Literature, History
About: Kristina is a third-year student double honouring in English and History. She wants to pursue a career in the education field. Kristina loves to travel and explore new places, but she also likes to spend her free time hanging out with her family and friends, reading, drawing, watching TV shows, and jogging.
Writing Pet Peeve: Overuse of commas.
Random Fact about Kristina: Kristina is fascinated by languages -- she aspires to learn as many as she can.
Rebecca Dykeman
English Language and Literature, Great Books
About: Rebecca is a third-year student planning to pursue double honours in English and Great Books. She has previously been involved at St. Thomas as a contributor to The Aquinian and as a STUSU Help Desk volunteer. She grew up in Woodstock, New Brunswick, and enjoys reading, writing, watching Netflix and YouTube, and listening to music.
Writing Pet Peeve: Incorrect apostrophe placement and comma splices.
Random Fact about Rebecca: She loves doing tarot readings for herself, though she still hasn’t learned how to read the cards without using a guidebook.