Registered Nurse @ Interior Health Authority

Rae has worked as a Registered Nurse for over 40 years and has retired as of January 2020. His career has taken him from Ontario, Canada to Dallas, Texas and eventually to where he has settled in Kelowna, British Columbia.

37 of those years have been working within the field of mental health/psychiatric nursing. He has worked in a large provincial psychiatric hospital in specialty areas such as admission wards with acutely psychotic patients, psychogeriatrics i.e. elderly mentally ill patients, developmentally delayed adults with extreme behaviour problems and psychosis and patients with substance abuse and alcohol dependencies. He has managed a community-based specialized residential facility offering life skills training to chronically mentally ill individuals and has also conducted a considerable amount of therapy and counselling during his career.

As the saying goes, "Rae's been there … done that!" Rae used to be crippled by fear of public speaking and would do anything to avoid it. Luckily for him a friend told him about Toastmasters. For the past 25 years Rae has been honing his communication skills, taking on increasingly challenging speaking opportunities. He has developed a passion for speaking and helping others to increase their self-confidence and speaking skills to do the same.

If you have the time, Toastmasters is the world's most economical provider of communication & leadership training. If you don't, then perhaps engaging a personal speech coach is the best investment for you. Toastmasters provides excellent socialization opportunities and a self-directed educational program. Some people require more support to get past their fears and to move on to skill developing. Perhaps that applies to you?

Rae is a Toastmaster Extraordinaire

Rae has been very active in the Toastmasters International organization for over 25 years. He has taken on progressively more challenging leadership roles and opportunities while honing his communication skills at the same time.

He is currently serving as the D21 Toastmasters Webmaster, a role he previously held for some 7-8 years. He served as the D21 Public Relations Manager for (17-18).

As an experienced leader he serves as Toastmentor and mentors fellow Toastmasters at all levels of the district. He has been involved in the past dozen or so D21 conferences in one capactity or another, notably in operating the on-line registration system and the conference websites.