Have you met Cynthia, Learning and Development Consultant in Human Resource Services? Spend the next 2 minutes getting to know her a little better.
When Cynthia met me at University Terrace, she was accompanied by her 11 year old apprentice and son, Connor. Cynthia is a strong believer in experiential learning and maintains that kids should start young; hence Connor’s keen-eyed presence during the interview, helping her adjust her hair and insisting that she make her silly face for the photographs.
Where is your favorite place on campus?
It’s probably near Triffo Hall. There’s the path that goes there and with the trees over it. It’s just so lovely. I love walking there, especially in the fall.
Tablet or paper?
Paper.
Name one thing you’ve brought to work from home.
Lots of things. I guess the biggest things would be my pictures, especially this one. I’ve had this in my office since Connor was this big.
What is the one thing you can’t live without?
Water, I guess.
If you won airfare to anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Probably Australia. Just to see the Barrier Reef and go on a walkabout.
You can invite anyone — alive or dead, real or fictional — to dinner. Who would it be?
The first person that comes to mind is Gandhi. I would want to talk to him about leadership and what his paradigm was all about.
If you could switch jobs with someone else on campus for a week, what would you do?
Well, I don’t get a lot of exposure to students in this role so I would want to do something that’s much more student facing. That’s the focus of our institution and I think it would be very energising to be around that aspect of university life. That’s the whole reason we’re here. So maybe a student advisor or something like that.
What does “uplifting the whole people” mean to you?
It really means that education and the opportunities that come with that should be available to everyone. Access to education is one piece of it but there’s also the ripple effect of the many aspects of what we do here. The work that we do whether its research, teaching or service has to extend out into the community and benefit everyone potentially. I think it’s important for everyone to think about the social responsibility aspect — what we do and how we influence society.
If you could solve any problem in the world, what would it be?
I think if we were to figure out how to make basic human interaction better; then a lot of other problems would be solved. If we could stop people from adopting a scarcity mentality, then we would contribute to things that really matter. There are systems that perpetuate the inability to progress because we’re always in such a competitive state.
What 3 words best describe your U of A experience?
Transformational is a big one. Empowering. And I like the word uplifting. It’s been a really great experience working here.
About Cynthia Munro
Cynthia Munro is a Learning and Development Consultant in Organizational Health and Effectiveness in Human Resource Services, where she is responsible for designing and implementing transformative experiential learning programs for faculty and staff. She is experienced in leadership coaching, facilitating team effectiveness, process improvement, and conflict resolution.
