Elected to the board in spring 2021, Susan McIver brings experience and perspective from the scientific world as well from volunteer activities and professional pursuits to the arts council. With university degrees in science, Susan was a professor at the University of Toronto and professor at the University of Guelph where she also served as a department chair . “Although I became a scientist rather than an artist as was my early ambition, I have been a lifelong supporter of the arts in a variety of ways. The ‘creative spark’ necessary for original work in art or science comes from the same place,” she said.
Locally, she has served on the board of Pathways Addiction Resource Centre, Agur Lake Camp, and the Summerland Fall Fair. Previously, she was chair of a rape crisis center and shelter for abused women in Ontario. “My role often involved publicity and fundraising,” she said. In the Okanagan, she has been a coroner and a free-lance writer who has written extensively in magazines and newspapers and authored two books on patient safety. She serves on the marketing and publicity, membership and governance committees and is helping to establish Cool Arts, a program that provides opportunities for people with special needs to participate in the arts. “I am pleased to have the opportunity to help promote the arts in our community,” she said.