Vanessa Russell

I spend a lot of time coordinating meetings. This involves making and taking phone calls, responding to and sending emails. I also create different documents including spreadsheets, word documents and tables. I am responsible for coordinating the training opportunities for our staff. Our staff receive this training to get their certification in the fields of Vision Rehabilitation Therapy, Low Vision Therapy and/or Orientation and Mobility. This is important because they are the front line people who work with people who are blind or partially sighted to develop or restore key daily living skills. This helps improve their independence, safety, mobility and emotional well-being.

I am the only person in this particular role. As a result, I often rely on my team, my manager and those who work around me to understand what the greatest needs are and how to go about meeting those needs. I work from home a lot as most of my work is on the phone and on the computer. This role is national and so a lot of my contact is with people in other provinces as well as learning institutes in the United States. I had to become familiar with tools and software within the Microsoft Office suite. I use these tools to develop agreements, handbooks, and budgets. I also develop plans and tools to analyze our current practice and review our strategies for providing the best quality service to our staff and our clients.