Maura brings a broad range of administrative and public relations experience to her position. For many years she published a community newspaper serving Celtic cultural communities across North America. She has also served on the board of a non-profit organization established to assist the Irish Diaspora in British Columbia and she sits on the organizing committee for an annual Celtic festival celebrating the creativity of women and based on the Irish matriarchal figure of Brigid/St. Brigid.
Maura is the daughter of Irish immigrants to Canada. Her father arrived in the early 1950s while her maternal family arrived in 1845 as refugees from the Irish famine. They settled in the Gatineau Valley area of western Quebec where they established very strong cultural and community relationships. This is where Maura spent her formative years before migrating to western Canada. She is now married to a South African immigrant and is part of a large extended family, including five adult step-children.
