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Diane Walsh is a professional citizen journalist and effective and practical hands-on activist.

Born in Montréal, Québec in 1971 and currently based in the Pacific North West, her background and working experience is reflected in her travels in Canada, USA and Europe.

Diane graduated in Liberal Arts in Québec in 1990 from Marianopolis, a top-ranking C.E.G.E.P, and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia to study for her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, starting in 2nd year at the University of British Columbia.

Graduating from UBC in 1993, it was then a short journey to Victoria, BC, where she completed her Master of Arts, in the Interdisciplinary Programme. She focused on the study of policy and practice as applied in various elements of governmental/social governance, and her committee comprised faculty members from the Faculty of Law, Sociology, and Human and Social Development.

Walsh, however, never intended to use her academic talent to furnish life in an ivory tower. Drawing from her early experiences of many harsh Montreal winters and even harsher examples of social deprivation, she used her academic journey to add practical assistance along the way to many disadvantaged causes.

Her facility for explaining needs and objectives shines through her writings and volunteer work. Believing that it is the hard problems that need to be tackled first, she’s never settled for the soft option in her academic or professional writing careers.

Her graduating thesis for her MA—‘The Silencing of Abortion Experience’—was as controversial and challenging in 1998 as it is today. Not a work to be read with a faint heart, it’s now published as an e-book on Kindle as well as being available on special call from the University of Victoria.

Walsh believes that to be a credible journalist, writing about difficult social policy issues, it is necessary to first have practical and professional experience of the problems at hand—and to have engaged at a grass roots level from, often competing, perspectives.

Accordingly Diane’s experience has ranged from student journalism and activism to Police volunteer work in Canada. Additionally she worked with the Victoria John Howard Society, driving ‘at risk’ youth and young offenders’ programmes and writing protocols to re-integrate young offenders into the community and workforce.

Beyond this experience she worked closely for some years with BC children and family ministries in progressing policies in the handling of ‘at risk’ families, mental illness and domestic violence.

Here again Diane’s experience combined both ‘one-on-one’ casework with the more detached work of policy analysis and protocol writing.

Along the way Walsh has ensured that her professional certifications are as relevant and current as possible.

For example her certification from Minnesota’s Crisis Prevention Institute—a certification recognized by police and public institutions across the world—has provided journalistic insight into what is truly practical in discussing and dealing with physically violent and disturbed circumstances.

Further, her qualification as a certified Private Investigator, has helped in the often lengthy process of ‘in depth’ investigative reporting.

Now, as an established and frequently published international journalist, Diane finds herself in the enviable but highly responsible position of applying her social and professional experience to the world of social and political commentary.

She’s one of a minority of writers today who has actually worked on the ‘frontline’ in seeking remedies to some of today’s social ills.

Her exposure to, and immersion in, cultures ranging from French-Canadian to British Columbian, to US and European, allow her some unique insights into what unites and divides societies and individuals.

Today, her published work can be seen as eclectic and exciting, with subjects ranging from human sexuality, marginalized people and politics to the logging of old-growth-forests.

Dane Walsh continues to find unique connections to so many facets of societal and human interaction, always combining the philosophical with the practical—and always writing from the heart.

More on Diane Walsh’s published works: www.journalist.dianewalsh-is-ageode.biz