Study Canada K-12 Staff
Kyla Sweet, Education and Curriculum Specialist K-12
Kyla is the Education and Curriculum Specialist K-12 for the NRC Pacific Resource Center. Kyla was born in Canada and completed her MLIS at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2010. Before coming to Canada House, she was a school librarian at a French Immersion YPK-8 school in Seattle for 8 years. When she is not busy sharing Canadian resources or teaching workshops, Kyla loves baking, hiking in the beautiful PNW, and a great cup of coffee, preferably with a NYT crossword and a black ink pen. Kyla can be reached at Kyla.Sweet@wwu.edu.
Christina Keppie, Director
Christina Keppie is the Director of the Center for Canadian-American Studies as well as an Associate Professor of French and Linguistics in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages. She received her Ph.D. in French from the University of Alberta in 2008 before moving to Bellingham. She is committed to innovative teaching here on campus. Some of her favorite projects have resulted in student productions of French Acadian plays, sociolinguistic original research projects on the effects of study abroad experiences in French second language acquisition among students in Western’s French program, and a successful summer global learning program to Montreal, Quebec. Dr. Keppie’s primary research focus is the cultural and ideological identity of Francophone minorities of Maine and Eastern Canada, which she approaches through an ethnographic framework. She enjoys a healthy lifestyle of fresh air, martial arts, boot camp, cooking, and cats. Christina can be reached at Christina.Keppie@wwu.edu.
Natalie JK Baloy, Associate Director of Transboundary Initiatives
Natalie is the Associate Director of Transboundary Initiatives, which includes the Border Policy Research Institute, the Center for Canadian-American Studies, and the Salish Sea Institute. She is committed to facilitating place-based learning and connecting across disciplines, borders, and boundaries. Originally from Ohio, Natalie has lived on the Pacific Coast for over ten years. She completed her Masters and PhD in cultural anthropology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, living on Orcas Island while writing her dissertation. From 2014-2016, Dr. Baloy was a postdoctoral fellow with the UC Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California. At WWU since 2016, she continues to engage in work related to ethics, colonialism and its ongoing impacts, and regional history and politics. Among her favorite places in the Salish Sea are Yellow Island and Pebble Beach Reserve on Galiano. Natalie can be reach at Natalie.Baloy@wwu.edu.
