Vol. 8 No. 1 (Summer, 2026)
CWCA/ACCR Excellence in Leadership and Service Profile
The CWCA/ACCR Excellence in Leadership and Service Profile is a new CWCA/ACCR Board initiative that recognizes an individual or group who has made outstanding contributions to Canadian writing centre work. These are exceptional people who raise the bar and make all of us better. Profiles are published in the CWCR/RCCR blog and highlighted at the CWCA/ACCR AGM.
For more information on the Excellence in Leadership and Service Profile, please contact cwcaaccr@gmail.com
Written by Christin Wright-Taylor and Sarah King on behalf of the CWCA/ACCR Board.
When Clare Bermingham (she/they) first stepped into the role of Director of the Writing Centre at University of Waterloo (uWaterloo) in 2014, it was little more than a testing centre. Today, more than a decade later, the renamed Writing and Communication Centre (WCC) produces standard-bearing resources for writing centres and writing centre professionals across the country. Colleagues at uWaterloo celebrate Clare’s bold and inclusive leadership, while Canadian writing centre professionals look to the WCC for guidance and clarity on how to approach teaching and supporting student writing.
Working with Clare means working with a leader who brings both strategic insight and genuine care for staff and students. –Jirina Poch
Current supervisors, staff, and campus partners unite in praising Clare’s ability to lead boldly and strategically while never sacrificing a people-centred ethos. Jirina Poch, who has worked with Clare for 12 years, states, “Working with Clare means working with a leader who brings both strategic insight and genuine care for staff and students.” Marlee Spafford, former Associate Dean of Science for Undergraduate Studies, says, “Clare helps make changes, while maintaining relationships. It is challenging to do either and much harder to do both.” Similarly, Nancy Collins, Head of Research and Learning at the University of Waterloo Libraries, summarizes Clare’s unique ability to balance strategy with care in this way: “Clare is a visionary and deeply compassionate leader who has transformed writing services and support at Waterloo.” Across interviews, three themes emerged: Clare’s ability to anticipate and lead dynamically through change, their ability to bring disparate campus partners together to effect meaningful collaboration, and their ability to prioritize inclusive student supports.
Clare Bermingham and the success of the WCC offer living proof that empathy, innovation, and excellence can be mutually reinforcing, not competing values.
As the leader of the WCC, Clare has not simply responded to change, but anticipated it. Nadine Fladd, who has worked with Clare since 2015, shares that Clare “is usually three to four steps ahead … when it comes to strategic thinking because [they have] a keen sense for what’s on the horizon.” Both staff and supervisors share examples of how Clare’s insights have proven prescient at key moments of transition for the WCC and broader uWaterloo community. When Clare took the helm of the WCC, they understood that in order for it to have longevity it must offer more proactive support programs in classrooms, more stable staffing models with permanent roles, and more substantial student-facing campus programming. Later, Clare could see the range of possibilities for supporting students with multimodal communication and implemented an identity change for the centre, moving it from the “Writing Centre” to the “Writing and Communication Centre.”
Clare’s ability to lead strategically not only benefits their staff, but has set them apart as a respected leader among colleagues. Angela Rooke, Manager of Academic Success and Retention, has worked with Clare for 12 years and notes that, “under Clare’s leadership, the WCC was the first student support unit at Waterloo to publish guidance on generative AI, launching Using ChatGPT and Other Text-Generating Artificial Intelligence in 2023.” These resources not only positioned the WCC as a leader on campus but also as a leader in Canadian writing centre studies, providing valuable models for other writing centres to follow. CWCA/ACCR Past President and UTSC Writing Support Coordinator, Dr. Sarah King, writes that “our student support pages include links to many of WCC’s resources, and both librarians and writing instructors at UTSC regularly refer students.”
Clare … support[s] good ideas, no matter whose idea it [is]. – Mario Coniglio, former Associate Vice-President, Academic, University of Waterloo
Over and over, supervisors praise Clare’s ability to lead dynamic, often complex, cross-functional teams. Mario Coniglio, former Associate Vice President, Academic, remarks that “Clare is a team player in every sense of the word.” He shares how Clare developed a strategic plan for the WCC that included much stakeholder consultation, noting how deftly Clare “guided the plan development to ensure that detractors would eventually get on board with the changes that were coming.” Jeff Casello, former Associate Vice President Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs, confirms this observation: “Clare … support[s] good ideas, no matter whose idea it [is]. [They] regularly explore novel ideas and, subject to realistic resource limitations, deliver remarkably impactful programming for the University.” Pam Charbonneau, Director of uWaterloo’s Student Success Office, agrees: “Two words I would use to describe Clare’s leadership style are thoughtful and collaborative. [They] bring a reflective, values-driven approach to [their] work and consistently engages colleagues in meaningful dialogue and shared problem-solving.”
Finally, Clare’s leadership has redefined writing support as inclusive, developmental, and central to student success. Chris Read, Waterloo’s Associate Provost, Students, shares that “Clare shows up regularly with determination to improve our students’ experience and understands how to lead their team to do just that.” Pam Charbonneau has seen this firsthand, and observes that Clare “advance[s] a vision of writing support that is developmental, inclusive, and integrated across the academic journey. This has had a meaningful impact on how students and colleagues across campus understand and engage with writing as a core academic skill.” Maša Torbica, Manager of Undergraduate and Peer Tutor Programs at the WCC, sees this from a staff position, and reflects that “Clare combines a people-first ethos with a proactive mindset. [Their] leadership reflects genuine care for colleagues and students, a sustained commitment to anti-oppressive pedagogies, and strategic application of [their] disciplinary expertise.” Sarah Menzies, a Writing and Communications Advisor in the WCC, also appreciates how Clare’s leadership broadens the work of their staff, saying that Clare’s leadership, “consistently reinforces the idea that writing support should not be about enforcing narrow or exclusionary standards, but about recognizing and valuing the diverse linguistic resources students bring to their work.” Clare’s commitment to inclusion extends to their work on the CWCA/ACCR Board, where as the President (2020-2022) they led the Board in responding constructively to calls for change from BIPOC members, and collaborated with the newly created BIPOC Caucus to revise the CWCA/ACCR Statement of Commitment to Antiracism.
Underpinning all of Clare’s strengths in proactive, strategic, people-centred leadership is the foundation of care they create for their staff. Repeatedly, staff comment on the supportive and empowering culture Clare creates with their leadership. Under Clare’s mentorship, Nadine shares how her teaching practice and research interests were expanded and enriched. Jirina shares that Clare’s “thoughtful leadership with regular check-ins and approachability” make them a “trusted presence for the entire team.” Perhaps Maša says it best when she states, “I truly admire how Clare maintains high expectations for the quality of our work while placing equal emphasis on our wellbeing. That balance is rarer than it should be. The culture Clare has cultivated at the WCC demonstrates that excellence and empathy are not in tension; they are, in fact, mutually reinforcing. This is the standard all leaders should aspire to, and it is why Clare so fully deserves this recognition.”
Clare’s leadership offers both a touchstone and a guide, revealing that excellence is not simply about what is accomplished, but how our work is accomplished and who is empowered along the way.
In recognizing Clare Bermingham as the inaugural subject of the CWCA/ACCR Excellence in Leadership and Service profile, we at CWCA/ACCR celebrate their record of transformative achievement and a model of leadership that redefines what is possible in writing centre work. Through foresight, collaboration, and an unwavering commitment to people-centred practice, Clare has shaped the WCC into a national leader while fostering a culture in which staff and students alike can thrive. Beyond the WCC, their work demonstrates that meaningful institutional work is most enduring when it is grounded in relationships, care, and a shared sense of vision. As the field of writing centre studies continues to evolve in Canada, Clare’s leadership offers both a touchstone and a guide, revealing that excellence is not simply about what is accomplished, but how it is accomplished, and who is empowered along the way.
