Donna Kay Kakonge, M.A.
– Sole Proprietor www.donnakakonge.com
Core Competencies:
Education Journalism
Broadcast Writing
Book Publishing Visual Arts
Since 1992,
Donna Kakonge has freelanced in the cultural and performing arts, as well as
worked in the government sector. She began by working on a breakthrough show
for youth called “Road Movies” which
aired on CBC. Following this, she worked at the local, national and
international levels of both CBC Radio and Television, mainly in Toronto.
Kakonge was involved with the start of a first-ever morning show aired on shortwave
to sub-Saharan Africa called “African Eyes.” While an announcer/producer for
this show, she was sent on special assignment to Edmonton to meet Canadian
diplomats and Nigerian author/activist Dr. Wole Soyinka.
Kakonge has
also worked for the Discovery Channel, Discovery Channel International,
Vision-TV (now S-Vox), and the BBC. She keeps up with the latest technology in
broadcasting by maintaining a podcast online and has produced a CD of radio
documentaries, as well as two audio downloads narrated by her that are
available on Lulu.com.
She has done
television appearances as a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and
Long-Term Care’s Tele-Health program through commercials that aired all over
Ontario, as well as guest appearances on the W Network, Food Network and
Breakfast Television. She has been a fashion model for print and runway,
represented by Tony Eastwood Talent Agency which also represented Neve Campbell
at the same time. She has done art
modeling for the Toronto Art School, Etobicoke School of the Arts, Durham
College, Arts and Letters Club, Maxx the Mutt Animation School and many others.
Art modeling
was not Kakonge’s first time in the classroom. She assisted in teaching undergraduate
and graduate students at Carleton University in Ottawa. She also received a BJ
from this school and received an award funded by now Senator Pamela Wallin. She
assisted and also had sole-responsibility for classes taught at Makerere
University in Kampala, Uganda, as well as closer to home at Concordia
University in Montreal. She speaks French fluently.
She has
taught journalism at the University of Guelph-Humber and Humber College. She
has taught Canadian broadcasting and online marketing at Trebas Institute.
Currently, she teaches at George Brown College in continuing education and the
day programs in Seneca College’s and Centennial College’s journalism programs.
With Seneca she teaches York University students in the joint program and with
Centennial, University of Toronto students in the joint program.
She has a Master
of Arts degree in media studies from Concordia University where she built a
website back in 1999 called Salon Utopia that included her own artwork,
photographs and creative stories. She has also taken numerous courses in
languages, creative writing, script-writing and broadcasting. She recently
received a Quebecor Documentary Fellowship that ended in 2009. She has
presented at many conferences and worked for the provincial government in the
Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration.
Kakonge is
the author of 37 books that are both self-published and published by Lulu.com (http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged). They are also available on Amazon
Kindle. Since 2007, she has had a
multimedia online magazine called Donna (http://kakonged.wordpress.com) which
is currently top-rated in Google.