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 (for 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 Bachelor of Journalism degree 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 Montréal. 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, as well as Skills for College English at George Brown College. Kakonge has also taught ESL at Sullivan Language Learning Centre in Montréal, Institute Provincial in Montréal and TEC Inc. Other teaching experiences include the day programs in Seneca College’s and Centennial College’s journalism programs. With Seneca she taught York University students in the joint program and with Centennial, University of Toronto students in the joint program. She has also taught Dramatic Writing at Ryerson University’s Chang School of Continuing Education. Recently she taught Magazine Journalism and Journalism Career Management with Centennial College. Both courses were taught online.
Kakonge is a PhD student at OISE/University of Toronto in Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Development. Kakonge is working on her dissertation with a survey completed with 100 responses, media interviews and is currently managing the first-ever online course about black hair politics. She recently received a TESOL certificate from LinguaEdge and 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 Québecor 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. She worked as an Assistant Editor on the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy and a Teaching Assistant with the University of Toronto Mississauga campus. She works as a Facilitator with Hetta Institute (coming up again soon), and worked as an Online English Teacher with Weblish Pal and Tutor Doctor. She currently takes private clients for writing and English coaching. She also offers life coaching and services to help people write their memoir and biography books. She also worked as a Writer with the University of Toronto. In the fall of 2011 she will be teaching four sections of Global Citizenship with Centennial College, as well as working as Teacher Education Program Assistant at OISE/University of Toronto.
Kakonge is the author or contributor to 44 books that are mainly self-published and published by Lulu.com (http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged). One is published by Concordia University called Headlight Anthology. Her books are available on Amazon Kindle. How to Write Creative Non-fiction is in progress of being published by University Press of America. Journalism Stories and The Best of Donna Magazine are in process to be published by Hamilton Books. Since 2007, she has had a multimedia online magazine called Donna (http://kakonged.wordpress.com) which is currently top-ranked in Google. She has academic publications published and in process of publication with the International Conference in New Horizons in Education (where she is also a virtual presenter), The International Journal of Learning (where she is also a virtual presenter), Life Rattle Press where she recently presented at the Totally Unknown Writers Festival in Toronto and contributed to the 2011 book collection, Global Citizen Digest with Centennial College and a completed publication with Media, Mind, Society with OISE to name a few. She has presented at 21 conferences and has received approximately 19 awards in her adult livelihood.