Heather J. Hair, Ph.D.
Memorial University
St. John’s, NL, Canada, A1C 5S7Phone: 709-864-2562
Email:hhair@mun.ca
Web: http://www.mun.ca/socwrk/faculty/hhair.php
Heather J. Hair, Ph.D., RMFT, RSW, is an Associate Professor of Memorial University School of Social Work and an Approved Supervisor with the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. Heather came to her academic career after many years of engaging in helping relationships with individuals, couples, and families. During her work as a family therapist at an Ontario, Canada inner city children’s mental health centre, she co-created and coordinated the Brief Therapy Services and developed and supervised the Brief Therapy Community Externship. Out of these experiences emerged Heather’s ongoing insatiable curiosity about what ideas and words can co-creatively make the most of each moment with every person (while acknowledging relational power). To actualize her wonderings, since 1995, Heather has been providing practice supervision, program consultation, and skills training-workshops to providers of mental health and social services, and community groups. Her practice, teaching, and research are shaped by her belief in and critical reflection on the social construction of knowledge and meaning. Her academic and professional interests include direct practice with children, youth, and families; supervision and staff training; the intersection of practice and social justice; and the qualities of helping conversations that encourage hope, change, and growth. Her research and practice interests have met around a particular question: How can services for the mental health and relational needs of vulnerable children, adolescents, and adults become more responsive, effective, and equitable? Moreover, Heather has recently become curious about how to best engage in co-creative, respective work place interactions as well as how to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships between for profit and nonprofit organizations.