1994 Recipient

Shirley Muir, Creative Communications, 1981

Shirley Muir is a 1981 journalism graduate of Creative Communications. She returned to the College in 1987 to temporarily fill in for a journalism instructor and stayed for three years. Much later in her career she became a board member of the first RRC Polytech Development Committee.

Ms. Muir is currently the Public Affairs Manager of the City of Winnipeg.

Ms. Muir always attributes her thorough college training for the extensive and varied career she’s enjoyed in Winnipeg. She’s been a journalist, an editor, an on-air host and producer in radio and television.

Her greatest achievement was helping to launch and build Canada’s first Women’s Television Network. In that role she built a call-centre in the Portage la Prairie women’s prison to service WTN. This was the first such call centre in a women’s jail in Canada. The call centre trained dozens of women and allowed inmates to make income while incarcerated.

She was also the Executive Director of the WTN Foundation. In that role she created and developed several training programs for women in broadcasting – including a Girls TV Camp that operated from Halifax to Ikaluit. This work garnished the WTN Foundation three awards in 2001 including a global best practice award and two Government of Canada awards.

Over the year’s Shirley has been recognized for her thoughtful community work with two Human Rights Awards. She is also the 1995 recipient of the YM-YWCA Woman of Distinction Award. Canadian Women in Communications recognized her work with the Corus New Media Award in 2001.