Academic

Kwantlen Polytechnic University (2003 – present): Prof teaching Applied Communication, Marketing Management, and Entrepreneurial Leadership classes in the School of Business.

• School of Business Faculty Council (September 2013 – August 2016).
• Applied Communication Department Chair (September 2010 – February 2013).
• Entrepreneurial Leadership rep on School of Business Curriculum Committee (2010 – 11).
• Applied Communication Department’s Search Committee (2007 – 13).
• “Knowledge Dissemination” advisor to Kwantlen’s “Acting Together” research project (2008 – 11), overseeing creation of project websites and multimedia content (including video interviews), and serving as ‘community producer’ for “Gangs & Youth Views from a Lower Mainland Symposium,” a powerful, youth-reported program released by Shaw Cablesystems.
• Chair of School of Business Awards Committee for its first five years (2005 – 09).
• School of Business program development specialist in digital/social media, internal and external corporate communications, investor relations, editing, and publishing.
• Funder of three permanently endowed student awards: The Maureen and George Basil Award (2005 – present) and The John Reiss Journalism Award (2009 – present), and the Luke Melvin Basil and Colby Joseph Basil Health Sciences Student Award (2023 – present).

Courses taught:

– CMNS 1105 : Interactive Communication for the Floristry and Horticulture Workplace

– CMNS 1110: Fundamentals of Business Communication

– CMNS 1120: Applied Oral Communications

– CMNS 1140: Introduction to Professional Communication

– CMNS 1216/17: Writing for the Specialized Workplace 1 & 2

– CMNS 2140: Communications for Design Professionals

– CMNS 3000: Advanced Professional Business Communications (formerly ENTR 3500)

– CMNS 3100: Technical Report Writing

– MRKT 3311: Marketing in a Digital World

University Canada West (2013 – 2015): Taught research, media, and writing in school’s MBA and undergraduate business and communications programs.

Simon Fraser University (2006): Instructor for Continuing Education Division’s “Public Companies” course. Presentation: “What Investor Relations Can Do.”

Stanford University (1982 – 85, 1993 – 96): Highly ranked teacher, TA, and lecturer.  For English Department, taught sections of Shakespeare, the American Novel, and Modern Poetry; for Writing and Critical Thinking Program I developed two popular new courses:  “American Road Writing” and “Writing and the Bill of Rights.” Selected by Writing and Critical Thinking Program to mentor new teachers among graduate students in English, Modern Thought, and Comparative Literature Departments.

Cogswell Polytechnical Institute (1994 – 5):  Taught College Composition at innovative Sunnyvale, CA technological arts and music production college. (In 2021 the university changed its name to the University of Silicon Valley.)

Villa Maria College (1986):  Taught Business Communications, College Composition, and Cinema at Buffalo, NY two-year Catholic college.

Editorial and Business

Basil Communications Inc. (1997 – 2008):  President and Founder. Provided marketing, writing, research, compliance, multimedia, and strategic-planning services for publicly traded and private companies and individual clients in Canada and the United States.

Ellavon:  An Ezine of Basic Culture (1997 – 2002): Editor and Founder.  Lauded online publication features interviews, essays, photo and art galleries, and fiction.  Numerous coups include the first online publication of Lincoln Clarkes’ epic “Heroines” photographic series and co-production of Kat Kosiancic’s landmark documentary “Be My Junkie Shadow.” Among the contributors:  Diane Middlebrook, Paul Kurtz, Robin Plan, Jonathan Mayhew, Joseph Conte, Kristi Coulter, John Glionna, and Julie Damerell.

Prometheus Books Inc. (1990 – 1992): Senior Acquisitions Editor, responsible for Trade Division of notable midsize publishing house; acquired 30 – 35 titles annually; negotiated contracts with authors, agents, and lawyers; liaised with legal team; edited select top-list books; oversaw several assistant editors and large pool of freelancers.

Free Inquiry Magazine (1986 – 1989):  Executive Editor.  Edited, acquired, and assigned articles for revered activist quarterly; oversaw arts, typesetting, and freelance staffers.  Authors included B. F. Skinner, E. O. Wilson, Rita Mae Brown, Martin Gardner, Steve Allen, Albert Ellis, and Mathilde Krim.

Community Involvement

Women Helping Women (Helping Everyone) (2004 – 2016):  Co-founder.  This Vancouver, BC not-for-profit society collects donations (particularly food, warm clothing, and toiletries) from businesses across the city and delivers them to organizations that need them for their poor and often at-risk clientele.

T-bodies (2007 – 2013): Mentor and contributor for a publishing and public-awareness initiative that celebrated F2M transgender identity. Its “Manamorphosis” calendars broke new ground, presenting striking, tasteful portraits of individuals at various stages in their transition.

Selected Publications and Appearances

Engineering Communication: A Practical Guide to Workplace Communication for Engineers, 2nd edition (2016, Cengage), coauthor with David Ingre.

On the Barricades:  Religion and Free Inquiry in Conflict (Prometheus Books, 1989). Conceived, co-edited, and contributed to selection of articles culled from Free Inquiry magazine’s first ten years. Other contributors included B. F. Skinner, Thomas Szasz, James Randi, Albert Ellis, Isaac Asimov, Karl Popper, Sidney Hook, Art Buchwald, and Daniel Boorstin. Still in print.

Not Necessarily the New Age:  Critical Essays (Prometheus Books, 1988):  Conceived, edited, and contributed to influential, popular essay collection that The Nation magazine termed “a breakthrough book.”  Other contributors included Carl Sagan, Martin Gardner, Susan Blackmore, Jay Rosen, and Paul Edwards. Still in print.

Miscellaneous Writing: Published scholarly articles in The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal, The Hundredth Monkey, The Journal of Near-Death Studies, and Sequoia (the Stanford University literary journal), as well as journalistic and arts writing for many other publications, including the Stanford Daily. Literary criticism has appeared in William Carlos Williams: Man and Poet and Robert Creeley: The Poet’s Workshop. My letters have appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, and many other publications.

Guest Lecturer (2017 to present) in Brooklyn College‘s third-year class “Parapsychology – a Critical Examination” – as an expert in the modern history of skepticism in North America.

Media: Appeared on dozens of radio and television shows, including “Larry King Live,” to promote issues associated with my books and journalism; quoted as a cultural expert in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and many other newspapers.

Conferences:

• Co-organized and made presentations at numerous conferences for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (Holland), and the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (1986 – 1992).
• Gave keynote address to Association of Humanistic Psychology annual conference at American University in Washington, DC, September 1989.
• Gave lecture titled “From Means of Production to Medium for Communication” at TALK [Third Age Learning at Kwantlen] conference, February 2009.
• Delivered presentation on “Workplace Communications – Current Best Practices” to the British Columbia Health and Education Administrative Professionals (BC HEAP) Conference in Victoria, BC, November 2014.

Certification

Simon Fraser University, Certificates of Completion for Securities Courses “Going Public” and “Continuous Disclosure,” 1997.

Hootsuite Academy, Certified Professional in Social Marketing, 2014.

Education

Stanford University, M.A. in English, 1983; passed Ph.D. oral exam, 1985; full four-year departmental fellowship.

State University of New York at Buffalo, B.A. in English, 1982, summa cum laude (3.9 GPA), Phi Beta Kappa, Haupt Memorial Prize for Best Student in English Department. Editor and columnist for The Spectrum.