Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., Cert PR
Mary P Brooke is a writer, author, editor, journalist, photojournalist and news publisher.
She is also available as a public speaker on:
- journalism and news media
- modern social issues
- urban food resilience.
Ms Brooke is the founder, editor and publisher of Island Social Trends.
Mary Brooke’s insight-journalism covers events and issues of the day, with an eye to the social ecology of our times. She writes with the BC Legislative press gallery and also freelances for other publications. She posts daily on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn, and with a Canada-US flavour on Spoutible.
Ms Brooke is available to address your group or organization about journalism and the news industry amidst social media. With a B.Sc. in foods and nutrition and a keen socioeconomic awareness, Mary is also an active speaker on urban food resilience.
Mary has lived on Vancouver Island since 1985, building her journalism career and her business Brookeline Publishing House Inc. She holds a university Certificate in Public Relations and has been a print marketing specialist for decades.
Raised her family:
Mary is the proud mother of four grown children who all now have dynamic careers in a range of today’s modern sectors including public health, fintech, animal care and the arts.
As a modern family we cherish our independent lifestyles.
Contributing to community:
Mary enjoys being an active part of the west shore community where her involvement can make a difference.
Her journalism since 2008 on south Vancouver Island has moved the public discourse forward in various areas.
Mary Brooke ran as a school trustee candidate in the SD62 west shore Belmont Zone (Langford, Colwood, Highlands and Metchosin) in 2022. When her kids were in school she provided leadership on parent PACs to get new sidewalks at two schools in SD61 (crossing a border between two municipalities) and SD62 (including expansion of the parent parking lot).
Starting in 2023, Mary is generating a community profile as a speaker about urban food resilience while building a food security section within Island Social Trends. Find out about booking a presentation for your municipality, group or business; phone 250-217-5821.
Mary has committed time, energy and expertise to supporting the arts on Vancouver Island by helping promote the annual Sooke Fine Arts Show, through her publication Island Social Trends as a Platinum Sponsor every summer since 2017; the past two years she has been part of the Artists Awards Night presentations and archives each year’s show sponsors within Island Social Trends.
Awards & Achievements:
In 2023, Mary P Brooke was nominated for the Jack Webster Foundation’s Shelley Fralic Journalism Award in recognition of her contribution to community through journalism.
During 2010-2013 Mary owned and operated a storefront print shop called MapleLine Business Centre (winning a Sooke Region Chamber of Commerce award for launching a new business during the Great Recession); the print operation has continued online since 2014, based in Langford, BC.
Starting in 2008, Mary P Brooke launched a regional news publication series that continues to this day: MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010), Sooke Voice News (2011-2013), West Shore Voice News (2014-2020), and Island Social Trends (mid-2020 to present). The print editions from 2008 to 2020 are archived in the permanent collections at the Sooke Region Museum.
During 2004 to 2009 Mary Brooke’s articles on creative living were published internationally by a Vancouver-based publisher, translated into at least five languages. She sees this as a particularly unique highlight of her writing career given the positive and uplifting impact she will have had on thousands of people’s lives.
In the year 2000, Mary’s company Brookeline Publishing House Inc was recognized by The National Post and Branham Group as one of Canada’s top 250 Internet-based enterprises for having launched an online training portal, which she operated until 2012.
In 1996-1997 Mary Brooke headed up a free training organization for web designers in Victoria, BC. She updated her digital marketing skills in 2021 through Alacrity Academy’s digital marketing bootcamp.
In 1991 Mary P Brooke wrote the inaugural curriculum for the Western Academy of Photography in Victoria, BC and delivered the curriculum in-class in 1992. Many of today’s successful government communicators and freelance writers went through that program.
In 1984-85 Mary founded and ran her own monthly business newsmagazine called Regina Commerce News, while also completing her Certificate in Public Relations at the University of Regina.
During 1981-1983 Mary worked for the Saskatchewan government — first as a nutrition public health education writer and then as a magazine/newsletter editor and speechwriter in the public affairs department of the province’s electric/gas power utility. She also served part-time as a Hansard editor.
Back in 1981 Mary Brooke won the McGeachy Prize in Journalism from the English Department at the University of Saskatchewan for ‘likelihood to succeed in journalism’. 🙂
In the late 1970s, Mary Brooke led one of the federal Food Talk projects delivering community nutrition education in downtown urban areas of Toronto. She also was an elected post-secondary campus student president, chairing a board of 12 and managing a staff of 16.
Also see: journalism bio within the Island Social Trends news portal.
Contact: mpbrooke@brookeline.com
This ABOUT page last updated: August 26, 2023