Charlene Boyce

Charlene Margaret Boyce, MA

Charlene is a writer, speaker, designer and senior non-profit professional who has followed her curiosity and values through a winding career path. Twice she has left a very secure, comfortable position to take a chance on the unknown. With experience in private, public, non-profit and the regulated financial sector she brings empathy and insight seasoned by over 35 years of experience in the working world. 

In 2022, she was Valedictorian as she graduated with her Master of Arts in Atlantic Canada Studies. Her thesis was an oral history of the Misty Moon, a cabaret and show bar in Halifax that hosted over 450 bands in its 25 year timeline. She examined the ways memory works, the meaning people attach to their memories, and the ways that cultural memory and cultural identity interact. 

She has two short stories published in journals with one nominated for a Pushcart prize. She is currently pursuing a publisher for her first genre-bending novel, Hope Falls, From the Sky, a character driven mystery about a small town, a group of friends, their entangled relationships, and the UFO they saw. She has recently begun developing her thesis into a nonfiction book. 

While her preference is to customize a talk to the audience to make it more relevant and engaging, topics she can address include:

• Memory and experience: exploring why some stories persist

• Step off the Cliff: taking a chance to further your career. 

• Social media communities: the promise and the failure

• ‘Personal Brand’ was never a good idea (capitalism and identity)

• “We have an idea, now we need a logo!” Avoiding the trap of brand-before-goals.

• Building reflective practice into work

And from a storytelling point of view:

• The History of the Misty Moon

• Halifax and Nova Scotia Brushes With Musical Fame (Ike and Tina, Duke Ellington, the Doobies)

• The role of drinking establishments in HRM’s identity through history