Wendy Bancroft
I’ve been helping people tell their stories for roughly 40 years. I love hearing stories—I loved it as a journalist, as a researcher, and as a documentary producer.
As a journalist and story producer, I’ve worked for CBC Television Current Affairs in Edmonton, Toronto, and Vancouver. Most recently, I owned my own video production company, it’s about us productions. Examples of my work as a film producer and videographer can be seen on Vimeo.
As a writer, I was lead author for UBCM: The First Century, a book chronicling the Union of BC Municipalities’ 100th anniversary; I researched and wrote a biographical memoir, covering 20 years in the life of a dynamic woman with international influence; and I ghostwrote the book, Cinemazoo, a story about animal wrangler, Gary Oliver—his adventures and his quest to protect and house hundreds of exotic animals.
As a structural editor, I conducted hours of in-depth interviews with psychiatrist and author, David Kirkpatrick, to flesh out his stories and provide a narrative thread for his award-winning nonfiction, In Praise of Strong Women.
As a researcher, I specialized in in-depth interviewing, designing, facilitating, and providing the analysis for hundreds of focus groups, as well as designing and leading a two-year longitudinal study. I was privileged to do this work in the context of two national research organizations: The Angus Reid Group, and Social Research & Demonstration Corporation, or SRDC. Examples of my research can be seen at SRDC (search for my name).
For the past 10 years, I’ve been helping others write about meaningful times in their lives using a method called Guided Autobiography (GAB).
I am a certified Guided Autobiography Instructor, one of roughly 600 graduates of the Birren Center for Autobiographical Studies. I hold a master’s degree in political science from the University of British Columbia, and I am a member of the International Center for Life Story Innovations and Practice (University of Connecticut). In 2022, I was honoured to receive the James and Betty Birren Award for Excellence in Practice, from the International Center for Life Story Innovations and Practice.