Lynn Sparks, BSW, MSW
Lynn Sparks graduated with her BSW from McGill University in 1986 and later completed her MSW in 2002, also at McGill. Most of her practice has been in small communities and with Inuit and First Nations people.
Lynn’s first position involved dealing with Women's Issues in Lourdes du Blanc Sablon, near the Labrador border, along Quebec's Lower North Shore. She then moved to Ontario cottage country to practice child welfare work in Peterborough and Haliburton counties.
From 2003 to 2009 she worked for the Inuit of Northern Quebec, spending 7 years living in the remote community of Kuujjuaq providing child protection services and later doing medical social work for Inuit Patient Services in Montreal. In 2009 she moved to the NWT as clinical supervisor for the Community Counselling Services in Hay River. From there she relocated to Yukon, where she remains. In Yukon she worked for the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations in Haines Junction as Health and Social Director and currently works for Ta'an Kwach'an Council in Whitehorse as Health and Education Manager.
While in Yukon she has also been a sessional instructor at Yukon College. Lynn has been an active member of ASWNC since 2009, serving on the board as an NWT Director and CASW representative. In her role as CASW representative she has helped to keep social workers in the rest of Canada aware of the concerns of the north and the realities of northern social work practice.