Research Students
Overview | Local & International Work | Teaching | Graduate Advisement | Research
Keith serves Masters and Doctorate students as their supervisor. After admission to program through the College of Graduate and Postgraduate Studies at the University of Saskatchewan, these students qualify to begin their research work. After attaining required course work, they then move through four basic phases: 1. proposal defence, 2. data collection, analyses, and writing, 3. dissertation defense and then (finally...) 4. graduation. These are daunting journeys, accompanied by 3-5 Committee members, their advisor/supervisor as well as an external examiner (in case of doctoral students, from another university).
BOB BAYLES
Bob Bayles, MBA, CPHR, SHRM-CP, is a PhD candidate in the Department of Educational Administration, at the University of Saskatchewan. As a practitioner, he has over 20 years experience in senior finance and HR roles working in both k-12 and post-secondary education sectors. His scholarly highlights include graduate instruction at the University of Saskatchewan in the College of Education and Edwards School of Business in the MBA program. His research and writing interests as well as speaking request include Enterprise Risk Management, Leadership, Governance and Human Resources. As a certified leadership coach and coach trainer he believes in people’s individual strengths. Bob has provided financial and business advice, specialized HR programs and leadership coaching throughout most provinces in Canada, and internationally in China, Haiti, Hong Kong, India, and the United States. The 2019 CPHR Saskatchewan Distinguished Career Award, highlights Bob's vocational impact.
KENISHA BLAIR-WALCOTT
Kenisha Blair-Walcott is a mother of two beautiful daughters, Eliana-Jade, 3 years old and Hannah Elizabeth, 10 months old. She is from the culturally rich island of Jamaica located in the Caribbean Sea that boasts the fastest man on earth, birthplace of the music genre Reggae, and some of the warmest most resilient people on earth. Like the poet Howard Pyle describes it,
she (Jamaica) has enjoyed a fever of prosperity founded upon those incalculable treasures poured into her lap by the old-time buccaneer pirates. She has suffered earthquake, famine, pestilence, fire and death: and she has been the home of cruel merciless slavery... Other countries have taken centuries to grow from their primitive life through the flower and fruit of prosperity into the seed time of picturesque decrepitude. Jamaica has lived through it all in a few years.
The original inhabitants of Jamaica are believed to be the Arawaks, also called Tainos. They came from South America 2,500 years ago and named the island Xaymaca, which meant “land of wood and water”. Today, our people can be described as a mix of races intertwined by our controversial history and includes, descendants of Arawaks, Africans, Europeans, and Asians. Our current population is estimated to be 2.935 million (approx.) based on the World Bank’s 2018 census.
Kenisha is a proud graduate of the premiere post-secondary institution in the region, the University of the West Indies, where she completed her first degree in public administration with honours and a master of science degree in human resource development. She has completed a post-graduate diploma in education and training after a 10-year career in the fields of education, child advocacy and human resource development. Most of her work in education was in the area of administration at the Ministry of Education and the University Council of Jamaica. Her work at the ministry saw her playing a role in the transformation of the education sector on the education system transformation program (ESTP) committee. She was particularly instrumental in the implementation of a new performance ethos at the ministry island-wide and the ultimate implementation of a new performance management system as the director of Performance Management and Appraisal System.
It is this passion for education and performativity success of the stewards of education that motivated her current research focus of faculty success, specifically, ‘Predictors of Faculty Success: A Mixed Methods Study’. This is the topic of her dissertation, which is in its final write-up stage. She is completing this dissertation study at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S), Canada in the Department of Educational Administration under the supervision of Professor Keith Walker. This study is an explanatory-sequential mixed methods design study, in which she administered a survey to faculty members at the University of Saskatchewan. She subsequently developed themes from the findings of her survey to further collaboratively explain significant findings with selected faculty members of the University of Saskatchewan professorate via four (4) interpretation panel sessions held virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic. The final results and outcomes of the study should provide deeper insights to both faculty members and administrators alike into the determinants of faculty members’ success that may help them become more successful in their work.
JULIAN DEMKIW
Julian is born and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and lives with his wife (Susan) and two daughters (Nadia and Mariska). Julian has worked in higher education almost his entire career. After graduating from the University of Saskatchewan, he began working there in alumni relations, fundraising and student services. He has spent the last 7 years as the chief of staff to the president of the University of Saskatchewan; most recently he has moved into a senior strategist position with the president. Julian has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s of arts in rhetoric and organizational communication. Julian has taken his science and humanities degrees and applied them to his journey in social science as he focuses on his PhD in educational administration.
Julian has completed his comprehensive exams and hopes to have his proposal approved this fall to begin his research in earnest.
Having reported to three university presidents within the same university, he has become fascinated with this important position within the post-secondary landscape. In particular, he has an interest in how to better ensure success for individuals who occupy these precarious positions. Recent research tells us that the time in office for a university president is shrinking and an ever increasing number of presidents are leaving their positions before the end of their stated terms.
Although there can be many factors that contribute to a president’s success, Julian has chosen to focus on the role a university’s board of governors plays in a president’s success. More specifically, the purpose of his study is to explore how Canadian university presidents experience and understand the role a university’s board plays in the success of their presidency and to examine how that understanding might better position future university presidents for success.
To pursue this study, Julian will be conducting interviews with past and current Canadian university presidents. The goal of these interviews will be to elicit definitions of success from these presidents and to then discern from them the role that they believe the board did, or did not, play in that success.
TEGEGN LOMBAMO
Tegegn is from Ethiopia, East Africa and is married to Assefu who is currently working as a kindergarten educator in his hometown. He is a father of two sons and one daughter. Prior to coming to the University of Saskatchewan for graduate study, Tegegn earned a two-year certificate/diploma for teaching at primary school from Adventist College. He has BA and MA degrees in education leadership and management from Adama Science & Technology University and Addis Ababa University respectively in Ethiopia.
Tegegn’s work experience spans almost two decades in private schools as well as in not-for-profit organization school. He served as a teacher and principal at different levels of K-10 schools. Tegegn was employed as a secondary school principal prior to his acceptance to the doctoral programme in educational administration at the University of Saskatchewan.
His area of research interest was born out of his work experience. Some of the areas include principal’s instructional leadership practices, instructional supervision approaches, teacher’s professional development, and school improvement. In his academic journey, his first and interesting research experience was conducting his senior essay research project during his undergraduate program, entitled “Practices and problems of educational supervision in selected primary schools” in Ethiopia. This was the early stage and had given him an opportunity to think more. That was his first experience to conduct a research under the department of educational planning and management. The personal contacts that he made with some government educational experts while conducting his senior essay project also contributed to focus his attention towards educational administration. While pursuing his graduate studies, he conducted his thesis research under the title “Practices of clinical supervision and its role in the professional development of primary school teachers”.
Tegegn’s doctoral research will focus on principals’ instructional leadership practices and teachers’ pedagogical competencies. The purpose of his research is to investigate how principals’ instructional leadership practices affect teachers’ instructional skills in public primary schools. He will be inquiring into the teachers' and principals’ perspectives on how principals’ instructional leadership practices influence the teachers’ professional ability. More specifically, he will explore questions such as: How do principals and teachers perceive toward the roles of principals as instructional leaders? Do the principals facilitate different approaches of instructional supervision to support teacher’s classroom practices? How do teachers perceive the instructional supervision practices impact their pedagogical competence? Both quantitative and qualitative data will be collected and analysed concurrently. A structured and semi-structured interview, a survey(questionnaire), and document observation checklist will be used as data collection tools. Then, the results will be joined so that they may provide triangulation and complementarity on the issue.
The final work from the study may be shared with concerned government departments through publication, abstract or briefing notes. Some of the expected benefits from this project will include: valuable input for the primary schools’ administrators to understand and improve the gaps in the existing instructional supervision practices, contributing to the Ethiopian Education Office’s review of policies, programs and training opportunities related to principals such that any gaps in the instructional leadership practices might be filled. It will add to the body of literature on instructional leadership. It may also serve as a starting point for further research for those who are interested on the topic.
BETTY MUTWIRI
Betty was born in Kenya and later moved to North America approximately 30 years ago. She is married and blessed with three children. Betty is a certified professional coach and change agent with a proven track record of designing and implementing effective and value-added organizational effectiveness strategies. She is currently the director of HR Strategy Development at Saskatchewan Polytechnic. Betty has a MA in leadership and learning, a bachelor of education, and is currently pursuing a PhD in educational administration at the University of Saskatchewan. Her research interest is to explore what post-secondary institutions are doing to respond and thrive in today’s complex global environment.
RICHARD NYARKO
Richard was born in Asiri, a small town in the countryside in the mid-western part of Ghana. He is from a Christian oriented family that instilled in him and his three older siblings the value of education. His family traces its lineage to the ethnic group of Akan, the largest ethnic group in the country. He hails from the Bono Region. Like many individuals in rural Ghana, he is from low socioeconomic background, but his family is highly committed to formal education.
Ghana, the country from which Richard originates is located on the Greenwich Meridian (longitude 0o), and situated on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea in the western part of Africa. Ghana is bordered to the north by Burkina Faso, to the east by Togo, to the south by the Gulf of Guinea Atlantic Ocean, and to the west by Côte d'Ivoire. Ghana’s population is nearly 30 million people based on the Government of Ghana’s estimate in 2019.
Being the first sub-Saharan African country to break away from the shackles of the European colonialization, Ghana gained independence from the British on March 6, 1957. The country has a market-based economy with a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$134 billion (2017 estimate) and GDP per capita of US$ 4,700 (2017 estimate), according to the United States Central Intelligence evaluation in 2018. These economic figures place Ghana in the lower-to-middle income brackets. Current economic and market strategies embarked by the government enhance international trade because of significant reduction in policy barriers to trade and investment in comparison with neighboring countries in the West African subregion.
The country is endowed with natural resources, particularly minerals like gold and bauxite, and agricultural cash crops, notably cocoa, cashew, and coffee. Ghana discovered oil in commercial quantities about a decade ago, and since then its revenue has helped cushion the country’s economic needs. It is considered as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, recording an estimated GDP growth of 6.7% in 2019 based on the World Bank measures.
Ghana is a multi-party democratic country with 16 administrative regions. In 2017, the country expanded free education from pre-elementary education to high school education. Education is seen as the bedrock for success, and individuals who suffer economic hardship are those with little or no education. For that reason, educationally deprived districts bear the brunt of poverty disproportionally (Ministry of Education, 2018). Ghana has the ambition of being transformed into a ‘learning hub within the West African subregion, and therefore devotes substantial amount of its resources into education.
Richard is one of the key founders to the Asiri Rural Development Network; an organization recently established with the main purpose of contributing to improving the socio-economic wellbeing of the people of Asiri through supporting or advancing development projects in Asiri, a rural community in the Bono Region of Ghana. Richard has taught in two different second cycle (Grade 12) schools in Ghana, both on student internships. The first school was in Ghana at the Goka Senior High school, and the other school was Drobo Senior High School. He taught economics in both schools and has also worked with the Suma Rural Bank on internships. In 2017, Richard was selected by the Department of Economics Education in the University of Education, Winneba to work as a Teaching Assistant (TA). In the first quarter of 2018, he received an appointment letter to work with a financial institution, but he actually started working in the last quarter when his contract with university ended. He worked as a Project Officer of Asiri Farmers’ Co-operative Credit Union until he left for his masters’ programme in Canada in 2019. In the last quarter of 2019, he was appointed as a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) in the Department of Educational Administration in the College of Education, University of Saskatchewan where he has worked until the end of the first quarter of 2020 when the contract ended. He is am currently with the research team of Professor Keith Walker.
Richard had his basic education at Asiri Presbyterian Junior High School in the Bono Region of Ghana where he received his certificate for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in 2009. He then had an admission to study the General Arts programme at Nkawie Senior High School in the Ashanti Region of Ghana where he obtained his West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in 2013. Some of the key subjects he studied during his senior secondary education were Mathematics (both core and elective), Integrated Science, English Language, and Economics. In September 2013, he had an admission to study Economics Education at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. Having graduated with first class honours, he had an admission to pursue a master’s programme in education in 2019 with a focused concentration in education towards a master of education – Educational Administration at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. He is currently in his second year.
Richard’s research interest covers broad areas in financial and behavioral economics, and education; investment, savings, risk management in credit portfolio (loan delinquency and probability of loan defaults), co-curricular activities and students’ achievements, leadership effectiveness and wellbeing. He is currently working on the application of Behavioral Economics to study the relationship between wellbeing and leadership effectiveness. He will employ mixed method study design, particularly sequential explanatory designs where qualitative data will be collected only to elaborate on or explain the results from quantitative findings that would come out of the study. The Student t-Test, Correlation, Linear Regression, and Logistic Regression (binary/binomial, multi-nominal, ordinal,) are the key econometrics and inferential statistical methods for analysis in his studies. The population for his current study is the post-secondary students of Saskatchewan. Insights from the study will shed light on several factors that can help economists and policymakers better understand leadership effectiveness and wellbeing optimization choices. It will help save institutions some costs of programme choices for leadership effectiveness and wellbeing optimization. This will help address any imbalance between wellbeing and leadership effectiveness which may be fostered by paying unnecessary attention (either deliberately or not) to one at the detriment of the other.
WILFRED BECKFORD
Wilfred Beckford is a Jamaican who was born in the small district Mc Field in the parish of Westmoreland. He is married and has two daughters and a son. Wilfred worked as a classroom teacher from 1998-2007 and a school principal from 2007-2016. He has a diploma in teacher education, a bachelor of arts in sociology and applied relations, a master’s of Science in educational leadership, a certificate in project management and is currently in the process of collecting data for the completion of a PhD in educational administration. He has an intense passion for teaching and firmly believes that educational settings should be places where all individuals have equal opportunity to develop holistically and maximize their academic potential. Hence, his research interest is in educational leadership, teacher development and stakeholder wellbeing. He is hoping to unearth data that will assist in improving the educational settings in Canada and the world by making them warmer and more welcoming to all stakeholders.
SMART CHUKWU
Smart is currently pursuing a PhD in Educational Administration at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. His academic interests and research include student services, international students’ transitions, and adjustments, and student success in post-secondary institutions.
Originally from Nigeria – West Africa, he started as an Economics and Business Studies Teacher in a Nigerian Private Secondary (High) school for over ten years. As an international student and first-generation to Canada, his master’s degree thesis centered on the learning experiences of first-generation Nigerian graduate students at the University of Saskatchewan. He found significant differences between Nigerian students’ prior classroom experiences and the norm at the University of Saskatchewan. He completed his master’s degree in educational administration in 2019 under the supervision of Professor Keith Walker and is currently pursuing his doctorate in educational administration. For his doctoral studies, he is seeking an extension of knowledge on the impact of prior learning foundation or orientation of Sub-Saharan African international students in Canadian post-secondary classrooms.
He will incorporate constructivism to explain African students’ perception of meaningful learning, and critical race theory to explain how they differ in learning to people from other races. His goal is to investigate how African international students fare in Canadian classrooms and seek ways to address any likely gap experienced by them. His research methodology is qualitative research, using methods such as interviews and focus groups, while being attentive to quantitative methods in terms of sampling and the demography of participants. He expects this study to promote positive outcomes for inclusive education and equal learning opportunities, student engagement, and higher academic success for international students in Canadian post-secondary institutions.
LEKE IVO JINGWA
Leke Ivo Jingwa is currently a PhD student in educational administration at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. He holds a B.Sc. in sociology and anthropology from the University of Buea Cameroon, a postgraduate diploma in development studies from the University College of Leuven Limburg, Belgium and a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Leke was born in Cameroon and grew up with his parents and 5 siblings in a middle-class family. Coming from a family of educators (both of his parents are school principals), Leke has always received the encouragement and support he needs to pursue his dreams and aspirations. He holds high regard and respect for values that bring people together and views his contribution to education as a means of enabling and imparting positive change in our communities and support human development through people's leadership initiatives.
Leke is very passionate about research. Over the past couple of years, he collaborated very closely with seasoned researchers to conduct research and publish articles about Africa’s economic and development policies. Driven by his desire to inspire and stimulate leadership development at the grassroots level, he developed an interest in positive leadership and wellbeing of school staff and students.
MAHA KUMARAN
Maha Kumaran is from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. She is from a small family and has one sibling, a younger sister. Her dad was an accountant for an oil and gas company, and her mother stayed at home. Kumaran is the first in this family to go to university. Although she lived most of her life in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and she speaks, writes, and reads Tamil fluently, Kumaran’s family’s heritage is from a different state called Andhra Pradesh, where they speak Telugu. In 2014, Andhra Pradesh was divided into two states.
Kumaran is linguistically diverse as she also speaks Telugu due to her family background, and Hindi and English, as they are India’s national languages. Kumaran left India as a young bride in 1994 with her husband, who came to the University of Saskatchewan for his PhD. Apart from Saskatchewan, she has also lived in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and Kelowna and Burnaby, British Columbia. Kumaran graduated with a bachelor’s in English (S.D.N.B.Vaishnav College, 1991) and masters in English (Madras Christian College, 1993), both colleges are affiliates of the Madras University. Between 1992 and 1994, she taught English as a second language to working adults; and later taught undergraduate English courses at the college where she earned her bachelor’s degree.
After moving to Canada, Kumaran began working in libraries. Some of the libraries where she worked are The Saskatoon Public Library in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Angus L. Macdonald Library, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia; The Okanagan Library, The University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus, Kelowna, BC; and the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Burnaby, BC. She is currently working as the education liaison librarian faculty at the associate level at the University of Saskatchewan.
Ten years after arriving in Canada and after having their only son James, Kumaran completed her master’s in the library and information sciences through the University of British Columbia. In the fall of 2017, during her sabbatical year, she started her PhD courses and was officially admitted to the program in the fall of 2018. She has completed all her courses and passed her comprehensive exam. Kumaran is currently working on her research proposal. In her many years of library work in Canada, Kumaran has noticed that there is a lack of minorities at the librarian and leadership levels. Publishing is a requirement for librarian faculty at the U of S, and Kumaran’s research has focused on a lack of diversity in librarianship. Her research paved the way for her to initiate and co-establish the Visible Minority Librarians of Canada (ViMLoC) Network, the first and only one of its kind in Canada. This network has connected minority librarians across sectors such as the public libraries, regional libraries, and academic libraries from Canada and beyond.
Through this network, many ethnic/racial minority librarians have had the opportunity to collaborate on research and other professional practice activities. Her experience on diversity in librarianship, or the lack thereof, also led her to successfully guest edit and publish a special issue on diversity with the Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship. She is currently participating in the Association of Research Libraries’ Leadership and Career Development Program that focuses on grooming ethnic minority librarians towards leadership positions. Most recently, she was invited to join the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) President’s Program Planning Committee, where she will learn more about and participate in ACRL equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives. ACRL focuses on higher education initiatives, and this will be an excellent opportunity for Kumaran to learn more about EDI initiatives that will help her work and research.
For her PhD research, Kumaran proposes to investigate the reasons for the lack of minorities at leadership levels in Canadian academic libraries. Since academic libraries have a symbiotic relationship with their parental institutions, this relationship may affect how libraries set their priorities and policies regarding EDI. Academic libraries do not have the latitude to set their priorities regarding EDI. Therefore, lack of EDI in academic libraries may be a systemic issue as EDI in librarianship seems benevolent and exists more at a philosophical level in strategic plans and research. There is a lack of cohesive and sustainable diversity management plans or strategies to actively engage in EDI initiatives, particularly at the leadership level.
Kumaran aims to understand and analyze the inequities in librarianship using the critical race theory (CRT) framework. Some minority librarians have succeeded in attaining leadership positions; Kumaran’s research also aims to understand how these librarians succeeded in attaining leadership positions. She will use the Appreciative Inquiry (AI), a social constructionist methodology, to learn about these librarians’ pathways towards success. CRT and AI together in her research to find the positive practices that helped minorities become leaders despite the lack of EDI supportive policies, strategies, and practices. CRT will provide the historical groundings, and AI will provide the positivity into the future. The complementarity of these methods will redress the weakness of both methods.
KELLY McINNES
Kelly identifies as a settler from Treaty Six Territory and Homeland of the Metis. She spent most of her youth in the small farming community of Elrose, Saskatchewan where both of her parents were employed as teachers – education roots run very deep in her family!
Kelly has been fortunate to spend the vast majority of her career at the University of Saskatchewan and celebrated 25 years of service in 2018. She has had the privilege of working with students, faculty, and staff over the course of her career. Her greatest joy has always been to create new ways to support the success of those whom she serves and with whom she works.
Her educational endeavours began at the University of Saskatchewan but continued at the University of Toronto (U of T) when she and her husband moved so that he could accept an employment opportunity.
Kelly completed her bachelor of science with great distinction in 1992 at the U of T. Upon their return to Saskatoon, she continued her education at the University of Saskatchewan completing a bachelor of education (distinction) in 1994 and a master of education in 2010.
Kelly began her doctoral journey in September 2015 and intends to graduate in 2021. She is currently focused on writing and hopes to have a complete first draft of her dissertation this Fall. Her doctoral research is connected to her professional work and one has informed and continues to inform the other. The title of her dissertation is “Exploring the culture of decanal search processes: A search for excellence”. Her desire to explore this topic is borne out of the academic literature which suggested that decanal turnover is problematic and her observations of increased turnover of academic deans at the University of Saskatchewan. While some turnover is healthy, it is well-established that high turnover is costly in terms of morale, productivity, and money.
Kelly’s research will be conducted within a qualitative paradigm adapting a constructionist grounded theory case study. The research participants included purposefully selected individuals involved in decanal searches that occurred during 2014 – 2017 (inclusive) excluding student representatives and members of professional organizations. Data from the interviews and focus groups was collected and analyzed over a period of about fifteen months.
Kelly hopes that her research will address identified shortcomings in the literature through scholarly attention on decanal search processes and provide practical suggestions for refining decanal search processes to avoid the cycle of “rinse and repeat” that has become all too common.
DARCIA ROACHE
Darcia is from the island of Jamaica and worked for private and public sector organizations in Jamaica as an accountant, director of administration, and acted as chief executive officer. She also worked in the educational fraternity in Jamaica as research supervisor, second examiner, course coordinator, and associate faculty for the University of the West Indies, the University College of the Caribbean, the Management Institute for National Development, and the HEART Trust/NTA Training Institute.
Darcia’s passion for administrative work, education, and learning led to her completion of a doctor of business administration (DBA), master of business administration (MBA), bachelor of science in business administration (BSc), and an associate of science (ASc) in business administration. To fulfil her career goal of becoming a professor she has embarked on a PhD in educational administration at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
Darcia is supervised by Professor Keith Walker in the Department of Educational Administration. Her dissertation is focused on educational leaders and teachers’ success. The purpose of her qualitative study is to explore the extent to which two constructs (self-determination theory and psychological contract) are perceived to provide insights into facilitation, motivation, and expectations (capacity, workplace, and motivation) that help teachers succeed – beyond explanations associated with earlier traditional theories of motivation.
Darcia has a strong belief and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that he guides, prepares and orders her steps. Hence, she trusts him for her entire life’s journey.
MARGARET CLARKE
Margaret Clarke, PhD (Candidate) has an interest in clergy resilience and wellness. Margaret is currently completing her Ph.D. in Educational Administration at the University of Saskatchewan. Her doctoral dissertation, Understanding Clergy Resilience, is a mixed-methods study that seeks to understand the current nature of Canadian clergy resilience and wellness and to support data informed clergy resilience development through post-secondary training, ongoing professional development and individual care. Margaret finished her data collection in the summer of 2020 and is currently in the midst of writing up her research findings.
Margaret is an Assistant Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy and Counselling and Programs Coordinator at Briercrest Seminary. She is a Registered Marriage and Family Therapist (CAMFT), a Clinical Fellow (AAMFT) and Approved Supervisor (CAMFT, AAMFT). Margaret grew up in Alberta and has also lived in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. She currently lives in Airdrie, Alberta with her husband of 29 years and her young adult children live nearby.