Born and raised in British Columbia, Shannon has built her life around faith, leadership, and a deep commitment to equipping others for mission. For nearly three decades, she served in pastoral ministry alongside her husband, leading and strengthening church communities in Ontario before returning to BC in 2022. Together, they have four adult children and delight in being grandparents.
Shannon also brings 17 years of experience in banking and nearly two decades in digital marketing and communications. She has helped organizations grow through strategic fundraising, donor engagement, and storytelling that inspires action. Her ability to bridge the worlds of business, ministry, and mission has made her a trusted leader in both nonprofit and marketplace settings.
Her passion for global mission took root during a formative year in Japan, where she experienced firsthand the beauty and complexity of cross-cultural life. She later led a team to South Africa in 2008 and a women’s leadership mission to Kenya and Tanzania in 2018, experiences that continue to shape her vision for raising up the next generation of global workers.
Since joining the Canada Institute of Linguistics in 2024 as Vice President of Development, Shannon has focused on securing sustainable funding to enable students to graduate with little or no debt, fully prepared to serve in Bible translation and language development around the world. Her heart is to ensure that finances never stand in the way of calling.
Shannon is currently pursuing a Master’s in Biblical Leadership, further grounding her work in both theological depth and practical strategy.
Lezlie and her husband Sean have been members of Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL since 1995. They are involved in a Bible translation project in Africa to an unreached people group and have four children. They love being part of the CanIL community and having the opportunity to work with eager young people as they prepare for the roles God may have for them in Bible translation and minority language development.
Lezlie and Sean’s passion is to see God’s Word available to every people group in an understandable and accessible form. Lezlie says, “I am thankful for this opportunity to serve at CanIL where I can help prepare future cross cultural workers for their roles in the wonderful work of Bible translation around the world.”
Interesting fact: Both Lezlie’s husband Sean and his twin sister Bonnie married Parisians, but neither of the twin’s spouses grew up speaking French or even living in Europe. Lezlie grew up in Paris, Texas (second largest Paris in the world…and yes, it too has an Eiffel Tower…google it!) and Bonnie’s husband is from Paris, Ontario.
Education
1995. M.A., Linguistics, University of Texas at Arlington, Texas.
1992. B.A., Anthropology and Sociology, Davidson College, North Carolina.
Teaches
LING 4/581 Anthropological Linguistics: Ethnography
Randy Lebold spent two years living and working in Indonesia, first learning Indonesian and then doing sociolinguistic survey with SIL among the minority language communities in the province of Papua. After returning to live in Canada in early 2006, Randy continued to support the work of sociolinguistic survey in Papua by working remotely and taking short trips to Indonesia. During this time his energies were focused primarily on training national language surveyors and on survey report writing. Randy began teaching at CanIL in the fall of 2009.
Randy is grateful for the opportunity to work at CanIL. He loves designing curriculum, teaching, and interacting with the wonderful students that come to CanIL. It is a thrill for him to see students develop a passion for linguistics and to hear about how they plan to use their knowledge and skills to serve God all over the world. It is a joy to be involved in such a key aspect of the overall vision to see all people engaging with God’s Word in their own language. Randy also loves being a part of the CanIL community life, especially the volleyball!
Interesting facts: Besides Canada, Randy and his family have lived in the USA and Indonesia. He speaks Indonesian (level 3), French (level 1), Tok Pisin (level 1) ... oh yes, and English too.
2017-2023. PhD, Educational Studies, Biola University, California
2002. Master of Applied Linguistics and Exegesis, Trinity Western University - ACTS Seminary
2001. B.Th., Emmanuel Bible College, double major in Bible/Theology and Cross-Cultural Missions, First Class Honours, Pi Alpha Mu Award
To Appear (with Ron Kriens and Yunita Susuanto) “Report on the Lower Digul River Survey in Papua, Indonesia.” SIL Electronic Survey Reports. http://www.sil.org/silesr.
Lebold, Randy, Ron Kriens, Myo-Sook Sohn and Yunita Susanto. 2014. "Report on the upper Digul helicopter survey. SIL Electronic Survey Reports. 2014-002. 35p. http://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/56910.
To Appear (with Ron Kriens, and Jackie Menanti) “Report on the Haju Subdistrict Survey in Papua, Indonesia. SIL Electronic Survey Reports. http://www.sil.org/silesr.
2010. (with Ronald Kriens and Peter Jan de Vries) "Report on the Okaba Subdistrict survey in Papua, Indonesia." SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2010-008: 58 p. http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2010-008.
2010. (with Ron Kriens and Peter Jan de Vries) "Report on the Assue subdistrict survey in Papua, Indonesia." SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2010-024: 57 p. http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2010-024.
2010. (with Ronald Kriens) "Report on the Wildeman River survey in Papua, Indonesia." SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2010-010: 225 p. http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2010-010.
2009. (with Myo-Sook Sohn and Ron Kriens) "Report on the Merauke Subdistrict Survey, Papua, Indonesia." SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2009-018: 46 p. http://www.sil.org/silesr/abstract.asp?ref=2009-018.
LING 101 Introduction to Linguistics
LING 360 Morphosyntax I
LING-LIN 566 Principles of Sociolinguistic Survey
Larry counts it a privilege to work with highly motivated young people who want to serve in a variety of language development roles around the world. His interest in linguistics was sparked while studying biology. He found the two fields very similar in terms of their examination of form or structure and the functions of those structures. Larry had some proficiency in French and learned a tiny bit of Japanese (most favorite food items!) while growing up and has been exposed to a number of languages over the years while software consulting with SIL International and in Field Methods classes. In his travels, Larry has lived in Belgium, Cameroon, Texas, Oregon, Alberta and British Columbia.
Larry loves working with dictionaries (a field called lexicography), discovering unique aspects of each language as people try to fit the data into a variety of linguistic databases. Both Larry and his wife Kim love to spend time with students outside of the classroom, whether over a meal or in a game of ultimate frisbee. Larry has an IT background and has been involved in the development of a number of linguistic software applications. Larry says, “Whether serving overseas, in software development or in training, I find that God continues to accompany and direct me and my family on a journey towards deeper love and greater freedom through Him.”
1991. M.A. Linguistics, University of Oregon
1986. B.Ed. Secondary Sciences, University of Alberta
1984. B.Sc. Biology, University of Alberta
Assistant Vice President of Administration
Linguistics Instructor – LIN(G) 4/580 Field Methods: Data Management and Analysis, LIN(G) 587 Lexicography
Language Software Development and Training
Summer@CanIL leadership team
2001-present. CanIL – Language Software Development and Training. Comparalex, Phonology Assistant, FieldWorks Language Explorer development.
2008-2015. CanIL Director of Communications
1998-2003. Summer Oregon SIL – Field Methods staff and IT support
1996-2001. SIL International, Dallas, TX. Language Software Developer LinguaLinks, FieldWorks
1995-1996. SIL Cameroon. Language Studies Department. Archivist and language studies reports manager.
1994. Brussels, Belgium. French language study.
1991-92. Retail computer consultant
Functional typological linguistics
Language software development for descriptive linguistics
FieldWorks development: http://fieldworks.sil.org
Phonology Assistant development: http://phonologyassistant.sil.org
Comparative African Wordlist Project: http://wordlist.canil.ca
Sm’algyax Living Legacy Talking Dictionary: http://smalgyax.unbc.ca/
Snider, Keith & Larry Hayashi. 2015. Comparalex – an online comparative word list database. Poster presented at the Linguistic Society of America 2015 Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon. http://www.linguisticsociety.org/abstract/comparalex-online-comparative-wordlist-database.
Hayashi, L., Hatton, J., & Moe, R. 2011. A proposed work-flow and software toolset for community dictionary development and distribution. In K. Akasu & S. Uchida (Eds.), Lexicography: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives. pp. 150-159. Presented at the ASIALEX 2011, Kyoto Terrsa, Kyoto, Japan: The Asian Association for Lexicography.
Snider, Keith; and Larry Hayashi 2006. “The Comparative African Wordlist Project” presented at the 37th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 2006), Univeristy of Oregon, Eugene.
Maxwell, Mike, Gary Simons and Larry Hayashi. 2002. “A morphological glossing assistant.” In Peter Austin, Helen Dry and Peter Wittenburg (eds.), Proceedings of the International LREC Workshop on Resources and Tools in Field Linguistics, Las Palmas, 26-27 May 2002, 25-1 through 25-10: ISLE and DoBeS. (http://papers.ldc.upenn.edu/LREC2002/Morph_Gloss_Asst.pdf)
Hayashi, Larry S.; and John Hatton. 2001. “Combining UML, XML and relational database technologies – the best of all worlds for robust linguistic databases”. In Proceedings of the IRCS Workshop on Linguistic Databases , eds. Steven Bird; Peter Buneman; and Mark Liberman, 115-124. Philadelphia: Institute for Research in Cognitive Science.
http://www.ldc.upenn.edu/annotation/database/papers/Hayashi_Hatton/23.3.hayashi.pdf
Hayashi, Larry S. 2000 “Discovering and testing linguistic generalizations using interactive concordances”. In electronic Proceedings of the Talkbank Linguistic Exploration Workshop: New Methods for Creating, Exploring and Disseminating Linguistic Field Data. Chicago.
Hayashi, Larry S. 1991. Thesis. The relationship between event perception, dishabituation of neural models and progressive aspect in English. University of Oregon.
Hayashi, Larry S. 1989. ms. Conjunctions and referential continuity. University of Oregon. Research results cited in Givón, Talmy. 1984. Syntax : a functional-typological introduction. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: J. Benjamins Pub. Co. pp.849-850.
LING-LIN 587 Lexicography
Jamie was born and raised in Washington State, just a few hours south of the border. She felt called into missions, and particularly to Africa, shortly after coming to know Christ in her early teen years. After several several short-term trips during high school and college to various places (Ukraine, Romania, West Africa), she headed to Tanzania with an open-ended return ticket, and a very vague idea of what she was doing. The Lord then led her to adopt a baby from Tanzania and, a year and half later at 25 years old, she returned from Tanzania with her son. Jamie landed in Colorado, immediately taking a job working with youth at a church where she met her husband, Jeremy.
Jamie and Jeremy were married in 2005, and joined Wycliffe in 2006. Their family grew, adding two daughters, as they spent time working in Kenya, Tanzania, and back in Colorado. In 2020, they moved to B.C. during the coronavirus pandemic to work at CanIL.
Jamie considers working with the CanIL Launch students a privilege. To walk alongside people embarking on their missions journey is an honor, and sending graduates out to the mission field debt-free is a worthy if not daunting task. Jamie enjoys coming alongside people to help them overcome their fears, and recognize the journey God has them on. She believes each person's story is a unique part of God’s greater plan of Redemption.
BA Liberal Studies. Minor in music. Simpson College in Redding, California.
Doug and his wife Cindy began working with Wycliffe Bible Translators as short-term assistants in 1987. They served a four year term in the Philippines from 1998 to 1992. In 1992, they became members of Wycliffe, returning to the Philippines in 1993, where Doug served as Manager of Software Development and Training. Since 2002, Doug has served at CanIL in IT, first as the Manager, and later as Director of Strategic Data and Technology Services.
B.App.Sc. University of British Columbia
2022 Post Graduate Diploma in Research Methods, University of Bristol, U.K.
2021 PhD, Education, University of Bristol, U.K.
2003 Masters of Applied Linguistics & Exegesis, Trinity Western University - ACTS Seminary
2002 Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language Certificate, Trinity Western University
1992 Bachelor of Theology, Master's College and Seminary
2014-present. President, Canada Institute of Linguistics
2012-2021. Doctoral Researcher at University of Bristol. Researching issues of social exclusion among minority-language communities, and policy issues related to minority-language development.
2010-2012. Director of Training and Development, Uganda - Tanzania Branch at SIL International. Focused on capacity-building and professional development in cross-cultural teamwork.
2004-2009. Training Coordinator, Uganda- Tanzania Branch at SIL International. Involved in implementing linguistic training for the purpose of language development for 19 Eastern Bantu language communities.
2001-2003. Instructor in Linguistics at Canada Institute of Linguistics. Taught and assisted in the teaching of phonetics, phonology, grammar, field methods, lexicography, and philosophy of language.
policy issues related to minoritized language communities, educational development, capability approach, critical discourse studies, language of instruction, mother tongue-based multilingual education
2023. (Socio)linguistic Citizenship in Rural Tanzania: A Perspective from the Capability Approach. In J. Gspandl, C. Korb, A. Heiling, & E. Erling (Eds.), The Power of Voice in Transforming Multilingual Societies (No. 29; pp. 123–145). Multilingual Matters.
2024. Language of instruction attitudes in rural Tanzania. In C. Reilly, F. Chimbutane, J. Clegg, C. Rubagumya, & E. J. Erling (Eds.), Multilingual Learning Assessment, Ideologies and Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 123–145). Routledge.
