Human Geographer · Educator · Founder, QuickRN

Nel
Coloma-Moya

Course Instructor, Geography·Seneca College

From a nursing diploma to a doctorate in Geography — a life spent moving between care, classrooms, and the questions that connect them.

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Landscape photograph from Nel Coloma-Moya's fieldwork and travels
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A scholar's premise

Geography is never only about maps. It is about the journeys, labour, and longing that produce a place — and the people written into it.

Nel Coloma-Moya's path to geography ran through a nursing ward, an English literature classroom, and a graduate seminar in adult education before arriving at the questions that now define her work: how migration, labour, and power produce both subjects and spaces.

Her graduate research — from a Gawad Kalinga village in Luzon to the production of Filipino cruise-ship workers — reads everyday life through feminist and Foucauldian lenses, asking how people are made into subjects, and how they resist.

Nel Coloma-Moya

About Nel

Portrait of Nel Coloma-Moya, human geographer and educator

Languages

English · Tagalog (intermediate) · Ilocano (beginner)

Nel Coloma-Moya is a human geographer and educator at Seneca College, and the founder of QuickRN. Her route into the classroom was anything but linear: a nursing diploma from St. Lawrence College in Brockville, a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature at York University, a Master of Arts in Adult Education at OISE/University of Toronto, and two further graduate degrees in Geography — a master's at York and a doctorate at Queen's. Each step added a new lens for the same questions: how people move, how they are cared for, and how they come to belong.

That throughline now runs through everything she does — every course she designs, every reading series she hosts, and every learner QuickRN supports.

Place is not a backdrop to human life. It is produced by it — by work, by movement, by the quiet negotiations people make to belong.

Educator & Mentor

Teaching as care work

In nearly two decades in post-secondary classrooms — at Seneca College, Queen's University, George Brown College, the Royal Conservatory of Music, and York University — Nel has built courses that connect global systems to students' own lives: trade, migration, sustainability, and political economy, taught not as abstractions but as forces that move people.

Her graduate research — from a Gawad Kalinga community in Luzon to the production of Filipino cruise-ship workers — reads everyday life through feminist and Foucauldian lenses. That same commitment carries into her teaching: to feminist and post-structural ways of seeing, and to taking seriously the knowledge of people who are rarely treated as experts on their own lives. Mentorship runs alongside it — as faculty mentor for Seneca's Enactus entrepreneurship group (2016–2018), and through an inter-disciplinary graduate student discussion group she developed at Queen's University.

Community Builder

Stages beyond the classroom

Outside the classroom, Nel has spent over a decade building stages for poetry, music, and conversation across Eastern Ontario. She started In To Texts, a monthly open-mic reading series, at From Here To Infinity Gallery in Brockville in August 2013, and co-founded The Circuit, a travelling music-and-poetry series, in February 2015. Both fed into Experience Art Fest, a full-day community arts festival in Kemptville that brought together poets, musicians, and photographers from four cities in June 2022.

In 2017, the same instinct for building community led her to found QuickRN — a training and certification platform that, by its own account, has helped hundreds of internationally educated nurses return to the profession they trained for.

Personal Impact

The throughline, in numbers

5
Degrees Earned

Nursing Diploma (1980) to Doctorate of Arts in Geography (2024), across nursing, literature, adult education, and geography.

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Years Teaching

Across 5 institutions, from world geography to global issues and sustainability.

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Years Organising

In To Texts, The Circuit, and Experience Art Fest — community arts events since 2013.

2017
Founded QuickRN

A training and certification platform for internationally educated healthcare workers.

Educational Journey

  1. 1980

    Diploma

    Diploma in Nursing

    St. Lawrence College, Brockville, Ontario

    Where it began: a training in care, observation, and the human body that still informs her interest in labour and the lives of workers.

  2. 1985

    Bachelor's

    Bachelor of Arts in English Literature

    York University, Toronto, Ontario

    Close reading, narrative, and critical theory — tools she would later turn on the social world.

  3. 2006

    Master's

    Master of Arts in Adult Education

    OISE, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario

    "Locating Power, Knowledge and Subject in Nursing."

    SupervisorDr. Roxana Ng  ·  CommitteeDr. Kari Dehli

  4. 2007 — 2009

    Master's

    Master of Arts in Geography

    York University, Toronto, Ontario

    "Remaking the Subject of Poverty in a Gawad Kalinga Village."

    SupervisorDr. Philip Kelly  ·  CommitteeDr. Elizabeth Lunstrum

  5. 2009 — 2024

    Doctorate

    Doctorate of Arts in Geography

    Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario

    "Production of Filipino Cruise Ship Workers."

    SupervisorDr. Audrey Kobayashi

Teaching philosophy

Three convictions that shape every course she designs.

The questions raised by her graduate research — about place, power, and belonging — did not stay in the field. They became the foundation of how she teaches, wherever she stands in front of a class.

Start from lived experience

Students learn theory fastest when it explains something they have already felt. Every concept is anchored to a real place, person, or journey.

Question the map

Critical thinking means asking who drew the lines, who benefits, and whose story was left out. Doubt is treated as a skill, not a failing.

Mentor the whole person

Education is care work. Warmth, patience, and high expectations are not in tension — together they help students believe they belong.

Areas of expertise

  • Human & cultural geography
  • Migration & mobility
  • Labour geographies
  • Feminist theory
  • Post-structural thought
  • Globalisation & development
  • Qualitative research methods
  • Adult & continuing education
  • Community-based research

Teaching Experience

Nearly two decades in the classroom

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Years in Education
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Courses Taught
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Institutions
  • 2015 — Present
    Current

    Seneca College

    Course Instructor

    Teaches across geography and global-issues curricula, designing courses that connect global systems — trade, sustainability, and political economy — to students' own lives.

    World GeographyContemporary Global IssuesGlobal Economic IssuesPhysical GeographyGreen Gold: Sustaining Nature's WealthGlobal Trade & Logistics GeographyGlobalization in the 20th Century
  • 2009 — Present
    Current

    Queen's University

    Teaching Assistant

    Runs tutorials and marks exams, quizzes, and essays for courses on development, environment, and the global political economy.

    Geography 365 — Geography, Development & Environment in the Third WorldGeography 228 — Geographies of the Global Political Economy
  • George Brown College

    George Brown College

    Course Instructor

    Taught a range of sustainability- and geography-focused courses for the general arts and science curriculum.

    Science of SustainabilityScience of ConquestPreserving the PlanetFundamental Themes in Geography
  • Royal Conservatory of Music

    Royal Conservatory of Music

    Course Instructor

    Taught World Geography as part of the Conservatory's academic programming.

    World Geography
  • 2007 — 2009

    York University

    Teaching Assistant, Toronto

    Ran tutorials and marked exams, quizzes, and essays for the department's introductory world geography course.

    Geography 1000 — World Geography

Teaching specialties

Migration & the global worker

Tracing how labour moves across borders — and what it costs the people who move — through ships, care work, and diaspora.

Reading place critically

Teaching students to see neighbourhoods, borders, and maps as things made by power, not given by nature.

Qualitative research craft

Interview, ethnography, and analysis — equipping students to gather and honour the knowledge of ordinary people.

Theory made usable

Feminist and post-structural ideas brought down to earth, so students can wield them rather than just recite them.

Events & Community Engagement

Building stages for poetry, music, and conversation

Outside the lecture hall, Nel has spent over a decade founding and running community arts events across Eastern Ontario — recurring stages in Brockville, Kingston, and Kemptville where poets, musicians, photographers, and audiences meet on equal footing.

Founded by Nel · Since August 2013

In To Texts: Poetry & Prose in All Media

A monthly open-mic reading series Nel started at From Here To Infinity Gallery, 213 King St. West, Brockville — inspired by a reading series in Kingston held at the Artel, where she first read her own poetry.

Poster for "In To Texts: Inscribed in Nature," November 26, 2014, featuring feature artist Louise Mantha and feature poet Colin Morton

Each evening pairs an open mic with visiting feature artists, widening the circle beyond poets to musicians, visual artists, photographers, and artisans. The series runs in partnership with the Brockville Poetry Guild and, for its National Poetry Month editions, the League of Canadian Poets.

"Our goal is to bring a community together... we have widened our circle by including artists of all disciplines — musicians, visual artists, artisans, and quilters who engage in creative work."

— Nel Coloma-Moya, welcome remarks, In To Texts: National Poetry Month

Featured editions

  1. Oct 15, 2014

    "In To Texts: Of Travel Bugs and Shutterbugs"

    Feature photographer and feature poet/musician (Juno nominee), presenting "What's the Big Idea!"

    "I believe good photography is the marriage of technical mastery and creative vision — capturing the breathtaking landscapes that Canada and the world have to offer."

    — , photographer

  2. Nov 26, 2014

    "In To Texts: Inscribed in Nature"

    Feature artist (acrylic painter and member of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere community, exhibiting "Self-Portrait") and feature poet , author of One Hundred Cuts, with readings from (Faith Under Fire), , , and .

  3. Apr 24–25, 2015

    National Poetry Month, with the League of Canadian Poets

    The League of Canadian Poets and Brockville Poetry Guild presented three visiting poets — , , and (Past President, League of Canadian Poets, author of Crossing Arcs: Alzheimer's, My Mother and Me). The weekend continued with a poetry-writing workshop led by Ottawa poet at the Brockville Public Library, followed by a poetry quest and open mic.

Co-founded by Nel · Since February 2015

The Circuit: Conversations Through Music & Poetry

A travelling series pairing one musician and one poet around a shared monthly theme — alternating between the Grad Club/Grad Pub at Queen's University in Kingston and From Here To Infinity Gallery in Brockville, with Spencerville added in summer.

Brochure cover for "The Circuit: Conversations Through Music and Poetry," featuring the Love, Longing and Other Things event on February 11, 2015 with musician Erika Lamon and poet Michael Casteels

Each evening opens with an open-mic sign-up, followed by a ten-minute break and then the two featured Circuit artists developing the evening's theme together. Admission is free.

"The interplay between music and poetry creates the chance for multiple conversations to take place — an evening meant to engage and delight an audience desiring to see something new, something different."

Featured editions

  1. Feb 11, 2015

    "Love, Longing and Other Things" — Grad Pub, Kingston

    Opening edition (7–9 p.m., 162 Barrie St., Kingston) with musician and poet (Puddles of Sky Press) developing the theme of love and longing.

  2. Feb 25, 2015

    "Love, Longing and Other Things" — From Here To Infinity Gallery, Brockville

    The theme continued (7–9 p.m., 213 King St. West, Brockville), bringing the conversation from Kingston to the Brockville audience.

  3. May 13 & 22, 2015

    "Stringing Words Together" — Kingston & Brockville

    Poet and musician toured the Circuit's two venues — the Grad Club, 162 Barrie St., Kingston (May 13) and From Here To Infinity Gallery, Brockville (May 22).

North Grenville Poetry Guild · Saturday, June 25, 2022

Experience Art Fest

Experience Art Fest flyer, North Grenville Poetry Guild, Kemptville, ON.

A full day of poetry, music, photography, and craft at the North Grenville Municipal Centre in Kemptville, Ontario — free and outdoors from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., followed by a ticketed evening concert ($20) at the Urbandale Arts Centre, 285 County Road #44.

Downtown Kemptville, Ontario, looking down Clothier Street toward the public library
Downtown Kemptville, Ontario — the North Grenville community that hosts Experience Art Fest.
Two community members sitting together at an outdoor table outside the Kemptville Youth Centre
Community members meeting outside the Kemptville Youth Centre.
A bench and sign for North Grenville's Giving Garden community initiative, set in a grassy field
The Giving Garden, one of North Grenville's community initiatives.
Two people sitting on an oversized Adirondack chair marking the North Grenville Chamber of Commerce's 40th anniversary
Marking the North Grenville Chamber of Commerce's 40th anniversary — the community's oversized Adirondack chair in Kemptville.
An autumn harvest display of pumpkins and squash under a wooden pavilion in Kemptville
A community harvest display under a Kemptville pavilion.
An interpretive sign welcoming visitors to the Ferguson Forest Centre arboretum in Kemptville
The Ferguson Forest Centre arboretum, part of North Grenville's community green spaces.
The Kemptville Youth Centre building, with its sign visible beside evergreen trees
The Kemptville Youth Centre — part of the local community fabric Experience Art Fest is woven into.
Poetry Tent

Hosted by

Featured poets travelling from Kemptville, Kingston, Toronto, and Ottawa: , , , , , and — plus open mic.

Workshop Tent · 10 a.m.

Led by &

A workshop on finding "comfort, meaning, and self-expression" through poetry during times of upheaval and change — alongside the Publishers Tent, The Writer's Circle, and local art and vendor tents.

Photo & Poetry Contest

Community choice, by sunflower seed

Original photography and poetry submissions were displayed for the day; attendees voted for their favourites by dropping a sunflower seed in the jar, with winners announced on stage that evening.

Evening concert · Urbandale Arts Centre

  1. 4:00 – 4:50 p.m.

    & Oxford-on-Rideau students

    Opening set created and performed with students from Oxford-on-Rideau Public School.

  2. 5:00 – 5:50 p.m.

    The Circuit, with &

    "Stringing words together" — the travelling music-and-poetry series brought to the festival's main stage.

  3. 6:00 – 6:30 p.m.

    Photo & Poetry winners announced

    Results of the day's community-judged contest, recognising the festival's photographers and poets.

  4. 7:00 – 7:50 p.m.

    Opening set ahead of the evening's headliner.

  5. 8:00 – 9:00 p.m.

    Folk-rock headline performance closing the festival.

A single day that brought together poets from four cities, a school music program, a community-judged contest, and a full evening of live music — Experience Art Fest is the largest gathering Nel has helped bring to life.

QuickRN — A Flagship Initiative

QuickRN: Transforming Nursing Education

A one-of-a-kind program to develop, train, and market qualified healthcare workers across North America — Nel Coloma-Moya's own answer to a barrier she had seen up close, built from her years as both a nurse and a researcher of migration and labour.

The Challenge

A system that left internationally educated nurses waiting

As QuickRN describes it, internationally educated nurses — Filipino nurses in particular — found themselves stuck: high exam costs, little or no preparation material, and years away from the healthcare profession they were trained for. QuickRN's stated mission is to inspire and empower these professionals and to address Canada's shortage of qualified healthcare workers.

Barrier

Cost & access

High exam costs and a lack of affordable, targeted preparation material kept qualified nurses out of the workforce.

Barrier

Time away from the profession

Years could pass between arriving in Canada and meeting the requirements to practise — time spent away from the work these nurses were trained to do.

Goal

A reliable pathway

QuickRN's objectives: give professionals the tools and confidence they need through certification and employment aids, and grow a reliable database for recruiters facing the same shortage.

The Vision

From the bedside to the classroom to the platform

A QuickRN-trained healthcare worker in scrubs sitting in meditation on a Toronto rooftop with the CN Tower and downtown skyline behind her

As QuickRN's own story tells it, the idea grew directly out of Nel's path from the bedside into the classroom: years of nursing experience in Toronto, then a return to school for a Master of Arts in Adult Education, and doctoral research into migration, labour, and the people who move through those systems. QuickRN is where that research becomes a practical pathway for others.

"There are many barriers that healthcare workers face when transitioning into Canada's labour market. My personal goal is to create a pathway for them to succeed and fulfill their dreams."

— Nel Coloma-Moya, Founder, QuickRN

Key Features

QuickRN: micro-certification, built and rebuilt over six years

QuickRN focuses on the training and licensing needs of healthcare workers through micro-certification courses — helping them understand the Canadian healthcare landscape, meet professional nursing requirements, and navigate their future in the industry.

What guides QuickRN

Integrity

We hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards in everything we do.

Support

We give you the tools you need to succeed.

Knowledge

We offer expert resources to help you achieve your academic and career best.

Opportunity

We open doors and broaden access to education.

Results

We're dedicated to helping you achieve your goals — we succeed when you succeed.

Meditation Skills

Calming the mind, alongside the exam

A QuickRN-trained healthcare worker in scrubs practising mindfulness on a Toronto rooftop overlooking the city skyline

Alongside its certification courses, QuickRN builds in a Meditation Skills component — practical techniques for quieting the mind, tuning out the anxiety that comes with high-stakes testing, and staying focused on the present moment.

Learners practise focused-breathing exercises they can carry into the comprehensive simulation exam, alongside habits that sharpen memory and concentration — and a chance to reconnect with the sense of purpose that brought them to nursing in the first place.

Take the next step

Ready to take the next step toward your nursing career in Canada?

Visit QuickRN

Achievements & Impact

Awards, research, and service

Queen's Graduate Award

Graduate funding award.

2009 – 2013Queen's University

Geography Merit Award

Departmental merit award in Geography.

Sept 2009Queen's University

The David Wurfel Award for Studies in the Philippines

Awarded for research relating to the Philippines.

May 2008York Centre for Asian Research

Agrarian Transition in Southeast Asia Research Grant

"The Challenges of the Agrarian Transition in Southeast Asia" research grant.

May 2008ChATSEA

Master's Entrance Scholarship

Entrance scholarship for graduate study.

Sept 2007York University

Teaching Assistantship

Funded teaching assistantship across the doctoral program.

2009 – 2013Queen's University

Leadership & community service

  • 2017 — Present

    Founder, QuickRN

    Healthcare training for PSWs, Resident Support Aides, and NCLEX exam preparation for nurses. quickrn.ca

  • 2016 — 2018

    Faculty Mentor, Enactus

    Faculty mentor at Seneca College for the Enactus student entrepreneurship group.

  • Ongoing

    Graduate Student Discussion Group

    Developed an inter-disciplinary discussion group at Queen's University, giving graduate students a forum to present ongoing work to peers.

  • 2004 — 2007

    Volunteer Member, PROMPT

    Policy Roundtable on Mobilizing Professions and Trades — assisted in developing research proposals and position papers regarding new immigrants.

  • 2004 — 2006

    Advisory Committee for Race Relations and Multiculturalism, TCDSB

    Parent representative and ad hoc member (2004–2005), then Secretary (2005–2006).

  • 2003 — 2007

    Chair, Catholic School Advisory Council

    St. Dunstan Catholic Elementary School — liaised with school administration and parents, conducted monthly committee meetings, and developed after-school programs.

Research & Scholarly Work

Migration, labour, and the people who move through the systems

Nel's scholarship traces a single thread — from her first thesis on the discourses that govern nursing in Ontario, through doctoral fieldwork in the Philippines and aboard cruise ships, to the founding insight behind QuickRN.

Master's Thesis · 2006

Locating Power, Knowledge and Subject in Nursing

A discourse analysis examining how regulatory standards govern the practice of nursing in Ontario, and how nurses' sense of self is shaped — and constrained — by those discourses. Submitted to the Department of Adult Education and Counseling Psychology, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.

Discourse analysis Nursing regulation Subject formation
Read Thesis
Doctoral Thesis · 2024

Production of Filipino Cruise Ship Workers

Doctoral research tracing the production of the Filipino cruise-ship worker — from maritime-school graduate to crew member — across the cultural frameworks of family, school, and workplace. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with students from a Philippine maritime school and twenty-five cruise ship workers, the dissertation traces a decline in the dominance of Filipino seafarers, tied to gaps in maritime training institutions. Department of Geography and Planning, Queen's University.

Migration & labour Maritime industry Filipino diaspora
View Research
Field Research · Philippines

The Gawad Kalinga Project

A Foucauldian discourse analysis of a speech by the organization's leader, paired with fieldwork across Gawad Kalinga village sites in Luzon — including three-day stays in two villages and visits to five villages alongside organizers, combining interviews with participant observation of the movement's community-building model.

Discourse analysis Community development Fieldwork

Curriculum Vitae

The complete academic record

Download the full curriculum vitae for a complete account of Nel Coloma-Moya's education, teaching experience, research, publications, and community service.

Download CV (PDF)

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