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​Cheryl Stephens contributes to the plain language movement through her volunteer work on the web, for conferences and events, and in the community.

Cheryl is known for these activities:
  • co-founded the Plain Language Association International in 1993 and built it up over its first 7 years. She was made the first life member. Cheryl was co-chair of the first three PLAIN conferences in Winnipeg (1995), Calgary (1997), and Houston (2000), later returning to co-host the 20th anniversary event in Vancouver in 2013. PLAIN recognized these achievements with a one-off Founders Award for Cheryl and Kate at that conference.
  • publishing the plain language newsletter Rapport: News about plain language (1991-1997), setting up Plain Language Online, the first website about plain language for the Access to Justice Network, setting up PLAIN’s first website, and establishing the first email discussion group on plain language.
  • co-founded the annual International Plain Language Day October 13 and directed the international celebrations via Facebook, a website, and Twitter account for six years before the project was passed to PLAIN.
  • published the Twitter newsletter Plain Language Twittery and continues to curate via Twitter (@CherylStephens).
  • founded and managed the Plain Legal Language LinkedIn group which she handed over to Clarity and the LinkedIn Group Plain Language Advocates that now has more than 18,000 members and has now been absorbed by PLAIN.
  • ​chaired Communications Convergence event for 2 years, in Vancouver.
  • publishes books through Plain Language Wizardry.
  • helped design and organized the first 2 online study programs in plain language at Simon Fraser University Continuing Ed and at the Plain Language Academy
​Cheryl Stephens is a leader in the field of plain language communications, and a dynamic and vibrant speaker.

After six years of practicing law in the 80s, Cheryl found her calling as an educator, trainer, and consultant in communication, social marketing, and plain language.

In 1987, Cheryl was working in a law firm, devoting more and more of her time updating the standard-form documents. She thought there had to be another way, and began researching. In 1990, she was Associate Director, Research and Liaison for the Plain Language Project at the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia. Then in 1992, she began her consulting  and training work.
For more than twenty years, she has been writing, speaking, and teaching about plain language and clear understandings, helping clients to become better communicators following her research-based advice. In the 90s she started her plain language publishing venture Plain Language Wizardry.

It's only been a few hundred years since the courts began working in English, rather than French or Latin. There wasn't much progress after that, though, in making contracts, notices, and insurance forms, readable. It's only in the past thirty years that pioneers like Cheryl Stephens have begun to bring readability to the documents that affect people's lives.