Eileen Marie Pottie Forrester

Doctor of Letters, honoris causa

A dancer and teacher for 61 years, Eileen Pottie Forrester is a true ambassador for the Scottish culture and heritage of Cape Breton Island.

Eileen’s professional credentials include being a Fellow of the British Association of Teachers of Dance, a member of the Scottish Dance Teacher’s Alliance, Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing Adjudicator’s Panel, ScotDance Canada and Dance Nova Scotia. During her amateur dance career, Eileen was a champion dancer winning many awards, scholarships and bursaries.

Eileen began teaching dance in 1965. Today, branches of the Forrester School of Dance can be found throughout Cape Breton Island as well as a recently opened school in Ontario.

Throughout her 50 year teaching career, Eileen has trained and mentored thousands of students in the art of Highland and Celtic dance and brought them to competitions around the world. Notably, in 1967, Eileen performed at Expo ’67 and then went on to Parliament Hill in Ottawa for a solo dance performance.

Eileen gives back to the community by assisting in such events as the Relay for Life, Palliative Care, the Adopt-A-Family Program, Festival of the Greens and many more.

It is truly fitting that Eileen has been a part of the many events and openings at Cape Breton University and that all four of her children and her husband are graduates of CBU and its predecessor institutions.

Dr. Pottie Forrester and her husband, Walter, have four children: Sean, Shannon, Shara and Shendle. They reside in Sydney, NS.

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