Retired after 14 years of English/Humanities teaching at Seneca College, Ontario, she has taught from kindergarten to university essay classes, Atkinson College. As well, she has led numerous workshops for the academic essay, business communications and creative writing at Ryerson Polytechnic University, Ontario College of Art, various public libraries and schools, and for one year at Pasadena Community Centre, California.

Awards and Memberships:

Bernice, coordinator of Richvale Writers,1967-2000, was given a Town of Richmond Hill Arts Award 1993 for 25 years of community service. From 1993-1995, she was treasurer/VP of the League of Canadian Poets, and in 2000, she was awarded the 1st Honorary Lifetime membership in the Canadian Poetry Association. Now she is a past member the Bowen Island Arts Council. Also a lifetime member of CAA, she is the Grievance chair for the Canadian Authors Association and its PLR representative. She is Writer-in-Residence for both the Vancouver and Ottawa CAA branches, but in 1997-1999, she was Writer-in-Residence for CAA -Toronto branch. From 2001-2003, she was President of the CAA Vancouver branch. In 2004, she received the Alan Sangster Award for national service to the CAA. She also belongs to the BC Federation of Writers and other local Vancouver area writers' groups. In fall, 2007, she was given a Special Achievement Award from the Surrey Board of Trade at the Surrey International Writers Conference. In Feb. 2008, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Poetry Reading Series and the Vancouver Public Library.

She has lived only 5 years outside of Canada: Cheshire, England and then Ohio and California, USA. But she has read her poems in Australia, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and USA. Bernice has performed her poems on radio, television and Canadian public stages: Halifax to Victoria for which she gratefully records support from the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, Metro Arts Council and varied employees.
Her travels with poetry readings and family to five continents, and especially her three years in Cheshire, England, have given her many opportunities to discuss language education methods with many English teachers. Her Toronto area classes had students from many nations. She has given presentations on her colour coding and interactive exercises for her effective method to teachers at conferences in North America. Bernice is also known for her leadership at workshops for creativity and marketing one's writing.

Bernice Lever has published and edited in many genres. Her workshops on creativity and marketing have helped many writers get published. She edited WAVES, a prize winning literary journal, 1972-1987, and for many other publications and publishing companies, including Dundurn Press. Her poems are in many anthologies.

Bernice won First Prize in the William Henry Drummond Poetry Contest, 2008