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Biography
Cheryl Stephens founded the Plain Language Association International in 1993, is its only Life Member, and has been honoured with the eponymous Cheryl Stephens Innovation Award. She wrote Plain Language Legal Writing and the new Plain Language in Plain English. Stephens received her B.A. (with Honors) in the multi-disciplinary field of International Relations at University of the Pacific in 1970. With a JD from the University of British Columbia and law practice experience, she led the Canadian Bar Association’s BC projects on plain language and the Lawyers for Literacy Project.
Since 2000, Stephens has written plain English definitions for the Multilingual Legal Dictionary, created resources for the Canadian Bar Association Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals, and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. She teaches plain language topics for SFU Continuing Education. She has also worked on plain language projects in the medical and social science fields and for multi-cultural and literacy programs. Stephens currently works with skritswap, an AI startup.