New Trail Autumn 2014 by University of Alberta Alumni

AU T UMN 2014

UNIVERSIT Y OF ALBERTA

ALUMNI MAGA ZINE

HOW THE NEXT GENERATION WILL LEARN TO LEAD

WHO WILL

PLUS Democracy Needs a Margaret Evans Why foreign correspondents are critical in the information age Meet the Prince of Pavement And 40 more people who will inspire you W W W.NEW TR AIL .UALBERTA .C A

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AU T U M N 2014 VOLUME 70 NUMBER 2

NE W TR AIL .UALBERTA .C A

features 18

18 Margaret Evans: Making News Meet the person behind the microphone

26 Deconstructing Leadership

We’re learning more about what makes the best leaders — and it’s not necessarily what we’ve come to expect

32 Leadership Without Bombast DECONSTRUCTING

LEADERSHIP

Former prime minister Kim Campbell shares the secrets behind her personal leadership style

34 The SUB Legacy: A Student Story

It was a radical idea, even for the ’60s — and students led the way, creating a building that still benefits campus

34 37 Alumni Awards 2014

These 41 alumni have made the world better, from the slums of New Delhi to the roads you drive every day

departments 3

Your Letters Our Readers Write

Bear Country The U of A Community

Whatsoever Things Are True Column by Todd Babiak

Question Period Trevor Duplessis talks acting, writing and blues

Events In Edmonton and Beyond

Class Notes Keeping Classmates up to Date

In Memoriam Bidding Farewell to Friends

Photo Finish The Picture-Perfect Finale

Supervising Editor Cynthia Strawson, ’05 BA, ’13 MSc Editor Lisa Cook, @NewTrail_Lisa Senior Editor Karen Sherlock Associate Editor Christie Hutchinson Art Director Marcey Andrews Contributing Photographer John Ulan Production Leslie Stewart, ’88 MA New Trail Digital Editor Karen Sherlock New Trail Digital Shane Riczu, ’12 MA, Ryan Whitefield, ’10 BA, Joyce Yu, ’07 BA Editorial Assistant Bridget Stirling Proofreader Philip Mail Advisory Board Anne Bailey, ’84 BA; Jason Cobb, ’96 BA; Susan Colberg, ’83 BFA, ’91 MVA; Glenn Kubish, ’87 BA(Hons); Lawrence Kwok, ’04 BSc(Eng), ’10 BDes; Kiann McNeill; Robert Moyles, ’86 BCom; Julie Naylor, ’95 BA, ’05 MA; Sean Price, ’95 BCom CONTACT US Email (Comments/Letters/Class Notes) alumni@ualberta.ca Call 780-492-3224; toll-free 1-800-661-2593 Mail Office of Advancement, University of Alberta, Third Floor, Enterprise Square, 10230 Jasper Ave., Edmonton, AB T5J 4P6 Facebook U of A Alumni Association Twitter @UofA_Alumni Address Updates 780-492-3471; toll-free 1-866-492-7516 or alumrec@ualberta.ca TO ADVERTISE lesley.dirkson@ualberta.ca This University of Alberta Alumni Association magazine is published three times a year. It is mailed to more than 150,000 alumni and non-alumni friends, and is available on select newsstands. The views and opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Alberta or the U of A Alumni Association. All material copyright ©. New Trail cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. ISSN: 0824-8125 Copyright 2014 Publications Mail Agreement No. 40112326 If undeliverable in Canada, return to: Offi ce of Advancement University of Alberta, Third Floor, Enterprise Square 10230 Jasper Ave. Edmonton, AB T5J 4P6

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Murray Campbell, ’79 BSc, ’81 MSc, had no plans to study computing science until, as a high school student, he attended a U of A open house. One right turn brought him face to face with a computer playing chess. It was 1974 and Campbell, an Alberta junior chess champion, was hooked. Education OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS Vacant Twenty-three years later, he watched the machine he’d helped Sean Price, ’95 BCom, MBA Associate Vice-President Engineering build, Deep Blue, defeat Russian chess grandmaster Garry Tom Gooding, ’78 BSc(MechEng) Tracy Salmon, ’91 BA, ’96 MSc Kasparov. It was the “man walks on moon” moment for the artificial Director, Alumni Programs Extension intelligence community and a watershed in human history. Vacant Kara Sweeney Campbell is one of 41 U of A alumni being honoured with a 2014 Director, Alumni Engagement Graduate Studies Chris Grey, ’92 BA, ’95 MBA Alumni Award on Sept. 18 (page 37). Since this issue also examines Coleen Graham, ’88 BSc(HEc), ’93 MEd Senior Manager, Strategic Initiatives Law leadership (page 26), we asked Campbell his thoughts on the topic. Ian Reynolds, ’91 BCom, ’94 LLB It turns out that his work on Deep Blue and in his current position at ALUMNI COUNCIL EXECUTIVE Medicine President IBM’s cognitive computing research division can tell us a lot about Vacant Glenn Stowkowy, ’76 BSc(ElecEng) how leaders of the future will make decisions. Native Studies President-elect Carolyn Wagner, ’06 BA(NativeStuHons) The next generation of leaders will take advantage of “augmented Mary Pat Barry, ’04 MA Nursing intelligence,” says Campbell, where computers comb through Executive Member at Large Vacant Ron Glen, ’89 BA(Spec), ’04 MBA massive amounts of data looking for key information. Just as Deep Pharmacy Vice-President: Affinity Blue analyzed more than 100 million chess moves per second before Sheena Neilson, ’06 BSc(Pharm) Chris Grey, ’92 BA, ’95 MBA Physical Education and Recreation deciding on its next play, today’s computers can analyze all available Vice-President: Centenary Wanda Wetterberg, ’74 BA(RecAdmin) data to recommend next moves to their human partners. Wanda Wetterberg, ’74 BA(RecAdmin) Public Health This is already helping us solve problems, determine the best course Vice-President: Communications Vacant Glenn Kubish, ’87 BA(Hons) of action or figure out the questions we should be asking in the first Rehabilitation Medicine Vice-President: Education Linda Miller, ’89 BSc(OT) place. Data crunching can even help supervisors improve the work Charlene Butler, ’09 MBA Science EEXXCCEEL EXCEL EEXXC environment, making employees happier and more effective. O OF EXCELtheir OF OOFF CEELLLLE OFF LEL LE L E Johannesen, Vice-President: Histories & Traditions LLEE LE LFred ’84 BSc(Spec)LELE SILVER SILVER SILVER SILVER SILVER SILVER I have always believed in the success of the group model of Jason Acker, ’95 BSc, ’97 MSc, ’00 PhD, ’09 MBA Member at Large leadership. Today’s grand challenges — sustainability, global health, Vice-President: Students CASE CASE CASE CASE Darryl Lesiuk, ’87 BA, ’91 BCom, ’07 MBA Sheena Neilson, ’06 BSc(Pharm) 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 be solved by one man or woman. We all have WA W social justice — can’t W AR A A ARR AARR AR R RA EX DOFFICIO DDSS PPRRO GR DSS PPRROOGGRR D Vice-President: Volunteers DS PR O GR S PR O G OG leadership potential; it’s how we react when we’re asked to rise to Honorary President Tom Gooding, ’78 BSc(MechEng) Indira Samarasekera the occasion that reveals Xthe true leaders. Failure, ideally, leads to Board of Governors Representatives: EXEX EX EX EX X E CE X EC OF OF C OF OFCEOLFLCEX OF OCFEE LLELL LLCELL LL CELL OF LL O F E CELL E Vice-President (Advancement) E E E Jane Halford, ’94 BCom LE LE LE LE LE LE LE Lthe LE making right choices next time. A lot like mastering chess. SILVER SILVER O’Neil Outar SILVER Rob Parks, ’87 BEd, ’99 MBA “Just like in business and life decisions,” says Campbell, “chess Vice-PresidentCASE (University Relations) Senate Representatives CASE CASE CASEDebra CASE CASEteaches EXCEL EEXXC OF EXCELL us we won’t win every time, but should accept losses, learn OF OOFF CEELLLLE E Cindie LeBlanc, ’01 BA 2014 LE PozegaLOsburn 2014 LELE 2014 LE W W A A A W A A A SILVER SILVER A SILVER A SILVER R R R R A R R R R R AR A RD A Sunil Agnihotri, ’05 BA, ’12 MA from them and Augmented intelligence won’t make R R G Relations D S PDRS ORPDGRSOPGR O G R D SR DP R OAlumni DS R G R move on.” D S P R O GAssociate Vice-President, S PROG R SO G PD PRO S PR O G Sean Price, ’95 BCom, MBA CASE choices for us, but can help us make more informed decisions, make CASE CASE FACULTY REPRESENTATIVES 2014 2014 2014 Acting2014 Dean of Students WA Wus better at being human. Academic Representative AR A A A A R BA(Spec), ’94 MEd, RR RRDD’98 PhDG R RD ’92 D SEverall, E X C E Robin X CF EE X C E C E XCE SS PPRRO S P R OOGF E O OOGF EOXF CEEX F EXC P R O G O F EOXFCEEXL C E L Jason Acker, ’95 BSc, ’97 MSc, ’00 PhD, E’09O FMBA LL O OF LL L ELL ELL LL LL L L E E E E Ecan E L “It spark something within us,” he says. E help E Graduate Students’ Association

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We would like to hear your comments about the magazine. Send us your letters by post or email to the addresses on page 1. Letters may be edited for length or clarity.

Keep in touch between New Trail issues. Find web-exclusive content online, or sign up for regular email updates. Visit newtrail.ualberta.ca to see these stories and more.

A Distinguished Provenance

I saw the tiny picture (Spring 2014, page 55, alumni edition) of my aunt and uncle’s house on 81st Avenue in Edmonton and felt compelled to write, just in case the provenance lacks some details. The house was owned by Dr. W. Dewar McDougall and his wife from around 1939, and they lived there until Mrs. McDougall, my Aunt Agnes, moved into Canterbury Court around 1976. She rented out the house and later sold it. When I married in 1953, we were often invited for Sunday dinner there. My daughter, Kate Habke (Pecover), ’80 BEd, remembered the house as soon as I showed her the picture. Dr. McDougall was a professor in the Faculty of Education. They had many special friends at the U of A, like Murray MacDonald, ’78 LLD (Honorary), the artist (I inherited one of his paintings), and were very close to Margaret-Ann Armour, ’70 PhD, ’13 DSc (Honorary), and her mother, who lived close by after arriving from Scotland. The Armours remained Aunt Agnes’s friends until her death in 1980. Our thanks to Shirley Serviss, ’80 BA, Wendy Gervais, ’82 BFA, and Ken Tingley, ’73 BA, ’81 MA, for illuminating a little bit of our not-so-distant past. They might know all these details already — and I might be off on a few of the dates — but just in case they don’t, I thought I should provide a few of them. – Joan Munro (Pecover), ’55 BA, ’59 BEd, ’71 MEd, ’86 PhD, Edmonton

More from Mars Ross Lockwood, ’08 BSc(Hons), (page 6) gives a video tour of his “Martian” habitat.

Distinguished Videos Check the website after the Sept. 18 Alumni Awards ceremony to see inspirational videos about our four Distinguished Alumni Award winners (page 37).

Inspiring Profs, Inspiring People

MK Hall @honeabeaboat Honestly the best issue of #newtrailmagazine @UAlberta that I’ve gotten yet! Make more of ur issues like this 1 pls! MK Hall @honeabeaboat Love the recipes, sites 2 see, & last lecture articles. Made my morn coffee that much sweeter. Marco Fok @mfok Inspirational #YEG story of success, Bioware’s Ray Muzyka’s Next Chapter New Trail - University of Alberta Sue Smith @SueSmith65 @UofA_Alumni excellent Spring New Trail 2014. Good stories, recipes, the History Hut and book reviews. Thanks Sophia @SophNurse I feel like I am getting older if I look forward to my quarterly New Trail @UofA_Alumni magazine.

I loved reading “Last Lecture” (Spring 2014, page 42). Linda Kerr, ’92 PhD, history; Robert Burch, philosophy; and David Begg, a cell biologist who teaches human anatomy, reminded me that the U of A’s “excellence” lies in the profs who inspire undergraduates, not in its ranking among the top 20 global universities. On July 5, I met Alan Nursall, ’81 MSc, the new CEO and president of Telus World of Science Edmonton, at the launch of Mother Nature is Trying to Kill You by Dan Riskin, ’97 BSc. Two inspired U of A alumni now inspiring thousands! I remember Alan’s father, Ralph Nursall, an inspiring professor of zoology from 1953 to 1988, and I remember how warmly I was received in the department of microbiology when I arrived in Edmonton from Quebec in 1969. To attract the best and brightest faculty and students, the U of A simply needs to continue to do what it has always done so well: focus on human contacts and inspire by its love and enthusiasm for the sciences and the arts. – Cecily Mills, ’71 PhD, Edmonton

More Alumni Award winners Meet more amazing alumni, including Team Canada sledge hockey player Kieran Block, ’10 BEd.

Alumni Weekend on campus Grads, families and the public are invited to Alumni Weekend, Sept. 18-21. Find event and parking info at alumni.ualberta.ca.

Alumni Weekend online

CLARIFICATION The photo of Allan Suddaby, ’08 BSc(ElecEng), that appeared on page 40 of the Spring 2014 issue of New Trail should have been credited to Maki Blazevski, ’97 BSc. We apologize for the oversight.

Can’t make it to Alumni Weekend? You can check in on your classmates through photos, stories and memories updated regularly. newtrail autumn 2014

Two Honours Two U of A-affiliated programs had reason to celebrate recently. The Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and TEC Edmonton both received good news this spring.

THE MD PROGRAM has been recognized with a full and unqualified eight-year approval following a rigorous selfexamination process and close scrutiny by the governing accreditation bodies in Canada and the United States. “The gold-plated accreditation of our medical school reflects the strength and leadership of our Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry,” says President Indira Samarasekera. “The faculty’s success in delivering excellence in medical education and research is a point of pride for the entire university community.” The MD Program accreditation is a peer-review, qualityassurance process that measures all aspects of medical education provided to students. TEC EDMONTON was named in June as Incubator of the Year, the top honour at the 2014 Startup Canada Awards. The awards celebrate entrepreneurs, communities and organizations dedicated to supporting Canada-grown businesses. TEC Edmonton, a business incubator, is a joint venture of the U of A and the Edmonton Economic Development Corp.

newtrail.ualberta.ca

COMPOSING TO THE SOUNDS OF SPACE Fifty-five composers from 17 countries entered a contest to compose music based on audio samples from a University of Alberta physics experiment. The winning entries were from the Czech Republic, Spain and the United Kingdom. The compositions were inspired by electromagnetic wave data coming from the CARISMA network, an array of magnetometers positioned in the ground to measure disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field caused by activity in a region of space near the Earth known as the magnetosphere. “The idea is to combine science and art to create a piece of music using sounds of space — electromagnetic waves converted to audio frequencies,” says U of A physicist Andy Kale. The Earth is a natural source of radio waves, which surround us but aren’t audible to humans. Every time the magnetic field changes, a small voltage is induced and measured by the induction-coil magnetometers of CARISMA (Canadian Array for Realtime Investigations of Magnetic Activity). “The coils measure the changes in the Earth’s magnetic field,” says Kale. “By speeding these measurements up and converting them into an audio file, you can actually hear them.” The CARISMA experiment is led by U of A professor Ian Mann, a co-investigator with MAARBLE (Monitoring, Analyzing and Assessing Radiation Belt Loss and Energization), which hosts the Sounds of Space competition. The group monitors the data taken by instruments like CARISMA to learn more about the Van Allen radiation belts that surround the Earth. – Suzette Chan

FROM THE COLLECTIONS

UNCOVERING CAMPUS TREASURES Fluorescent Fun A glistening oasis in the basement of the Earth Sciences Building, the Mineralogy/Petrology Museum exhibits close to 1,000 specimens for teaching and community engagement. The ever-popular fluorescent exhibit displays — with spectacular results — the properties of different rocks and minerals when they interact with long- and short-wave light. The museum is open Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

We Love Lucy Arguably the most photographed “woman” in anthropology, this is a replication of the famous “Lucy” skeleton found in 1974 in Hadar, Ethiopia. Identified as Australopithecus afarensis, Lucy is an early member of the human lineage, living in Africa between 3.85 and 2.95 million years ago. Used in the discussion of human evolution in introductory biological anthropology courses, Lucy is one of roughly 500 specimens in the university’s Fossil Hominid Cast Collection. See Lucy by tour or view other samples in the Tory Building.

PHOTOS BY JOHN ULAN

3D Puzzle With No Box Top One of the few known skulls of Styracosaurus, this ceratopsian specimen was collected in 2010 in Dinosaur Provincial Park near Brooks, Alta. More than 1,500 hours of volunteer work have gone into preparing it for study and exhibition. The public can get a closer look during Discovering Dinosaurs,, which explores the fascinating story of Alberta’s Cretaceous dinosaurs through current U of A paleontological research. The exhibit runs Sept. 18 to Dec. 20 at Enterprise Square Galleries.

Spread across campus are the 29 interdisciplinary collections that make up the University of Alberta Museums. This unique model helps distinguish the U of A as one of the world’s great public universities. The collections are used daily for teaching, research and community engagement. museums.ualberta.ca

MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP PROGRAMS Management Development. Human Resources Management. Leadership. Business Analysis. And many more UAlberta professional development programs available. Find your program and register online at www.extension.ualberta.ca. 7 8 0 . 4 9 2 . 3 0 2 7

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newtrail autumn 2014

OUR MAN ON MARS

STUDENT LIFE

Ross Lockwood, ’08 BSc(Hons), spent his summer in Hawaii, but it wasn’t your typical beach vacation. Lockwood, a PhD candidate in the field of condensed matter physics, spent 120 days living in a dome with five other people on the slopes of a volcano at 2,500 metres. They were testing the psychological implications of living on Mars, part of a NASAfunded project called the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, or HI-SEAS. Communication with “Earth” was time-delayed by 20 minutes each way to replicate being on Mars. We corresponded with Lockwood by email. What’s your role in the simulation? Here in the HI-SEAS habitat, my experience in sensor design and programming has led me to take the role of systems engineer. I monitor and repair everything from the power system (which includes solar power plus battery, fuel cell and gasoline generator backup), the communications system — a network extending from our location on Mauna Loa to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida — and the sensor system that monitors every detail in the habitat.

newtrail.ualberta.ca

Crew members of the HI-SEAS mission donned special suits when they left the dome to simulate life on Mars.

least, to minimize the negative impact I see on the other crew members. What do you miss most about being on the “outside”? I’m starving for sounds. There isn’t a chirp of a bird or the sound of a car driving by up here. Also, when we are outside we are in spacesuits ...

so our vision is never really clear. It’s strange being in a place knowing that you haven’t “seen” it because your vision is always blurred. What kind of people do you think it will take to colonize Mars? A true Mars colony would consist of a large network of vastly different people.

However, I think that the happiest colonists on Mars would be the introverts — problem-solvers, no doubt, with a thirst for exploration, but not the grandstanding adventure types. – Caroline Barlott, ’03 BA More Online Tour the HI-SEAS habitat with Lockwood at newtrail.ualberta.ca.

PHOTO BY CASEY STEDMAN

What’s it like living with five people you hardly know in small quarters? To be honest, it has been a challenge. It wasn’t apparent at the beginning of the mission, but you develop a very strong connection with others in such close quarters. As a result, you see an amplification of how your emotions and actions have an impact on others. I noticed that I changed my own personality, the prickly parts at

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RESEARCH IN THE NEWS U of A research is always making waves across the media. Here’s the lowdown on what’s up in our labs lately.

Record Number of Grads Choose Family Medicine

44%

44% of MD grads chose family medicine in 2014, compared with 23% in 2004

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

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Detecting Pathogens With Paper A U of A researcher is working on ways to detect deadly pathogens such as E. coli in food and water with a piece of paper slightly larger than a postage stamp. Frédérique Deiss, an electrochemist and post-doctoral fellow in the Faculty of Science, earned $112,000 in research funding from Grand Challenges Canada to develop and test a prototype. The electrochemical diagnostic device made of paper and tape would provide an affordable and portable method for detecting pathogens, of particular use in developing countries. – Montreal Gazette

Using GPS to Keep Dementia Patients Safe Some seniors with dementia in Calgary and Grande Prairie, Alta., are being outfitted with GPS devices as part of a six-month pilot project involving the U of A’s Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, Alberta Health Services and other agencies. Embedded in shoes, watches and a device similar to a cellphone, the technology tracks a person’s location and movement and can be set up with a “geofence” to alert someone if the wearer leaves an area. The goal is to keep dementia patients from wandering away from home or into dangerous areas like roads and bodies of water. – Daily Herald Tribune (Grande Prairie)

Adults are more likely to help an unattractive child than an attractive one when it comes to charity, a study has found. In four experiments by U of A business professors Robert J. Fisher and Yu Ma, adults asked to consider sponsoring a child from a developing country felt less compassion and sympathy for an attractive child, at least in cases where the need was not severe. (When the need was portrayed as severe — such as a natural disaster — attractiveness had no effect.) The authors explain in an article in the Journal of Consumer Research that participants inferred attractive children were more popular, intelligent and helpful than their less attractive peers. – sciencedaily.com

TOP PHOTO BY RICHARD SIEMENS, BOTTOM PHOTO COURTESY OF ILOC TECHNOLOGIES INC., POINTE-CLAIRE, QUE.

Close to half of the 170 medical students who graduated this spring — 44 per cent — have chosen family medicine, nearly double the percentage a decade ago. The number of U of A grads doing residencies in family medicine in rural communities is also on the rise. Both trends are good news given a chronic shortage of doctors in rural communities. Two U of A programs have contributed to the trend: the Preclinical Networked Medical Education program and the Integrated Community Clerkship (ICC), which has third-year medical students work with family doctors in rural communities for 41 weeks. Results show that about three of four ICC participants choose a career as a family doctor, with almost half caring for patients in rural communities. “Students are having the opportunity to actually see what family medicine is like much earlier in their education,” says Lee Green, chair of family medicine.

CUTE KIDS ELICIT LESS COMPASSION

ILLUSTRATION BY LUC MELANSON

NEW CHARTER DEFINES ROLE FOR ALUMNI A new charter has been created to define the role of more than 260,000 University of Alberta alumni in the life of the university. It’s a fitting step as the Alumni Association marks its centenary in 2015. The agreement, written jointly by the Alumni Association and the university after months of collaboration, formalizes the longstanding relationship between the two. It outlines the association’s “unique place within the university” and the role alumni can play to advance their alma mater. “Alumni Council wanted to ensure that all graduates have a chance to be active participants in the life of the university,” says Glenn Stowkowy, ’76 BSc(ElecEng), president of the U of A Alumni Association. “Moving forward, we will have the chance, in partnership with the university, to contribute to strategy in all areas involving alumni.” The charter describes the association’s mission as: “To engage university alumni and students in building the success of one of the world’s great universities for the public good by positively extending the university experience beyond graduation.” Related to the new agreement, Alumni Council is expanding its membership. More graduates will be invited to play a role in council work, both in the Edmonton area and through alumni advisory boards in areas including Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco and Hong Kong. “An active and engaged alumni community is essential to the future of the university,” says O’Neil Outar, vicepresident of advancement at the university. “The new Alumni Association charter makes a statement that the university wants and needs alumni to be a core component in the university’s future.” To learn more about the charter and how you can get involved with the university, visit alumni.ualberta.ca/charter.

Your One-Line Thesis

Inspired by the popular blog lol my thesis, New Trail asked U of A grad students and alumni to send us a one-line summary of their thesis. Some were sincere, some whimsical, others tongue-in-cheek — but all summed up their entire thesis in one line. Here are a few of our favourites.

“THE SUN PLAYS MUSIC ON EARTH’S MAGNETIC FIELD.”

“If you speak out, you support others to gain superpowers in reporting abuse.”

– Laura Mazzino, PhD candidate (physics)

– Wendy Aujla, ’13 MA, PhD candidate (sociology)

“NICE PEOPLE USED TO PARTICIPATING WITHIN A PARTICIPATORY FRAMEWORK HAVE A NICE EXPERIENCE PARTICIPATING WITHIN A PARTICIPATORY FRAMEWORK.” – Kayla Atkey, ’11 BA, MSc candidate (public health)

“An honest monk ends up locked up for life. Find the intruder.” – Silvia Sgaramella, PhD candidate (Slavic languages and literatures)

“Cracking your back may cure your pain but not everyone feels the same.” – Arnold Wong, PhD candidate (rehabilitation science)

“STANDING TALL IN A WINDY WORLD, YET GROWING STRONG INSTEAD OF GROWING TALL.” – Shawn Urban, ’93 MSc (forest science), ’04 BEd, ’07 Dip(Ed)

newtrail autumn 2014

UNIVERSITY PLANS LAND TRUST

U of A alumni who made headlines recently

Playwright Vern Thiessen, ’92 MFA, has been named artistic director of Edmonton’s Workshop West theatre company. Thiessen has been working as associate artist at Epic Theatre Ensemble in New York City. His drama Einstein’s Gift won the Governor General’s Award for English-language drama in 2003. Workshop West focuses on the development of new Canadian playwrights and their plays. – Edmonton Journal Artists Selected for Biennial Exhibit Fifteen alumni and a U of A student are among 42 artists who will represent the province’s contemporary art scene in a biennial exhibit at the Art Gallery of Alberta next year. Future Station: 2015 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art opens Jan. 24 and runs until May 3. Devon Beggs, ’06 BFA; Nika Blasser, ’13 MFA; Joseph Doherty, ’13 MFA; Brenda Draney, ’02 BA, ’06 BFA; Aryen Hoekstra, ’05 BFA; Dara Humniski, ’04 BDes; Kristen Keegan, ’10 BFA; Travis McEwen, ’08 BFA; Brad Necyk, ’06 BCom, ’11 BFA, ’13 MFA; Josee Aubin Ouellette, ’07 BFA; Erin Schwab, ’07 MFA; Sergio Serrano, ’09 BDes; Jill Stanton, ’09 BFA; Alma Louise Visscher, ’12 MFA; and Adam WaldronBlain, ’07 BFA. MFA student Ali Nickerson was also selected. – Edmonton Journal

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In a land trust arrangement, a trustee is appointed to manage property for the benefit of one or more other parties. In this case, the U of A will be a beneficiary of the trust. The university’s 50-year Long Range Development Plan will inform how the U of A trust would enter into long-term lease agreements to develop portions of the land, says Don Hickey, ’71 BSc(ElecEng), vice-president of facilities and operations. While the university would create the trust, he says, the trustee would operate independently. Designating which lands will make up the trust is still on the horizon. Several issues — including academic research needs and municipal planning requirements — will continue to be discussed. A next step toward establishing the land trust is to take a recommended governance structure back to the U of A board in the fall. An order-in-council establishing the corporation that will act as trustee is also required by government. Other institutions across North America have embraced a similar land asset management strategy. The University of British Columbia land trust has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in value for the institution since it was created in the late ’80s. Similar concepts have been adopted by Simon Fraser University and, most recently, by the University of Calgary and Keyano College in Alberta. No decision has been made as to which lands will be designated for the U of A trust, although media reports have sparked speculation about South Campus lands. Community leaders in neighbourhoods around South

Campus, reacting to the reports, told the Edmonton Journal they would like to see a co-ordinated approach to development that respects the city’s planning process and principles. “There is opportunity and there is risk, and the devil is in the details,” Cory Doll, ’98 BSc(EnvSci), president of the Malmo Plains community league was quoted as saying. An Edmonton Journal editorial May 27 noted “it’s crucial for Edmonton that the U of A remain financially healthy” and recommended a “serious, citywide discussion” about long-term development plans. The university will continue to communicate with the community at large in the coming months, says Debra Pozega Osburn, vice-president of university relations. “Communications around this initiative actually ramp up with this approval,” she says. “This is just the start of many discussions we would have within our various communities and with our various stakeholder groups about this initiative.” President Indira Samarasekera, who was on faculty with UBC in the late 1980s when it created a land trust, says the U of A trust will provide ongoing discretionary funding that will allow the university to chart its own destiny. “Some of our struggles have been that we just don’t have surplus financial capacity to undertake the kinds of initiatives that would drive our vision,” she says, referring to UBC’s ability to take on projects that the government wouldn’t normally support. “It gives the university much greater capacity to chart a direction based on the collective vision of where the university needs to go and how it needs to get there.”

PHOTO BY NICK SIEFLOW

ALUMNI IN THE NEWS

The University of Alberta plans to establish a land trust as part of a strategy to find long-term sources of revenue to support academic and research priorities. The board of governors unanimously approved the proposal in June. Ralph Young, ’73 MBA, university chancellor and member of the university’s Land Asset Advisory Task Force, says it was one of the most important decisions the board has had to make.

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CO2-CONSUMING FUEL CELL WINS SPOT IN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION Devonian Botanic Garden Earns National Award The U of A’s Devonian Botanic Garden has been named Botanical Garden of the Year as part of the Canadian Garden Council’s Garden Tourism Awards. Although the 78-hectare garden is primarily a research site, about 70,000 people visit every year, including tourists, school groups and other students. The garden is a site for research, environmental education and inspiration, “but we also recognize the importance of our role as a significant tourist attraction in the Edmonton region,” says Lee Foote, the garden’s director. The garden is the northernmost major botanic garden in Canada and despite the harsh Zone 3 climate, grows more than 7,000 varieties of plants.

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CAN A FUEL CELL CONSUME RATHER THAN PRODUCE CARBON DIOXIDE TO CREATE ENERGY? That’s the $10-million question a Faculty of Engineering-led team is striving to answer. The team has won a spot among 24 challengers in a competition to uncover innovative uses for carbon. The 24 projects, selected from 344 submissions representing 37 countries, receive $500,000 each in development funding over two years from the Alberta-based Climate Change and Emissions Management Corp. Fuel cells, which produce an electric current through chemical reaction, are considered a possible alternative to internal combustion engines. The U of A team is developing a hightemperature fuel cell technology that, through a complicated series of reactions,

transforms methane, carbon dioxide and oxygen into carbon monoxide, water and energy. The idea is based on research by Thomas Etsell and Jingli Luo, professors in the U of A’s Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, and Partha Sarkar, senior scientist at Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures. “A fuel cell is basically a continuous battery, and we’re trying to develop a fuel cell that consumes fossil fuels more efficiently,” Etsell says, adding the cell is “essentially turning one fuel into another.” The second round of competition is in September 2015, when five teams receive a $3-million grant each. In the final round, in 2018, one project will be awarded a $10-million grant to establish a business to reduce greenhouse gas in Alberta by one megaton annually. – Nicole Basaraba, ’09 BA

SCIENCE EXPLAINED

by Robyn Braun

Who’s the Boss of Evolution?

ILLUSTRATION BY LISA HANEY

One U of A researcher argues that genes are followers, not leaders, when it comes to evolution For the past 50 years or so, biologists have thought of genes as the “bossy boots” on the playground of biological evolution and development. But Rich Palmer, professor in the University of Alberta’s Department of Biology, suggests the real story is more complicated — that the dynamics involved are different in subtle, but significant, ways. Evolution occurs through natural selection acting on genes. Random mutations in the genes of a plant or animal result in new traits. If a trait helps an organism survive and produce offspring, those genes are passed on to the next generation and the new trait spreads through the population. Scientists have generally thought that behaviours develop based on an organism’s genetic makeup. For example, it is generally understood that flat fish lie on their side on the ocean floor because a random genetic mutation caused one eye to migrate to the other side of their heads. In other words, genes are the leaders and the rest follows. Palmer, however, flips

this idea and argues for a “genes as followers” model — at least in some cases. His argument can be best explained through his own work on the question, which focuses on what’s called “left-right asymmetry.” Palmer is studying why organisms, including humans, develop asymmetrically. In humans, for example, we have a dominant and a nondominant hand — one we use for writing and one we use to hold the phone. These kinds of paired structures are common in nature. Lobsters, for example, have two different kinds of claws. “The crusher claw

is mostly slow muscle and big molar teeth. It generates force. The small claw is all fast muscle and is more dexterous,” Palmer explains. Unlike adults, baby lobsters have two small claws, with no hint of a big claw. What’s astonishing, says Palmer, is that the crusher claw appears only once the lobster starts to use one claw more than the other. He believes the behaviour is the leader here, triggering the genetic program to develop the more frequently used claw into a crusher claw. While all lobsters today have the genes to develop a crusher claw, Palmer

believes it’s possible that, at a distant time in evolution, crushing prey with one claw instead of the other began as a behaviour without a genetic basis. “I have a hunch that a lot of asymmetries start out as useful behaviours. Even if you have two claws of the same size, you’re going to use one to hold the prey and the other to crush it. And when genetic variance to support that behaviour arises, it is immediately selected for. That’s a ‘genes as followers’ argument. “It’s not a very popular view,” admits Palmer. Then, after a moment, he adds, “Yet.”

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Leadership: An Epic Quest by Todd Babiak

ILLUSTRATION BY DUSHAN MILIC

letter arrived in my apartment in the spring of 1996, a few months before my first year of graduate school was about to begin. It was ridiculously good news: I had been chosen to teach an introductory course at Concordia University in Montreal. That night, and for several more, the drinks were on me. This meant money, a sheen of prestige, a good reason to wear blazers and sweater vests. But as spring became summer and September approached, dread showed up at the party. While I had spent most of my life

sitting in front of teachers, I had no idea how to teach. There was a whole faculty devoted to the art and science of teaching — I had never even been in the building. My favourite teachers had been inspiring, dignified, funny and serious at once. Their techniques had always seemed so natural. Like everything that seemed natural, I knew it must have come from years of careful study, from success and failure. I met with my mentor at the university and declared I would have to turn down the teaching assistant position. The students, many of whom were my age, would sniff me out as a fraud.

“Don’t worry about teaching so much as leading,” he said, as though it were somehow easier. There was a teaching section in my neighbourhood bookstore but it was thin and superficial, filled with memoirs designed to make me cry. I read a couple of them. I cried. The leadership section of the same bookstore was 10 times the size, bursting with bestsellers. There were techniques, programs of study, trademarked processes with evocative names. Men and women with impressive jawlines could help uncage my inner tiger, awaken the beast, unclip the wings newtrail autumn 2014

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it. This is partly true. Certain people lack the personality to be writers. But most of the “natural writers” I knew in university have given up on it. It was curious, in the leadership section of the bookstore, to learn that it is the modern path to selffulfilment. If you decide not to be a leader, you decide to fail. And since failure is bad for us, we are in the process of redefining leadership. In the corporate culture handbooks of large organizations, leadership floats at the top of the soup of organizational values such as integrity, creativity, fairness and diversity. Until the 1930s, we knew what we meant by leadership. Men and women with leadership ambitions wanted to be mayors, premiers, prime ministers, presidents, CEOs, directors, generals. Dale Carnegie, Stephen R. Covey, Tony Robbins and Sheryl Sandberg were not yet in the bookstore, so leaders-intraining studied The Aeneid, an epic poem about a man of extraordinary virtue who sacrifices love and comfort to launch the idea of Rome.

We live in a culture of contradiction, which is a magnificent thing. We can all be leaders, yet we long for real leadership. Boring people or stiff people or pretty people who speak in clichés about maximizing aspirational management buy-in on a go-forward basis don’t feel like leaders. We know a leader when we see one, and they’re as rare as snow leopards. On my first day as a professor, I wore one of my dad’s suits and walked with impeccable posture down the hall toward the classroom. I grew dizzy and stopped in the washroom to throw up. By the time I made it to my desk, in front of 30 people, I was five minutes late and sweaty, white as a snow leopard. Luckily, I had a copy of The Aeneid in the apartment.

Todd Babiak, ’95 BA, co-founded the company Story Engine and has published several books, including Come Barbarians, a national bestseller.

PHOTO BY GREG SOUTHAM

of the mighty falcon that dwelled somewhere in or about my bosom. I was a walking zoo of leadership potential. There is a science of leadership, a serious academic program of study. There are principles. We can take it apart, dissect and poke at it, submit papers. Leadership is an essential part of management. A good leader can take a company to an initial public offering, but it is both a technical feat and a sales job. Anyone can learn to understand balance sheets. Can anyone learn to be inspirational? Learn how to breathe life into a thing, a company, a city, a charity? I noticed that many of the leadership guides were cross-referenced with another growing section of the store: self-help. As scientific as we are about leadership, it also carries a mystical quality. Can we lead if we lack charisma? Some of us are “natural leaders,” and it’s pleasing to think so. We want leadership to be a bit mysterious. Some of my professors and heroes and friends liked to make declarations about creative writing: You either have it or you don’t. You can’t teach

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When a story breaks on the other side of the world, Canadians trust CBC foreign correspondent Margaret Evans to tell us why it matters — and why it matters to us

MAKING NEWS BY CURTIS GILLESPIE, ’85 BA » PHOTOS BY THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES / JOEL RYAN

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new trail autumn 2014 19

THE CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION’S EUROPEAN BUREAU — SITUATED IN AN UNSPECTACULAR FIVE-STOREY BUILDING ALONG GREAT TITCHFIELD STREET IN LONDON — WAS AS BUSY AND VITAL AND CHAOTIC AS AN AFICIONADO OF JOURNALISTIC THRILLERS ABOUT FOREIGN ESPIONAGE COULD WISH. In the central part of the large, low-ceilinged area, desks were crammed side by side, populated with fraught-looking journalists and producers clacking away urgently at keyboards and half-whispering evidently vital messages into shoulder-held cellphones. I was visiting the office to speak with Margaret Evans, ’14 BA, the CBC’s chief European correspondent. We had agreed in advance to meet in London, and as I took a seat in her office — separate from the general chaos — I observed the knick-knacks and paraphernalia gathered from two decades of reporting from every corner of the globe. There are few places on the planet Evans has not placed under her journalistic microscope. Around the office were scattered train tickets from eastern Europe, books on jailed banana-republic dictators, photos of Evans with foreign journalists of various nationalities, pens and pencils and buttons from hotels around the globe, credentials from a multitude of hot spots, and a bottle of champagne seemingly gifted to her by Justin Bieber, with the comically incongruous note — “Margaret, thanks for being a Belieber” — a slapstick touch in an otherwise rich and serious-minded intellectual environment. (Later, she explained the champagne was a gift from her colleagues who were teasing her following a Bieber interview.) The scene was set for an intriguing conversation, yet almost immediately upon sitting down, I came to realize that our interview was going to proceed quite differently than I’d hoped. Evans, it could be said, was lacking a certain presence. What I mean is that she literally was not there. As events transpired — and in keeping with the nature of this story — Evans had been called to South Africa to report on what at that time seemed to be Nelson Mandela’s imminent death (which sadly came to pass some months later). Evans, her voice rippling with digital staccato, spoke by phone from Pretoria, South Africa. She apologized for not being able to meet in London, but I assured her she had chosen the correct story.

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‘THEATRE OF THE MIND’

Margaret Evans has been based in the CBC’s European Bureau since the summer of 2011, and her experience as a correspondent is long and deep. She reported out of Jerusalem from 2004 to 2011 and was in London between 1999 and 2004. She earned a BA in history in 1989 (an oversight — forgetting to officially apply for her degree — means her grad year is listed as 2014). She went on to do a master’s in journalism at the University of London in 1991, after which she immediately went to Brussels to begin freelancing. Brussels would normally not have been viewed as a hot spot for a budding foreign correspondent wanting to make her mark, but it was a counterintuitive master stroke. The European Union was in single-currency discussions, and the Balkan wars were beginning to intensify; many of the key debates and negotiations were taking place in Brussels. She got plenty of work. “It was terrifying in a way,” she tells me over the telephone. “It was so much financial reporting, about so many complex things, and my training was not financial!” Evans had always wanted to report from abroad, which was why she did not return to Canada after her schooling; although, as she says, it wasn’t as if she had any grand vision or long-range plan. “I only knew I wanted to do this kind of work. I was starving myself trying to survive in print journalism, so I thought I’d broaden

As CBC’s Europe correspondent since 2011, and as the Middle East correspondent for seven years before that, Evans has brought Canadians context on some of the major news stories of the past decade. She is shown here with Kurdish soldiers in northern Iraq.

Covering the 70th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France

my earning horizons by trying radio.” Evans was delighted by what she found there. “It has always been such a lovely medium — so simple in a way — and you get to use your words to maximum effect. You know the old saying, ‘Radio is the theatre of the mind.’ ”

ORDINARY PEOPLE, EXTRAORDINARY STORIES

Evans is known today for her skills as a keenly intuitive political and social storyteller, which she comes by naturally; it was in the air around the house as she was growing up. Her mother, Una MacLean-Evans, was a political organizer and firebrand for the Liberal party in Alberta for decades. She was tireless in her work for the party, for national unity and for social justice causes, some of which Margaret was drafted for in her youth. Evans’ father, Art, was a gruff, humorous columnist for decades with the Edmonton Journal and worked in the Studs Terkel tradition, with the fedora and streetwise storytelling about local characters. Evans reflects both sides of her upbringing, in that her work features a blend of high political analysis grounded with the stories of ordinary people. “My dad used to tell me that you’re either a journalist or you’re not,” Evans tells me when I meet up with her again in Edmonton in fall 2013 during a trip home to visit her family. In keeping with most of the (minimal) self-analysis she indulges in, Evans is downbeat about

In Bangladesh last year

the nature of her abilities. “There’s a discipline to getting to the heart of the matter in this kind of work, for sure. You use words to reflect a mood or a feeling, rather than just saying something literal. But I don’t really even think about it anymore. It’s just the way I write.” Radio is, in many ways, the great focuser. The absence of visual imagery, the short time span, the likelihood that the listener is engaged in another task while listening: all these elements demand clarity and concision from a reporter. “You’ve got maybe 90 seconds,” says Evans. “It forces you to choose,

Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution

newtrail autumn 2014

to narrow in on a kernel quickly, but to not make snap judgments. I guess that comes with experience. I mean, somewhere like the Middle East, you have to be so aware — you simply cannot afford to have a superficial understanding of what’s going on there. But once you have that, once you feel it, then you can get to the centre of things quickly, use words to reflect a mood or a feeling, create emotional resonance, find common humanity.” She pauses, thinks about it for a moment. “There’s always drama, but you just hope you make the right choices.”

A RESPONSIBILITY AND A PRIVILEGE

Jay Rosen, a longtime journalism professor at New York University, wrote in “What I Think I Know About Journalism,” a 2011 essay, that “information alone will not inform us.” Meaning it takes judgment and intelligence to transform information into knowledge. “If we did not have the kind of foreign reporting that someone like Margaret does, we’d be diminished,” Andrew Cohen tells me. Cohen is a columnist and professor of journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa and an experienced correspondent himself, having worked as the Globe and Mail’s Washington correspondent from 1997 to 2001, among other foreign assignments. “Our citizenry would be less informed, and if we didn’t have good information, we’d make poorer decisions, decisions based on rhetoric and prejudice. A diminished media means a less-informed citizenry, which means, ultimately, that we wouldn’t hold our political and business leaders to account to the degree we ought to. We become better informed through people and organizations we trust to be as unbiased and accurate and thorough as they can be. Poor journalism erodes our democracy.” The skills “desperately needed in modern journalism,” writes James W. Carey in an introduction to the book Thinking Clearly: Cases in Journalistic Decision-Making, are: “critical thinking rather than habitual reaction; trust and respect rather than cynicism and contempt; tough-mindedness rather than sentimentality, timidity and close-mindedness; and most of all the realization that journalism is a craft depending on lifelong cultivation of intelligence and discipline.” Which is why we put our faith in the work of correspondents like Margaret Evans, says David Walmsley, who was CBC’s director of news content, responsible for domestic and international news, when I spoke to Evans. “She’s considerate, thoughtful, intelligent, mature. Not in a rush to judge, brave beyond words where she has and does put her life on the line for her stories. Margaret is a storyteller who fully understands the social contract with the audience. It is a massive privilege to be invited into people’s lives, and Margaret ensures her invitation through an ecumenical zeal to get the story right.” Though she radiates the humility of someone who knows she isn’t the story, Evans is also nevertheless too intelligent not to be aware of the responsibilities, and the power, that come with her role. “I feel a pressure, no doubt,” she tells me. “But to me, it’s a healthy pressure, one that I can’t complain about. I have a responsibility, because journalism is a public service. I have an obligation to do my best to get it

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newtrail autumn 2014

right. That may be something of a cliché, but it really is about trying to represent the different truths that are out there. I’m not out there to transcribe a court case. I need to spend the time in a place to represent it properly, to understand it, and if I can’t do that, I don’t have the authority to report on it.”

‘WE BELIEVE IN A MARGARET EVANS’

I ask Evans how that place, that particular story, is decided upon. In other words, how is the decision made about what the public has to know, about what stories they need to hear? “I often pick my own ideas,” she says. “Sometimes the assignment editors are the ones who drive the idea, and they ask me to go to a certain place to cover a certain story. A good example happened when I was in Dhaka [where a factory collapse in April 2013 killed more than 1,100 garment workers]. That story was driven out of the Toronto office, but after reporting on the initial tragedy of the factory collapse, I was able to also create a 14-minute series. I looked at the development of women in Bangladesh. I looked at the role of the growing voice of hardline Islam in Bangladesh and how this is affecting the political situation there. So I was able to work on multiple stories at once.” Deciding on the stories of the day is a collaborative process, says Evans. It’s very much an “open relationship” and people talk freely about what they see coming down the pipe. It’s not always as dramatic as an editor calling you up and shouting at you to pack a bag and catch a plane to Timbuktu, but the “phone call and go” is very typical. “The night Nelson Mandela died I was in Kyiv on another story when I got the call. I had to be on a plane within four hours,” she says. Walmsley, naturally, attaches considerable importance to the role of the foreign correspondent in helping citizens understand the world around them. In a discussion about Evans’ work and the role of the foreign correspondent, he tells me there is no doubt that the things journalists uncover and report on “are an essential ingredient when it comes to strengthening democracy,” especially when journalists “can publicly and privately demonstrate responsibility around their work.” Cohen, the journalism professor, agrees. “A good foreign correspondent is crucial

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to our understanding of the world we live in. We trust them to help us understand it. We believe in a Margaret Evans. We trust her because of her experience, her credibility and her judgment.” Not that Evans would ever think about her work in this way. It would be too great a burden to wear the harness of historical importance; it would stand in the way of properly effacing herself in her reporting. “I don’t even really like talking about the way I do things, let alone getting into discussions about things like ‘the search for the truth,’ ” Evans tells me during another conversation. We’re sitting on a sunny patio at the Three Boars bar in Edmonton’s University of Alberta district. The sun is blazing down and students are crowding in as the afternoon comes to a close. “It just sounds so pretentious.” But, I counter, that is what you’re doing. Looking for truth, for reality, for the verifiable, so that you can tell us something we can trust and hold on to and use to help us understand our world. “I guess so.” She smiles, nods hesitantly. “But to me, that’s where the value of real people and moments come into play. That’s one of the things I try to concentrate on. Maybe that’s something I learned from my dad, that you can convey something really complex in a short span if you can find a person to symbolize it, to tell the story. Maybe what I’m doing is to take these complex situations and humanize them, as quickly and deeply as I can.” She pauses, looks around at all the young, vibrant, laughing students piling onto the patio around us. “I suppose in the end, I just want to make it about people.” Editor’s note: Curtis Gillespie is a 2014 University of Alberta Alumni Honour Award winner. See page 39 for more.

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BY OMAR MOUALLEM ILLUSTRATIONS BY CARL WIENS

LEADERS AREN’T JUST BORN – THEY CAN BE BUILT. AS WE LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT MAKES THE BEST LEADERS, WE’RE RETHINKING THE KIND OF PEOPLE WE NEED TO NAVIGATE OUR COMPLEX WORLD

DECONSTRUCTING

LEADERSHIP newtrail autumn 2014

cross the world, academics, corporations and media are brandishing the word “leadership” as if it were a newly discovered cure. Searching the word on Amazon.ca brings up 96,000 titles, most from the last three decades, when research in the field spiked. Ivy League schools in America request applicants to submit essays on the topic. Closer to home, the University of Alberta’s Peter Lougheed Leadership College is poised to be the first Canadian school focusing not just on governmental leadership but also on private and non-profit contexts. Kim Campbell, former prime minister and founding principal of the leadership college, will lead the new institution in its quest to form tomorrow’s visionaries. Despite just over four months as prime minister, Campbell knows a lot about leadership. Since leaving the prime minister’s office in 1993 after the Progressive Conservative party’s defeat, she has founded the Club of Madrid for former heads of state, taught at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership, served on the boards of technology companies and persistently advocated the advancement of women through various means, including the Council of Women World Leaders, where she is chair emerita. It might leave one thinking she was born to lead. She has heard it before and has considered the question. As a young girl, Campbell was highly organized and motivated. She hosted a CBC kids’ show, Junior Television Club. Campbell remembers a time when, as high school president, she made a public speech that excited the audience. “It was gratifying,” she recalls, “but it did frighten me because of the sense I had that this was a scary thing to be able 28

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to do. That ability carries a huge level of responsibility because we all have buttons we can press.” She points to Russian President Vladimir Putin as an example of an effective leader who can gain the support of a country for discomforting reasons. “Good leadership,” she counters, “should bring out the best in people and make them feel at ease and comfortable with belonging to that community and entity.” As someone who has taught leadership, Campbell hesitates to say that leadership — at least her sense of it — is inherent. She believes some have a natural disposition toward it and others are made that way through circumstances that challenge them to take control of their surroundings and not accept the status quo. LEADERS OF THE PACK As with emperor penguins, honeybees and countless other creatures, human beings ensure group survival by uniting with others — historically, our relatives. One can imagine that staving off wild predators, protecting against rival tribes or surviving drought is more complicated and less successful if each individual confronts the challenges separately. Any species that can improve its chance of survival by acting together sees leaders emerge naturally, according to Mark Van Vugt, a leading evolutionary leadership researcher. It’s as inevitable as reproduction. In the animal kingdom, leaders typically bear a physiological or behavioural trait that increases their propensity to act before others,

THERE ARE THREE ELEMENTS TO LEADERSHIP: VISION, UNDERSTANDING THE SITUATION AND THE COURAGE TO ACT ... . LEADERS MUST HAVE ALL THREE TO BE EFFECTIVE. ONE LEADER I ADMIRE IS ...

according to a 2009 Current Biology article co-authored by Van Vugt. For Homo sapiens, leadership correlates strongly with ambition, autonomy and talkativeness (what’s known as “the babble effect”). But is there more to leadership than genetics and chattiness? Richard Field says the biggest misconception is that leaders are born, not made. “You hear that all the time,” says the professor of strategic management and organization at the University of Alberta. “People believe that, and they couldn’t be more wrong. And when students believe that, it’s a terrible thing because they become licensed not to learn.” Field challenges students at the U of A’s Alberta School of Business with case studies, hypotheticals and lectures about the application of power and the resistance to it. “There are three elements to leadership: vision, understanding the situation and the courage to act. What differentiates leaders from followers is that leaders must have all three to be effective,” explains Field, who marvels at the many texts on leadership today compared with when he wrote his PhD on the topic in the early 1980s. Back then, it was a small field budding from organizational theory. It has since become a cultural and academic sensation. This raises a problem within the research field: just how do you define leadership? “There’s no commonly accepted definition,” he says. “It’s not that there isn’t a definition; it’s that there are thousands.” He participated in a subcommittee for the new Peter Lougheed Leadership College that wrestled with exactly that question — how to define the term to guide the pedagogy. NO TIME FOR HEROES While the definition of leadership might be murky, the need for good leaders is clear. The world is full of problems, large and small, itching and festering, just waiting to be tackled: everything from food security and climate change to suburban sprawl and corporations wrestling with the bottom line. The world is also becoming more inclusive, more tolerant, and, in many ways, that has made it harder to lead the way in addressing problems. Leadership is more complex now, says Campbell. “The days are gone when someone said, ‘I’m going to be a bank president or a university president or a CEO or prime minister, and I’m only going to deal with people who look like me.’ ” David Kahane, a professor of democratic theory and practice at the U of A, thinks that, as a society, we overemphasize individual leadership while ignoring the powers of group collaboration. “In many of the stories we tell ourselves and the way we write history, we often see leadership as a quality possessed by individuals, where they inspire and structure and mobilize those beneath them to engage effectively with challenging situations,” he says. “I don’t think that’s persuasive as history, and I don’t think it speaks to what we need in order to address the toughest challenges of our times.”

“Margaret Thatcher. When she became prime minister, Britain was struggling, but she turned it into a vibrant and prosperous nation. She showed remarkable vision and courage and made the difficult decisions — decisions not everyone would agree with, not even today.” Indira Samarasekera president, University of Alberta

WHEN I STARTED, I WISH SOMEONE HAD TOLD ME ...

“First, the bigger the dream, the bigger the team. Second, always think from the perspective of ‘we,’ not ‘I.’ ” William Lau, ’13 BSc president, Students’ Union

GOOD LEADERSHIP SHOULD BRING OUT THE BEST IN PEOPLE AND MAKE THEM FEEL AT EASE AND COMFORTABLE WITH BELONGING TO THAT COMMUNITY AND ENTITY.” – FORMER PRIME MINISTER KIM CAMPBELL

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Kahane, leader of Alberta Climate Dialogue, a five-year project to engage Albertans in finding climate-change solutions, says Canada has fumbled opportunities to lead the way in protecting the planet against possibly its biggest threat in modern memory. “Our stalemates around climate change speak less to the quality of individuals in senior positions of governments, companies and so on, and more to the governance structures of those institutions.” As long as we hold to the “heroic model,” he says, where an individual — whether a statesperson, academic or author — is expected to solve complex problems independently, we’ll only chip away at the edges of problems like climate change. Kahane, who sits on a subcommittee for the Peter Lougheed Leadership College, hopes the school will enable students to work with diverse communities to solve real problems. The ideal college, he says, is one where students learn about power, relationships, facilitation and group process by “contributing to addressing genuinely important community problems.” He believes leadership, as a body of scholarly knowledge, takes on meaning through experience. “Where do people learn leadership? Often from being thrown into a situation where they really recognize that their family, local community, the world, need something from them.” That combination of need and group dynamic emerged at the University of Alberta in the 1960s, when a group of students took the lead on a project that still benefits U of A students today. THE FLIP SIDE OF LEADERSHIP It’s hard to imagine the university without the Students’ Union Building, but it exists because of some extraordinarily strong-headed student councils. “What we were doing at the U of A around the 1960s, no one in North America was doing,” recalls Wesley Cragg, ’63 BA(Hons), ’64 MA, then the SU president, today an ethics professor at York University and founding project director of the Canadian Business Ethics Research Network. “It was unique.” The 1963-64 student council — Cragg and co-councillors Doug McTavish, ’64 BCom; Dave Cruickshank, ’62 BSc(Pharm), ’65 BA; Patrick Bentley, ’61 BSc(CivEng), ’64 LLB; and Sandra Kirstein, ’64 BEd — took on a number of daunting projects in its first month, including drafting a new constitution and organizing a National Federation of Canadian University Students conference. But it’s the fight to build SUB that Cragg remembers most from that year. Together, the council secured property from the U of A, persuaded the province to underwrite a loan, selected a winning architect from an open competition and confronted a student rebellion fuelled by

THE MOST IMPORTANT QUALITY IN A LEADER IS ...

WHERE DO PEOPLE LEARN LEADERSHIP? OFTEN FROM BEING THROWN INTO A SITUATION WHERE THEY REALLY RECOGNIZE THAT THEIR FAMILY, LOCAL COMMUNITY, THE WORLD, NEED SOMETHING FROM THEM.”

“I especially admire Abraham Lincoln’s ability to master his ego and, as a result, demonstrate extraordinary levels of humility. Following his unexpected win of the U.S. presidency, he reached out to competitors from his political party and made them members of his cabinet — showing to Americans collaborative leadership in a powerful way. Lincoln, putting aside his ego, looked past their rivalry and determined that these men were in the best position to serve their country.” Don Iveson, ’01 BA mayor of Edmonton

– PROFESSOR DAVID KAHANE

opposition in the Gateway that cast SUB plans as irresponsibly lavish. Indeed, the building was groundbreaking in that it addressed so many aspects of student lives. It included an art gallery, theatre, music-listening lounge, bookstore, bank — even a bowling alley. “We provided the vision of the building: that we were going to build a state-of-the-art student facility that would be unique in North America,” reflects Cragg, now 73. (More on SUB and student leadership on page 34.) THE LONE HERO? It does seem rather antiquated in our wired and socially networked world to think of leadership as an individual rather than a collective endeavour. The Egyptian revolution of 2011, the slow food movement and fair trade — these were not mobilized by just one person at the top of a pyramid but by clusters within. On the other hand, one can’t dismiss the singular visionaries who have transformed societies (Martin Luther King Jr.), technology (Steve Jobs) and nationhood (Joan of Arc). Leadership is a necessity — even if it’s poor leadership. “We have to point at someone and say, ‘Here is the cause for our great success or failure,’ ” explains Field. “In reality, there are so many causal factors, but we feel better to think that a person was responsible. When they’re lucky, they’re cast as the heroes. In times of failure, we need a scapegoat leader to ... explain our problem. It’s almost tribalism.”

What does this say about followers and their importance? Although the study of leadership is one of the fastestgrowing fields in social sciences and has inspired countless books and numerous scientific journals, the importance of “followership” is, surprisingly, largely ignored. “Followership dominates our lives and organizations, but not our thinking, because our preoccupation with leadership keeps us from considering the nature and the importance of the follower,” wrote Robert E. Kelley in a seminal 1988 Harvard Business Review article, “In Praise of Followers.” There are solitary animals, but we’re not among them. The fact is that we are a social species, hard-wired to rely on each other for survival. In the quest to solve group problems, leaders take cues from followers, who execute the vision. Otherwise a leader is just a lone wolf. “It’s a reciprocal relationship,” says Field. “Leaders influence followers, but followers influence leaders, too. You can’t consider any relationship as one-sided.” newtrail autumn 2014

KIM CAMPBELL, WHO SERVED AS CANADA’S 19TH PRIME MINISTER IN 1993, REFLECTS ON HER PERSONAL LEADERSHIP STYLE

LEADERSHIP WITHOUT BOMBAST BY KIM CAMPBELL

IN MY LIFE , I HAVE HAD MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO LEAD , but it was not until I was out of public life, thanks to the Canadian electorate, that I had the opportunity to examine whether all of this activity reflected a leadership “style.” In early 1996, while a Regents’ Lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, I met business professor Judy B. Rosener, who had just published America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers. The book compared the leadership styles of women and men at major American corporations. Rosener observed that whereas men preferred a “command and control” style of leadership, women tended to use what she called an “interactive” style. This latter was a less hierarchical, more power-sharing and consensual form of direction. It was also a style of leadership that was effective and increasingly encouraged in “flat” corporations — those that depended on the creativity of all employees — such as the knowledge-based industries that were growing in importance. There was, however, a catch-22. When women led in this interactive style, it was not recognized as leadership and they did not get credit for it. Men, meanwhile, were being trained to be interactive leaders and were rewarded for their ability to manage in this new way. One reason women tended to prefer an interactive over a command-andcontrol leadership style was that they were not tolerated as command-andcontrol personalities. Forceful exercise of authority by women risks being seen as unfeminine, “shrill” or any number of descriptors that undermine their efforts. The leadership style that was forced 32

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upon women by the corporate culture did not result in their recognition as good leaders, despite their skill and success. Reading Rosener’s book was a revelation to me, as it was clear that I had an interactive style of leadership. It had been the key to my success in passing contentious legislation as Canada’s minister of justice and attorney general from 1990 to 1993. This was not just a matter of personality or personal characteristic but, rather, of my clear understanding that I could not just “ram through” my ideas within caucus. My role as minister did not give me the power to enforce my views. Only

by building a consensus on sufficient common ground to create legislation could I respond to the challenges I faced. In order to create constituencies for action, my staff and I worked painstakingly to consult, not only with members of Parliament but also with citizens from all walks of life. When some members of my own caucus could not support my legislation, I tried — even when I had sufficient support to move ahead — never to create a personal breach. This approach enabled me to pass a record amount of legislation when I was in the justice portfolio, but I was sometimes perplexed at the lengths

PHOTO BY RICHARD SIEMENS, RENDERING BY GEC ARCHITECTURE

journalists would go to to avoid giving me credit for these efforts. Reading Rosener’s book gave me the first clue as to why that was the case. By its nature, interactive leadership is not bombastic. If you are trying to build coalitions on divisive issues, big public declarations about what you are going to achieve are counterproductive. Journalists did not recognize my leadership as such because I was not making the noises they associated with leading. Even more surprising to them than my legislative success was the support I received from two-thirds of the caucus when I declared my candidacy to lead our party. As prime minister, I found that I did not always have the luxury of broad consultation. There are some issues where the prime minister must make decisions quickly and based on her personal authority. One reason (among many) I regret not serving longer in our highest office is that I was not able to see how my leadership style would have developed in that unique role. Today, the inclusive, interactive, non-directive style of leadership is de rigueur in business and politics. As men become more interactive, perhaps it will create a greater acceptance of women using a commandand-control style when that is what they need to express. Leadership is a complex and often contextual phenomenon. There is no “one style fits all” or “one style for all occasions.” Good leaders learn to use the style that achieves the goal.

About the College The Peter Lougheed Leadership College is part of the larger Peter Lougheed Leadership Initiative, a collaboration between the U of A and The Banff Centre to create “one of the pre-eminent leadership development opportunities in the world.” This new leadership college will begin with a small undergrad intake of third-year students in 2015. By 2016, 250 students will reside in a new campus building specific to participants in the program.

At age 16, Kim Campbell became the first female president of her high school’s student body. Thirty years later, she repeated the feat on a national scale, becoming the first female prime minister of Canada. She is the founding principal of the new Peter Lougheed Leadership College at the University of Alberta. newtrail autumn 2014

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An image of present-day SUB is merged with an archive photo of workers installing the Jordi Bonet sculpture on the south wall.

IT WAS A RADICAL IDEA: CREATE A SPACE THAT IMPROVES EVERY ASPECT OF STUDENT LIFE ON CAMPUS. BUT IT WAS HOW STUDENTS BROUGHT THE IDEA TO LIFE THAT WAS TRULY REVOLUTIONARY

The

OWNED BY STUDENTS

SUB LEGACY A Student Story LEFT PHOTO BY RICHARD SIEMENS; FILE PHOTO RIGHT

BY WANDA VIVEQUIN

ive decades ago, a group of young University of Alberta students embarked on something so bold it profoundly changed the way people across campus could interact with each other. These student leaders decided that in order to get the kind of gathering space they wanted, they were going to have to lead the charge themselves. It was the U of A’s own “by the people, for the people” moment, and the result is a legacy that has benefited students for nearly 50 years: the Students’ Union Building. “The movers and shakers behind this project displayed the savvy of country horse traders, the tenaciousness of labour negotiators, the eternal optimism of politicians and the shrewd business sense of corporation executives,” said then-university president Walter Johns, ’70 LLD (Honorary), in the Oct. 27, 1967, edition of Time magazine. High praise indeed for a group of university students who had spent nearly five years planning and managing the construction of a much-needed new student-centred space. Few alumni today who graduated after the building’s 1967 opening would not have set foot in SUB at least once — whether to eat lunch, study, go to a concert, visit the doctor or the bookstore, meet friends, collect a convocation gown, receive career advice or just take a nap.

Some of the students responsible for SUB will reunite during Alumni Weekend, Sept. 18-21. Though SUB officially opened in 1967, the group is billing this as its 50-year anniversary. One returning alumnus is Iain Macdonald, ’64 BA, who led the SUB expansion committee for 30 months starting in March 1962. His research into other student union facilities around North America helped shape the building that was to become the envy of student unions around the country. For Macdonald, now a recently retired United Church minister living in Nova Scotia, the reunion will be his first return to campus since 1969. “I am wondering how I will feel when I come back to campus and visit, not a new SUB, but a 50-year-old building, well-used and recently worked over,” he says from his home on the East Coast. “Will I recognize anything? Is the Jordi Bonet sculpture still up there on the wall? Is there still a chapel with [a] beautiful stained glass wall? Will I know how to get there from wherever the Campus Tower hotel now stands?” (Editor’s note: The cast-iron mural by Jordi Bonet can still be found on the south facade of SUB. Seven of the eight original stained glass panels are now housed in the Interfaith Centre on the third floor of SUB. The eighth was broken long ago.) Also returning for the reunion will be David Jenkins, ’62 BA, ’63 LLB, Students’ Union president during the early stages of the SUB building project. Jenkins says one driver behind the need for a new students’ union building was the expected growth in student population. Numbers were predicted to nearly triple from 6,500 students in 1962 to 18,000 in 1989, and the student leaders knew something was needed to address the space crunch. But there were challenges in shepherding the building from its conception in 1962 through its opening in 1967, Jenkins recalls. Students were worried that, if left to the administration, SUB would be little more than a utilitarian structure, he says. “My concern, and that of my 1962-63 student council, was that the administration would build too spartan a structure — essentially a combination of a prison and a hospital, with tiny rooms constructed of dreary, long-lasting materials. On the other hand, the students wanted recreational facilities and all kinds of warm, comfy lounges where students could relax, meet other students — and even study,” says Jenkins. “Finally, I had a minor epiphany … in the shower. I came up with the idea that if we, the students, paid for the new SUB with an annual fee per student, then we would be the ‘owners.’ That allowed the students to fully control what went into the building.” newtrail autumn 2014

A SUB LIKE NO OTHER A few features that inhabited the original SUB when it opened in 1967:  bowling alley  curling rink  billiard tables  Ping-Pong tables  music practice rooms

David Jenkins, former Students’ Union president, had an epiphany in the shower: students could own SUB.

Jenkins will never forget the meeting where he proposed the idea to thenpresident Johns. “He grasped right away what we were all trying to achieve … he was very supportive through the whole exercise. He really was a prince of a man.” The SUB experience infected Jenkins with the development bug. He went on to become president of two major real estate development companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. “The pay was noticeably better than student politics.” He is the founder and owner of Cruise Vacations Inc., a national company based in Edmonton. The plan to make SUB studentowned went forward and students were told they would be levied an additional $5 on their activity fees to pay for the building. This, plus the $4.5-million (plus interest) estimated total cost, led some students to believe the SUB was an overly lavish plan. One critic quoted

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in a November 1963 Gateway article charged: “The SUB expansion has been planned … by a small clique, which is by no means representative of the student body” and called the expansion an overly expensive and “grandiose plan.” A minor uprising by some members of the student body erupted and the fervour over the cost couldn’t be ignored. The Students’ Union president for 1963-64, Wesley Cragg, ’63 BA(Hons), ’64 MA, announced the U of A’s first students’ general meeting. Hundreds of students showed up to hear from both sides. Cragg stuck to the hopeful vision for the rapidly growing body of students, who, he said, deserved a state-of-the-art building that met every aspect of their lives. “They made their pitch,” reflects Cragg, 73, now an ethics professor at York University. “The students voted and the rebellion lost.” (More from Cragg on page 30.)

Today’s Students’ Union council members find themselves once again talking about accommodating a growing student body — 39,502 students were registered for the 2012-13 school year. In March 2012, U of A students voted to renovate SUB and agreed to pay up to $9 per student per term to help cover some of the estimated $14-million cost. This fourth major renovation since 1967 will look at making better use of the existing space. The project is due to be completed in March 2015 — just in time for alumni returning to celebrate the centenary of the Alumni Association. Students’ Union President William Lau, ’13 BSc, says the most recent renovations have stayed true to the original vision. “We have gone back to those documents to make sure changes to the building honour the legacy of those who were instrumental in having it built 50 years ago,” says Lau. “What they did was amazing, and I look forward to hearing some of their stories during the [Alumni Weekend] reunion.” For Macdonald, Jenkins and others, the reunion will be a chance to revisit a place that has seen more than a few changes since its construction 50 years ago. “It sure is going to be a wonderful chance to catch up with an amazing group of people who shared an incredible journey,” says Macdonald. – Omar Mouallem contributed to this article.

For information on the SUB 50-year reunion, email matthew.burns@ualberta.ca. For more on Alumni Weekend, visit alumni.ualberta.ca/weekend.

FILE PHOTO TOP; MIDDLE PHOTO BY JOHN ULAN

THE SUB LEGACY

ALUMNI AWARDS UNIV ER SI T Y OF A L BERTA

Meet 41 alumni who have improved your world: from the roads you drive down every day to the slums of New Delhi

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DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD

He has played a pioneering role in shaping the roads we drive on — and some of the engineers who make them

R The Alumni Association’s most prestigious award, recognizing living graduates whose outstanding achievements have earned them national or international prominence BY RICK PILGER

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alph Haas, ’61 BSc(CivEng), ’63 MSc, knows roads. Really knows roads. He is referred to as the “father of pavement management” for his pioneering work in developing innovative ideas and technologies for managing paved roadways. He has literally written the book on the subject. Several books, in fact. The first two, published in the 1970s, have been translated into French, Portuguese, Chinese, Spanish and other languages. These, and others published since, are used by consultants and transportation managers

at all levels of government, as well as in university classrooms around the world. A native of Alberta’s Peace River area, Haas worked for eight years on road construction before attending the University of Alberta to study engineering. During summer breaks, he would head back to the road crew to finance his education. Since 1966, he has taught at the University of Waterloo, twice serving as chair of civil engineering. He has authored 12 textbooks and 400 technical publications, supervised more than 50 master’s and PhD students, and lectured and consulted around the world. He was a founding partner of the spinoff company Pavement Management Systems Ltd., later absorbed into the Stantec Group of Edmonton. In 2002, he led a group that secured $9 million in funding to create the Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology

PHOTO BY JONATHAN BIELASKI

THE PRINCE OF PAVEMENT

at the University of Waterloo, becoming its first director. He is supposed to be retired now — Waterloo named him a distinguished professor emeritus in 1996 — but Haas remains busy with professional activities, research contracts, consulting work and graduate students. When he’s not sharing his expertise, he’s likely to be found out on a road somewhere — but not for work. He’s a passionate long-distance runner who makes time to run almost every day. Looking back at the career that has earned him a multitude of honours — from the Order of Canada to a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada to the inaugural Distinguished Service Award of the Transportation Association of Canada — Haas says there has been a single underlying theme to his work. “I think I was able to effectively bring systems engineering techniques to the management of networks of paved roads,” he says. “When you pave roads you add a lot of asset value, and when you have an important asset of that magnitude, it’s important you make the right decisions in managing it.” It all comes down to determining “the best thing to do at the best time” to maximize value for money spent. Haas has brought innovative technologies to bear on pavement management: innovations such as high-speed surveillance vehicles for acquiring road performance data, advanced modelling techniques for predicting road deterioration and decision-support systems. Although his work will long influence road building and maintenance worldwide, Haas finds his greatest impact elsewhere. “I’ve always enjoyed teaching,” he says, noting proudly the success of his many graduate students. “If you have any legacy, it’s because of the students you’ve had who have moved on to do very well and have great careers.”

ALUMNI HONOUR AWARD

Recognizing the significant contributions made over a number of years by University of Alberta alumni in their local communities and beyond

KARIMA BAPOO-MOHAMED ’86 Dip(DentHyg), ’11 MBA

W. ALAN BELL ’53 BA, ’55 BEd, ’67 MEd

DUNCAN CAMPBELL ’82 BA(RecAdmin)

This dental hygienist contributes to her profession locally and internationally as a clinician, instructor, businesswoman and humanitarian.

A beloved educator, he has dedicated his personal and professional life to helping others through education, health, music and community programs.

“The Quadfather” has spent nearly 40 years transforming wheelchair rugby into a Paralympic sport, helping people with disabilities live active lives.

MURRAY CAMPBELL ’79 BSc(Hons), ’81 MSc

GEORGE CUFF ’74 BA(RecAdmin)

DAVID L. EMERSON ’68 BA, ’70 MA

CURTIS GILLESPIE ’85 BA(Spec)

An international leader in artificial intelligence research, he is one of the creators of Deep Blue, the computer program that defeated a world chess champion.

An expert in the art of governance, he has offered his knowledge to numerous small and large public sector organizations across Canada.

A leader in politics and business and a voice for Western Canada in federal politics, he brought together public and private sectors to benefit all Canadians.

An award-winning writer and the editor of Eighteen Bridges magazine, he is a strong supporter of his local literary and arts communities.

DOROTHY J. HARRIS ’46 BA

KENNETH KASHA ’57 BSc(Ag), ’58 MSc

THOMAS ALEXANDER McPHERSON ’62 MD

FAWZY HELMY MORCOS ’85 MEd

A star in the field of dance throughout Alberta — and all of Canada — she created the Orchesis dance group at the University of Alberta.

A highly regarded plant geneticist, he revolutionized how plant breeders throughout the world develop new and improved cultivars in cereal crops.

A mentor and builder of academic health care, he’s a leader in medical associations, a medical policy-maker and a pioneer in the biotechnology industry.

A nationally regarded physician who specializes in compassionate care, he is regarded as a visionary in issues dealing with women’s health. newtrail autumn 2014

ALUMNI HONOUR AWARD continued

ROBERT RITTER ’71 BSc, ’73 Dip(Ed), ’85 MEd, ’96 PhD

G.R. (GUS) ROZYCKI ’81 PhD

An exceptional lawyer, active in the community, he is committed to mentoring young law professionals and supporting students of all ages.

An outstanding teacher, principal and senior administrator, his publications and initiatives have contributed greatly to science education in Alberta.

A teacher, coach, education leader and advocate for children needing specialized mental health care, he established Alberta Bosco Homes treatment centres.

LORI SHORTREED ’85 BA(Spec)

B.A.R. (QUINCY) SMITH ’66 LLB

SOCK MIANG TEO-KOH ’83 BPE, ’86 MSc

OLIVE YONGE ’74 BScN, ’78 MEd, ’89 PhD

A strong and passionate lawyer and volunteer, she supports immigrant, disability and international development causes.

An accomplished lawyer, mentor and volunteer, he has also been dedicated to helping build the tourism industry in the province of Alberta.

A lifelong advocate for people with physical and mental disabilities, she was active in Special Olympics Singapore and is currently its president.

A nurse, educator, university administrator and chartered psychologist, her legacy includes the Centre for Teaching and Learning and Festival of Teaching.

KIERAN T. BLOCK ’10 BEd

SHANNON O’BYRNE ’84 MA, ’85 LLB, ’91 LLM

ALANA SAVAGE (MARJANOVICH) ’97 BA

An educator who has played sledge hockey for Team Canada, he turned a life-changing accident into a chance to mentor students and athletes.

An award-winning teacher and legal author who has contributed to the practice of law, policy and education, she is also known for her commitment to her students.

This police officer distinguished herself as an agent of change by establishing the Domestic Violence Reduction Strategy with the Edmonton Police Service.

ALUMNI AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

NORMAN F.W. PICARD ’74 BA, ’75 LLB

Celebrating specific outstanding accomplishments by alumni in the past 12 months that garner national and/or international attention newtrail.ualberta.ca

A MAN WHO PUTS HOPE ON THE HORIZON

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD

PHOTO © WVI 2014

He left a career as a corporate executive to lead one of the world’s largest relief organizations

W The Alumni Association’s most prestigious award, recognizing living graduates whose outstanding achievements have earned them national or international prominence BY RICK PILGER

hen Kevin Jenkins, ’80 LLB, spoke to University of Alberta law students in 2006, he offered some career advice. Jenkins — who had taken his law degree into the business world, shaping the face of Canadian Airlines and, later, Westaim Corp. as their top executive — advised students to evaluate a company’s culture to plot their strategic career moves. Not long after, Jenkins followed his own advice. He took a sharp turn in his career

path to join an organization with a culture that reflected his own values. In 2009, committed to his Christian faith and wanting to make a difference in the world, he took over leadership of one of the world’s largest relief and development organizations, World Vision International. He hasn’t regretted the decision. “I have a great sense of calling, of being in the right place,” Jenkins says. “I had a strong sense when I left the business world of being called to something more purposeful.” His leadership was just what World Vision needed, says Denis St-Amour, global chair of World Vision International at the time Jenkins was recruited as president and CEO. St-Amour credits Jenkins with transforming the organization from “running to catch up with itself” to serving as an example to other NGOs striving to deal with complex global issues.

Working from the United Kingdom near London, Jenkins leads a staff of 45,000 and administers an annual budget of almost $3 billion, providing assistance to 120 million children and their families in nearly 100 countries. As a family man with three adult children and a marriage of 30-plus years, he is proud of World Vision’s impact on families. Ensuring that the donations entrusted to his organization are used effectively to assist them is a huge responsibility, he says. Since taking the reins, he has emphasized the importance of solid evidence to show that donations are being put to good use. “I’m pushing to have more third-party evidence of our effectiveness,” he says. The job takes him from some of the highest halls of power — meeting with United Nations, World Bank and government representatives around the globe — to some of the world’s poorest communities. He recalls during one of these trips meeting a 14-year-old girl who had grown up in a New Delhi slum. “She was a third-generation beggar,” he says. The girl described the hopes she had waking up every day: that no man would hurt her and that she would get at least one meal that day. With the help of World Vision, she began attending school and started to contemplate a career. “It struck me,” says Jenkins, “that we had changed a child’s hope horizon — she had gone from looking one day ahead to talking about a vocation in a few years’ time.” For him, it crystallized what World Vision is all about. And it brought home that he had, indeed, made the right career move. newtrail autumn 2014

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD

One of the first female professional corporate directors in Canada, Eileen Mercier went on to steward the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan

H The Alumni Association’s most prestigious award, recognizing living graduates whose outstanding achievements have earned them national or international prominence BY RICK PILGER

newtrail.ualberta.ca

ow does one go from being a master’s student studying Old Norse to one of Canada’s pre-eminent corporate directors? In the case of Eileen Mercier, ’69 MA, outgoing chair of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and one of Canada’s most influential women (among the top 25, according to one rating), what connects the dots is her active and lively curiosity. As a student, Mercier was interested in how languages develop. She attended the University of Alberta to study Old English and Old Norse. After graduating, she decided

to take a year-long break before continuing on to her PhD. But she had to support herself so, scrambling to find something to pay the bills after a lecturing position fell through, she took a communications job with the Toronto Stock Exchange. That’s when her curiosity began propelling her along a different career path. Soon, to better understand what she was writing about, she enrolled in a securities course. “I found I liked it,” she says, “which was a huge surprise!” Her new-found interest led her to a group doing organizational development work for the Toronto-Dominion Bank. Another step took her to TD Capital Group, where she not only got a taste of investment banking but also obtained a solid grounding in corporate governance. “I was an observer on the board or an actual board member of a number of companies in which the bank had investments, and I learned

PHOTO BY PAUL LAWRENCE

THE 140-BILLIONDOLLAR WOMAN

from some very accomplished board members,” she says. Having completed an MBA, Mercier moved on from banking to management positions in other industries, holding senior posts at Canwest Capital Corp., Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. and Abitibi-Price Inc., where she was senior vice-president and CFO. “All the time doing other jobs, I had one or more boards on the side,” says Mercier, who established her own management-consulting firm in 1997. Half a dozen years later, finding herself more in demand as a board member than a consultant, she decided to become a professional corporate director — one of the first women in Canada to build a career in corporate governance. Mercier has served on the boards of 28 organizations, from small companies to global conglomerates. She has also volunteered as chair of the governing board at Wilfrid Laurier University and vicechair of York University’s board of governors and currently sits on the board of Toronto’s University Health Network. She holds honorary doctorates from York University and Wilfrid Laurier University and fellowships in the Institute of Corporate Directors of Canada and the Institute of Canadian Bankers. Mercier’s term as chair of the board of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan — which has more than $140 billion in net assets — has covered some turbulent times. She led the board in its oversight of investments during the 2008 market crisis, helped the plan’s sponsors resolve successive funding shortfalls and implemented a succession plan to replace the inaugural CEO. Is she planning to slow down now that her term in that demanding position is coming to an end? Not entirely, she says. “I love to do things. I love to learn things.”

DANISHA BHALOO ’07 BA(Criminology)

KATHRYN DONG ’07 MSc

Inspired by her own upbringing and empowered by education, she became an advocate and a role model for youth at risk.

A dedicated physician, she works to close the gaps and improve the experiences of socially vulnerable people in the emergency rooms of their local hospitals.

ALUMNI CENTENARY AWARD

ALUMNI HORIZON AWARD

Celebrating the outstanding achievements of University of Alberta alumni early in their careers

Celebrating alumni who have made an uncommon gift of time, self and energy to the University of Alberta

JIM HOLE ’79 BSc(Ag) MEGAN ENGEL ’12 BSc(Hons), ’13 MSc

GOVIND V. KAIGALA ’05 MEng, ’09 PhD

DIANE M. ORIHEL ’13 PhD

A Rhodes Scholar and researcher in an emerging field of nanoscience, she is applying design principles in nature to uncover future sources of energy.

An IBM-Zurich researcher, he combines his expertise in engineering and medicine to develop innovative solutions to problems in clinical diagnostics.

An outspoken defender of science funding and evidence-based government policy, her work helped save the Experimental Lakes Area research site.

ADAM ROZENHART ’04 BA

LESLEY-ANNE SCORGIE ’05 BCom

AMY SHOSTAK ’07 BA

SHARON MORSINK ’97 PhD

A storyteller and local social media leader, he builds community through conversation and by sharing his passion for all things Edmonton.

An entrepreneur, author and financial expert, she encourages financial literacy and teaches that giving back is as important as earning money.

A community connector and director of Rapid Fire Theatre, she has encouraged Edmontonians to “make something” with events, startups and festivals.

Using the stars as a portal to education, this theoretical astrophysicist engages students and the public through a passion for astronomy.

A volunteer, advocate and community leader, he gives back to his alma mater by supporting University of Alberta students and the Alumni Association.

newtrail autumn 2014

SPORTS WALL OF FAME

THE HONOURABLE DR. LOIS E. HOLE STUDENT SPIRIT AWARD

Recognizing the contributions of alumni as athletes and builders of university sport

COME MEET OUR AWARD -WINNING ALUMNI SEPT. 18 AT EDMONTON’S JUBILEE AUDITORIUM. PRE-REGISTER FOR THIS COMPLIMENTARY EVENT AT UALBERTA.CA/ALUMNI/WEEKEND.

Recognizing undergraduate students who demonstrate a spirit of caring and community service

GERRY F. INGLIS ’79 BEd

CHUCK MOSER ’64 BPE, ’72 MA

A former Golden Bears football star who played for three CFL teams, he continues to give back to the U of A, sport and the community.

A tireless supporter of recreation in Alberta and U of A athletics, his legacy lives on in his best-known creation: GUBA, the Golden Bears mascot.

ANDREW TANG ’13 BMedSc, ’14 MD

DON MUNRO ’59 BPE, ’62 BEd, ’66 Dip(Ed)

HELEN WRIGHT ’94 BA

He was a leader in efforts at the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry to develop a curriculum that increases interdisciplinary co-operation and teamwork.

A standout in both basketball and football while at the U of A, he went on to share his love of sport as a teacher, coach and referee.

This founder and first head coach of the Pandas rugby team is also a pioneer in the sport at the national and international levels.

JEESHAN CHOWDHURY ’05 BMedSc, ’14 MD This Rhodes Scholar founded Hacking Health, which taps the fields of medicine and technology to find realistic solutions to international health issues.

newtrail.ualberta.ca

FROM PASTURES TO POLITICS

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD

PHOTO BY JOHN ULAN

He has received France’s Legion of Honour and a rare accolade from the emperor of Japan, but you might know him best as former Speaker of the Senate

O The Alumni Association’s most prestigious award, recognizing living graduates whose outstanding achievements have earned them national or international prominence BY RICK PILGER

n rolling pastures framed by a breathtaking view of the Canadian Rockies, Dan Hays, ’62 BA, maintains a small breeding herd of beef cattle — some 120 Hays Converters, the hardy and efficient breed developed by his father, the late Harry Hays. “I’ve been interested in agriculture all my life,” says Hays. “It has been a constant through the years.” Although he sold his ranch some years ago, this former Speaker of the Senate couldn’t make a complete break with raising

cattle — thus the herd he retains near Pekisko, Alta. His agricultural background is only one of the roots that anchor Hays to Alberta. He was born in Calgary, grew up on a farm on the outskirts of the city and has been associated with the same Calgary law firm for almost 50 years. An honorary chair of the Calgary Stampede Foundation, he continues to host the Hays Breakfast during the Stampede, a tradition that dates back to 1950. Although firmly rooted in Alberta, he is also very much a citizen of Canada and the world. Appointed to the Senate of Canada by former prime minister Pierre Trudeau in 1984, he played a role in some of the iconic public policy debates in Canada’s modern history — including those over the goods and services tax and the North American Free Trade Agreement — and chaired a special committee on Senate reform. From 2001 until 2006,

he was Speaker of the Senate, the first Albertan to hold the position. The Speaker is behind only the governor general, the prime minister and the chief justice in Canadian precedence, the rules that dictate protocol among dignitaries. Hays was born in 1939 and his earliest memories are of the war years. Two Japanese families lived on his family farm, having opted to serve as farm workers rather than be interned in a camp. The young Hays quickly developed a close relationship with them. “It was just the norm for me,” he recalls. “They babysat me, I had meals with them … .” He later became aware that the families were not well regarded by many in the community simply because they were Japanese. “It showed me how people can be so wrong, judging on the basis of ethnicity,” he says. His experience ignited an interest in Japanese culture. As a senator, Hays pursued a number of initiatives to promote Canada-Japan relations. In 2000, the emperor of Japan conferred on him the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure. Hays was only the second Canadian to be so honoured. His international interests spread well beyond Japan. As Speaker of the Senate, he led 40 Canadian delegations to almost as many nations and welcomed a similar number of delegations to Canada. He worked to further Canada’s involvement in the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, the Frenchspeaking equivalent of the Commonwealth. In 2011, in recognition of Hays’ efforts to build bridges of understanding between France and Canada, this proud Albertan and global citizen was made an officer of France’s Legion of Honour. newtrail autumn 2014

newtrail.ualberta.ca

by WAYNE ARTHURSON

Trevor Duplessis,

’97 BEd, ’00 BFA

He garnered a Gemini nomination and Best Actor Award from the American Indian Film Festival for his role in the film In a World Created by a Drunken God, and he plays a recurring role in the TV series Blackstone. But acting is only one passion: he’s also a teacher, a writer and a blues musician.

PHOTO BY JOHN ULAN

You studied to become a teacher but moved to acting. Why? I was an English minor when I was doing my education degree and I discovered Shakespeare. I was reading through the Shakespeare canon for class and it started to push buttons. I thought, ‘Wow, this is something.’ So I read up on the BFA acting program and it seemed to be the program of my dreams. I auditioned and I think I got lucky because I hear it’s pretty tough to get in. What about writing? When did that start? I started writing when I started reading for myself, a year after I was out of university. I found this book, Kiss Me, Judas, a neo-noir crime book by Will Christopher Baer. I had believed that you had to write a certain way, but I put that book down and thought, ‘You’re allowed to do that?’ Then I wanted to see if I could finish a story — a bit of an experiment. It took a couple of years and the quality was dubious, but someone had it slated for publication at one point.

Things didn’t work out with that publisher but it must be good if it was slated for publication? That’s the thing. You start writing and you create other ideas; other seeds pop up. So while I was doing that first book I had another idea, but I knew I had to finish that first book whether it was good or not. That’s how it works for me: while I’m working on one thing, another idea will pop up. Like the blues? That tugged me the same way Shakespeare did. I thought, ‘Wow, there’s something to this and I want to do it.’ You see, I can’t just be a fan of something. I need to immerse myself. I once talked to my doctor about stress and he told me to get a hobby. And I said, “You don’t understand. If I pick up a hobby, I want to get really, really good at it.” So when you take up a hobby, you just own it? I do tend to obsess and it can be hard to switch it off. I get up at five in the morning, when

there’s nobody around, so I make as much noise or write as many words as I can before my day starts. That way I don’t miss my kids and I still have energy for work. So what comes first: acting, music or writing? As far as order goes it’s more of a web, because the process I use for performing onstage or in front of the camera is the same approach I use for all of them. Being exposed to teachings from elders, I’ve discovered the idea that we’re made up of our physicality, our intellect, our emotions and our spirituality. If I want my character to be truly alive onstage, I have to work all that out. And when I’m writing, I need to fill the world with all these things because if I don’t, something’s missing. And that’s trickled over into the music. It’s all the same process. I’ve yet to find an art form where you aren’t well served by using all those ideas, even in visual art. You can tell when somebody puts their soul into something. newtrail autumn 2014

ALUMNI EVENTS

REGIONAL ACTIVITIES Stay involved with the U of A through one of the more than 50 active alumni chapters around the world. Check online for information about events near you. TORONTO | AUG. 23 Beamsville Bench area wine tour and lunch CALGARY | SEPT. 1 Labour Day Classic: Tailgate Party and Game CALGARY | SEPT. 23 Calgary Alumni Lecture Series: Cancer with associate professor Marie Postovit RED DEER | SEPT. 28 Carriage ride and family barbecue FORT MCMURRAY | OCT. 2 “Beach” party TORONTO | OCT. 4 Football game: Argos versus Eskimos EDMONTON | OCT. 29 Educated Lifestyle: Pure Prairie Eating Plan with professor Cathy Chan EDMONTON | NOV. 6 Educated Lifestyle: Men’s Health with associate professor John Lewis VICTORIA | NOV. 15 Annual brunch

THINGS TO DO AT ALUMNI WEEKEND 2014 SEPT. 18-21 DO GREAT THINGS AT ALUMNI WEEKEND 2014 Volunteers are needed to assist with the Alumni Association’s largest event of the year. Join the fun assisting at various events or helping with pre-event setup. SEPT. 18 | 2014 ALUMNI AWARDS Join us at the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton to celebrate some of the U of A’s most outstanding graduates. SEPT. 19 | GREEN AND GOLD DAY Wherever you are, show your U of A spirit by donning green and gold. For those near North Campus, meet in Quad at noon for an aerial photo. SEPT. 19 | ALUMNI WEEKEND LECTURE WITH ALEXANDRE BILODEAU Be inspired by two-time Olympic gold medallist Alex Bilodeau, the first Canadian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal on home soil. SEPT. 20 | FAMILY FUN IN THE TENT Bring your family to Quad for an afternoon of fun including a BBQ from noon to 2 p.m., plus a campus-wide game of hide-and-seek led by the U of A Hide and Seek Club. SEPT. 20 | GOLDEN GRADS DINNER All 1964 grads (and earlier) and their guests are invited to the Hotel Macdonald for fine dining in a relaxed atmosphere. SEPT. 20 | FEAST OF FIELDS: A HARVEST CELEBRATION All alumni are invited to experience the very best in local food and drink at this Alberta Harvest celebration, with special toasts in honour of the classes of 1974 and 1989. More on all events at ualberta.ca/alumni/weekend.

VANCOUVER | NOV. 16 Annual Brunch at the Yacht Club CALGARY | NOV. 27 Calgary Alumni Lecture Series: Petrocultures with professor Imre Szeman

MARK YOUR CALENDAR, MARK THE CENTENARY In 2015, the U of A Alumni Association celebrates its centenary. Save the dates for some very special events.

LETHBRIDGE | DEC. 5 Hurricanes Teddy Bear Toss reception and game

JAN. 29-31 | GREEN AND GLOW WINTERFEST

CALGARY | DEC. 7 Hitmen Teddy Bear Toss lunch and game

SEPT. 24-27 | ALUMNI WEEKEND 2015

MAY 22-23 | VOLUNTEER LEADERSHIP SUMMIT

Dates are subject to change; events are added daily. For more or to register, visit

newtrail.ualberta.ca

1. More than 900 people turned out to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the U of A Mixed Chorus at the Annual Spring Concert and Reception, held in April at the Francis Winspear Centre for Music in Edmonton. Mixed Chorus alumni, their families and the public took in the concert and paged through memorabilia of the group’s past seven decades. Photo by Ian Jackson/Epic Photography

2. Kimberly Lockert, ’92 BA, braved chilly weather to join other alumni volunteers picking up litter during the River Valley Cleanup May 4 in Edmonton. Photo by Sean Trayner

3. Gagandeep Bharj, ’00 BSc(Spec), ’12 MBA, put a paintbrush to work June 21 on the main campus during Campus Spruce Up, hosted by the Alumni Association and the U of A’s Facilities and Operations. Photo by Sharyar Memon 4. Eric Gauf, ’08 BA(Hons), chats with other alumni at the president’s alumni reception in Vancouver in April. Photo by Michael Lee

5. From left: Angeline Joss, ’58 Dip(Nu), ’59 BScN; Desiree Kendrick, external relations co-ordinator with the Faculty of Education; Bessie Ellis, ’71 MEd; and Jessica Twidale, director of development with the Faculty of Nursing, attended the president’s alumni reception in Victoria in April. Photo by Gabriel Taschereau/PixReflections

Advertise in New Trail Magazine Your message delivered to the doorstep of more than 150,000 U of A grads. ualberta.ca/alumni/newtrailads newtrail autumn 2014

CL A SS NOTES

WE LOVE TO HEAR WHAT YOU’RE DOING. Tell us about your new baby or your new job. Celebrate a personal accomplishment, a volunteer activity or share your favourite campus memories. Submit a class note at alumni.ualberta.ca/connect/class-notes or email alumni@ualberta.ca.

1940s

’40 Robert Blackburn, BA, ’41 MA, published his autobiography, From Barley Field to Academe (University of Toronto Press). The book tells how one pronouncement from his grandfather in the middle of the Great Depression led to a lifetime of librarianship for Robert. The autobiography tells of his leadership role in the expansion and reorganization of the University of Toronto book collections, services and procedures, the construction of the world’s largest academic library building and the development of the U of T’s fully computerized catalogue — the first of any library and the model of the current international standard.

1950s

’51 Allen R. Wells, BSc(Ag), writes that a decade ago he contributed illustrations to the book Morning Has Broken, a collection of childhood memories of life on an early Alberta farm written by his sister Jean Wells. In 2012, Allen expanded on the theme of his sister’s book in an autobiography of his own, The Winter Count. This year, Allen released his new book, The First Canadian, a biography of William Lyon Mackenzie King, “one of Canada’s three greatest (and probably most misunderstood) prime ministers.” The book has sold steadily since its release and Allen says, “A copy was purchased by the National Library of Scotland (all four of King’s grandparents were from Scotland) and by a growing list of public libraries and individuals across Canada.” Allen expects his next book (topic still unknown) to be completed in two years.

NEW U OF A BOARD OF GOVERNORS MEMBERS Four alumni were appointed as new members to the U of A’s Board of Governors. Ray Muzyka, ’90 BMedSc, ’92 MD, and Michael Ross, ’72 BCom, joined the board May 13, Rob Parks, ’87 BEd, ’99 MBA, joined July 3, and LeRoy Johnson, ’68 BEd, will begin his term Oct. 22.

newtrail.ualberta.ca

’58 Clare Drake, BEd, ’95 LLD(Hon), the winningest coach in Canadian university hockey history with 697 career victories, was inducted into the Order of Hockey in Canada. In his 28 years as coach at the U of A, he led the Bears hockey team to six national titles. He also coached in the NHL, WHA and internationally with the men’s and women’s hockey programs. The order’s members are chosen by a selection committee on behalf of Hockey Canada “on the basis of their outstanding contributions or service to the growth and development of the sport of hockey in Canada.” Members include players, coaches, officials, administrators, executives, trainers, physicians, inventors or any other person whose role or service in the game is recognized as extraordinary. ’58 James Lavers, BEd, ’70 MEd, wrote to say: “My BEd and MEd were both earned [at the University of Alberta], except for a first year at U of A Calgary branch from 1946 to 1947, and by evening credit and summer schools. I also did several courses in history, such that I had ‘six years of training’ (for salary purposes) before deciding to do an MEd in vocational education (available in the 1960s and ’70s through the above method). Originally I wanted to do an MA in Russian history on the rise of Russian liberal thought, 1825-1925, but for a variety of reasons could not continue. I also did post-grad work in educational psychology and educational admin.” James is now a consultant providing adult education in the area of human resources, management and senior leadership.

1960s

’64 Robert Sexty, BCom, published a new edition of his book, Canadian Business & Society: Ethics, Responsibilities and Sustainability, with McGraw-Hill Ryerson in January. ’67 Penelope (Penny) Hynam, BA(Hons), enjoyed a 25-year career in the Canadian film and television industry, including work with CBC and City TV. Penny co-founded the documentary production company Mobius Productions and worked as a script supervisor on the set of more than 40 movies and television dramas. She was the founding assistant director of Norman Jewison’s Canadian Centre for Advanced Film Studies in Toronto. Penny moved to Barbados in 1992, where she was director of the Barbados National Trust, project director of George Washington House and Museum, and continued to work in filmmaking, writing, producing, co-producing and/or directing several films. She was the founding president of the Barbados Film and Video Association. She was also a regional instructor for the Caribbean Tourism Organization, teaching workshops on heritage site management, as well as workshops through the Barbados Film and Video Association. Penny is currently the managing director of Sea Weaver Productions Inc. and has recently co-directed a workshop on television production for the Caribbean Broadcasting Union. Penelope writes: “My father, Charles Hynam, (who was born in Barbados) was a respected professor for many years at the U of A, a sociologist and the first head of the master’s program in community development — the first such program, I believe, in North America. That is how I ended up in Edmonton and loved my university years there.”

’70 April Bending, BFA, was honoured recently by the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands as an artist whose work was purchased for the permanent collection. The painting is titled Peaceful Palms. The image of a renewed palm emerging from a dark background references hurricane Ivan, which caused so much destruction. The painting reflects the indomitable essence of nature and of the Cayman people. April, who moved to Cayman in 2001, taught at the University College of the Cayman Islands. While there, she was asked to help teach English to the inmates at Northward men’s prison. She recalls that the prison was hot, with no air conditioning. Men were housed in small concrete-block cells wide enough for a cot and space to shuffle past to look out the small barred hole in the wall that was a window. If they behaved well they could go out into the yard and play dominoes at a table under a thatched roof. Boredom and heat created short tempers. Fighting brought an addition of months to the sentences. April recognized that a creative outlet would be beneficial and approached the director of the prison to get permission for art classes. It was agreed that if she could raise the funds for materials, the prison would arrange a room for art classes, funded by the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman. The guards reported that behaviour was improved after the classes and recidivism was reduced. April gained a sense of fulfillment and enjoyed spending time with the men who were cheerful and appreciative of the experience. The classes grew to include Fairbanks, the women’s prison, Art Magnet for at-risk teens through the national gallery and Art Sisters for abused women through the Women’s Resource Centre. April received an award from the Rotary Club for creating these classes.

newtrail autumn 2014

CL A SS NOTES

1970s

’70 John Golberg, BSc, ’74 MD, wrote to say: “I have lived in little Rhode Island now for most of my life. Still working as an orthopedic surgeon, left private practice a while ago, tried Arizona for a while, now back in the Northeast. Four grown sons keep me working. One, a recent U of A grad, lives in Edmonton so I get an occasional visit. My most interesting experience was a year in Cambridge, Ont., and a stint there as a parttime apple farmer!” ’71 Robert (Jack) Meredith, BSc(MechEng), has been selected for the LEED Fellows Class of 2013 by the U.S. Green Building Council and the Green Buildings Certification Institute. The LEED Fellows program recognizes exceptional contributions to the green building community as well as significant

’78 Barry Litun, BEd, retired as superintendent for Lethbridge School District in 2013 and is now the executive director for the College of Alberta School Superintendents.

newtrail.ualberta.ca

1980s achievements within a growing community of LEED professionals. Jack is the CEO of Healthy Green Buildings Consultants Ltd. in Victoria. He has been a consultant on many high-profile green building projects, including Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics facilities and the record-setting LEED Platinum Dockside Green development in Victoria. ’78 Bev Biggeman, BEd, worked at Olds College for most of her career. She lives in Alberta in the winter, but in the summer, she and her partner live outside Swift Current, Sask. They put in a crop every year and are renovating a 100-year-old family farmhouse. Bev has written a series of stories, Biggeman Tales: Tall and True, about growing up on a farm near Westlock, Alta., and is now writing about life on the farm in Saskatchewan.

’81 Janice MacDonald, BA(Hons), ’87 MA, wrote to say, “My sixth mystery novel in the Randy Craig series, set in and around the University of Alberta, [was] published in June 2014. The Roar of the Crowd features a look at the theatre scene in Edmonton, including the Freewill Shakespeare Festival and the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival.” Her recent novel, Condemned to Repeat, spent 18 weeks on the Edmonton Journal’s bestseller list.

’82 Daniel Leung, BSc, ’84 BSc(SpecCert), shared his love of cycling and fundraising: “In July of 2012, I rode with a small group of cyclists from Calgary to Vancouver. It took us two weeks to finish the journey. We raised $85,000 for each of three new churches in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. It was an epic journey that changed my perspective on life. This summer, I am going to ride from coast to coast with Love in Motion to raise money for different church projects.” Visit loveinmotion.ca to learn more. ’85 Kerry Rose, BEd, is a current PhD student who wrote to tell us about her amazing mother, Gladys Teske. Gladys attended the U of A in 1954–55, received a oneyear diploma in education and began teaching elementary school the following year. Over the next 60 years, Gladys taught, raised a family and lived in Greece for two years. She became an election observer and organizer and worked on international elections in places such as South Africa (for Nelson Mandela’s election), Namibia, Gambia, Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon, Ukraine and East Timor, helping support free and fair elections. Gladys has just self-published a book about

’86 Chris Craddock, BFA, explodes the conventions of the theatrical monologue in his newly released collection of three “hilarious, poignant, feverishly inventive and (sometimes literally) electric” solo stage pieces. He is also appearing in the Super Channel TV series Tiny Plastic Men. Chris has been recognized in Canada with four Sterling Awards, two Dora Mavor Moore Awards and multiple Alberta Film and Television Awards nominations for his film and TV work. His previous play collection for teens, Naked at School, won an Alberta Book Award.

PHOTO BY SUSANNE PAWLIUK, ’90 BSc(SPEC), ’96 MBA

’89 Robert Pawliuk, BSc(MechEng), wrote to let us know about the 25th anniversary reunion of the ’89 Mech E Hockey Team. “Twenty-five years ago we graduated from mechanical engineering, excited to embark on a myriad of careers that would span the continent and globe. A few stayed in Alberta, but others took their careers to Georgia, Texas, California, Colombia and Denmark, to name a few. But one thing remained constant for the group: our love of hockey. In the fall of 2013, with the anniversary of our U of A graduation fast approaching, an email started to float around suggesting that the “old” Mech E Hockey Team reunite to celebrate. We’d relive the days when the Mechanical Engineering hockey team was a force to be reckoned with in intramural league

play and commemorate the Engineering Week hockey tournament. Dave Riech, ’89 BSc(MechEng), suggested reuniting in Las Vegas in April 2014 to play in a fun hockey tournament with several other Canadian teams, relive old times and create new memories. Before you knew it, 17 grads and six very brave (supportive) spouses were on our way to Vegas, baby! The end result was a hard-fought 4-2 final victory for the Mech E Moose Men over a team from Ontario to win the Gambler’s Cup (team photo below). But more importantly, everyone had the opportunity to reunite with classmates they hadn’t seen since graduation. It’s amazing that so many things can change in 25 years, yet the bonds created at the University of Alberta last a lifetime.”

her experiences called I Walked With Them ... To the Ballot Box. She has two daughters, who graduated from the U of A with degrees in education, and two granddaughters who are studying at the U of A, one in psychology and one in English literature. ’85 Ron Wickman, BA, has published Accessible Architecture: A Visit From Pops. This book, designed in the simple format and style of a children’s book, aims to educate people of all ages and change the way industry views accessibility, particularly in single-family homes. Wickman, an architect who specializes in barrier-free design, hopes to encourage more “visitable” homes — those that make it easier for people with disabilities to visit friends and family. ’86 Astrid Blodgett, BA, ’96 MA, has been nominated for several awards for her first book of short stories, You Haven’t Changed a Bit. She was named runner-up for the 2013 Danuta Gleed Literary Award, adjudicated by the Writers’ Union of Canada, and was shortlisted for the 2014 Alberta Literary Awards Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story. Astrid is also a finalist in the running for the High Plains Book Award (winners to be announced in October). Additionally, she was awarded an Alberta Foundation for the Arts grant.

Back row from left (standing): Dave Reich, ’89 BSc(MechEng), James Brown, ’89 BSc(MechEng), Greg Hrabec, ’89 BSc(MechEng), Trevor Lamb, ’90 BSc(MechEng), Jim Vergouwen, ’89 BSc(MechEng), Duncan Johnson, Robert Pawliuk, ’89 BSc(MechEng), Dale Neufeld, ’90 BSc(MechEng), John Manson, ’90 BSc(MechEng), Greg Fukushima, ’89 BSc(MechEng). Kneeling: Scott Properzi, ’89 BSc(MechEng), Garry Makar, ’89 BSc(MechEng), Doug Makowecki, ’90 BSc(MechEng), Bill McAvoy, ’90 BSc(MechEng), Blaine Weller, ’89 BSc(MechEng), Kirk Byrtus, ’89 BSc(MechEng). Goalie (on ice, in front): Barry MacKenzie, ’89 BSc(MechEng).

’86 Jide Familoni, PhD, is the winner in the African-American category for the 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for Losing My Religion. The book recounts his experiences as an African immigrant and the confrontation between his native value system and his life after moving to Canada and the United States. newtrail autumn 2014

CL A SS NOTES

80s ’86 Craig Gordon, BEd, writes: “I am very proud to mention I recently attended my daughter Jillian’s U of A convocation, where she received her bachelor’s degree in anthropology. Currently, I work in the oil industry as a safety officer, a very rewarding career and a nice change after teaching for a number of years in several different communities around Alberta. After a few medical issues in my late 40s, I now have a new lease on life and am enjoying what I do very much.”

’87 Floyd Hodgins, BA, let us know about his new book. “My first book, a novel (Sandy), was just published in the United States and is available worldwide on Amazon and other websites. I have been busy with businesses in two countries, Japan and Canada, and now with the book in the United States. It feels like

I blinked and now it is 20 years later. I expect to publish a few more books for the next few years — all different, like my life.”

’89 Kay Gould, BScN, retired as a nurse at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton in 1996. In 1998, she and her husband, Ross Gould, ’56 BSc(Ag), ’79 MAg, moved to Calgary to be closer to family and hiking in the mountains. After a busy life of nursing, Kay says retirement left her with too much time on her hands so she took up quilting. Several sessions with the Rocky Mountain Art Quilts workshops in Canmore, Alta., led her to develop her own art quilts. To date, she has had two of her quilts featured in two separate art quilt magazines, one in Washington state and one in Australia. Apart from quilting, Kay keeps busy demonstrating fabric arts at Heritage Park in Calgary.

’88 PearlAnn Reichwein, BA, has written Climber’s Paradise: Making Canada’s Mountain Parks, 19061974, to be published by University of Alberta Press in August. It presents a compelling case for understanding wild places and human activity within them as parts of a whole. A work of invaluable scholarship in the areas of environmental history, public policy, sport studies, recreation and tourism, Climber’s Paradise will appeal to many non-specialists, mountaineers, environmentalists and travellers across Canada and beyond.

Alumni Volunteer Counter

Goal: 2,015 volunteers by 2015

Make your time count! Be a part of the Alumni Volunteer Challenge. Get involved at alumni.ualberta.ca/volunteer.

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T U RN I N G P O I N T

The university years are a time of change and growth, but some alumni can pinpoint a moment in their university careers that changed the course of their lives. This is one such story. Share your own at alumni.ualberta.ca/connect/class-notes.

FROM POULTRY HANDLER TO CANCER RESEARCH

PHOTO BY JOHN ULAN

A Cross Cancer Institute researcher says his rural background led to a life-changing opportunity working with Lorne Tyrrell

GROWING UP ON A FARM outside Grande Prairie, Alta., John Mackey, ’90 MD, always knew he wanted to be a physician. By age 19, he had been accepted to the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and was offered a lab position with internationally renowned researcher Lorne Tyrrell, ’64 BSc, ’68 MD. “At the time, I thought I must have impressed him with my intelligence,” remembers Mackey, now a professor and oncologist. “But I think what actually happened is he realized I was a farm boy. Since he was working with a duck model of hepatitis B, I think he simply figured, ‘Here’s a guy who can handle poultry!’ ” And handle poultry he did. Mackey dutifully worked with scores of ducks to test various potential hepatitis B treatments (one of which was, ultimately, successful). Between visits with the poultry, he’d go back to Tyrrell’s biochemistry lab to run experiments on the drugs and viruses being tested. “I found I really enjoyed the lab aspect,” says

Mackey. “Even though it wasn’t my original what I saw and learned in his lab and clinic to plan, I knew that I wanted to get into medical other problems.” research instead of setting up a family practice.” For Mackey, that problem is cancer. He Today, Mackey is director of clinical trials oversees 600 clinical trial patients a year at at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, a the Cross Cancer Institute. That’s 12 per cent professor of oncology in the U of A’s Faculty of of all patients coming through the door, he Medicine & Dentistry and a medical oncologist says, noting it’s triple the national average. who treats breast cancer patients. Mackey’s latest clinical trial used DNA His work straddles two worlds: one of real testing to determine chemotherapy dosages patients coping with real problems and one for breast cancer patients. Every person of theoretical “discovery science.” Just like his metabolizes medication at a different rate so, mentor, Lorne Tyrrell. in the past, people with fast metabolisms were “Here is Lorne: a wonderful doctor — kind, not receiving enough chemotherapy to cure compassionate, knows and understands his their cancers. Mackey is studying the effects of patients,” says Mackey. “But then he comes giving fast-metabolizing patients a higher dose. back to the lab and has these fascinating This kind of “pharmacogenomics,” or interactions with discovery scientists, designing personalized medicine, is offering new hope experiments ... to help the patients he’s seeing and real results in treating cancer. in the clinic.” “If we define a new treatment that can help Tyrrell’s research led to the first drug a particular cancer problem, we might be treatment for hepatitis B, now used globally. helping 60,000 patients globally,” says Mackey. “He has made a huge difference,” Mackey says, “That makes it exciting to get up and go to work “and his work helped me imagine applying every day.” — Tina Faiz newtrail autumn 2014

CL A SS NOTES

1990s

’90 Andrew Sokol, BSc(CivEng), has been promoted to vice-president of STV, an engineering, architectural, planning, environmental and construction management firm. In this role, Andrew will be responsible for operations and business development in the passenger rail market for the company’s Transportation and Infrastructure Division’s western region.

ORDER OF CANADA APPOINTMENTS Three alumni were appointed to the Order of Canada in December 2013. Paul Cantor, ’62 BA, was named a member of the Order of Canada. Eliot Phillipson, ’63 MD, ’65 MSc, ’09 DSc (Honorary), was promoted to officer of the Order of Canada, and Donald Mazankowski, ’93 LLD (Honorary), was promoted to companion of the Order of Canada.

literature for the future.” The Gabrielle Roy Prize — named in honour of the FrenchCanadian author — awards two prestigious prizes, one in English and one in French, for Canadian and/or Quebec literary criticism.

’91 Sandra Hawes, BSc, ’96 LLB, has been elected as managing partner of Miller Thomson LLP’s Edmonton office and is a member of the national executive committee. ’92 Kevin Zak, BFA, ’12 MDes, is the creator of “Wow, open this!”: Paper Engineering in Books and Artists’ Books. Published by University of Alberta Press, the book accompanied an exhibit by the same name of pop-up books from the collection at the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library. Exploring the art and sciences behind pop-ups, movable elements and variations used to bring a scene to life in the reader’s hands, “Wow, open this!” creates a sense of magic, challenging our assumptions of what a book really is by reinterpreting the form and how it functions.

’98 Sheila Graham (Soder), BA, is enjoying being back on the U of A campus as a communications strategist in the Office of Advancement. ’98 Deirdre St. Luke, BA, has launched a new business as a corporate storyteller. Her website can be found at dstluke.com. ’93 Paul Martin, BA(Hons), ’02 PhD, is the winner of the Gabrielle Roy Prize for his book Sanctioned Ignorance. His research for the book — interviews with 95 professors in 27 universities — maps the institutional chasms in communication and the nature of their persistence. The prize selection committee was unanimous in its admiration for Paul’s “vital and far-reaching questions about the protocols and pitfalls of creating a Canadian national

’99 Laurie D. Graham, BA, released her first book of poetry, Rove, in fall 2013. Published by Hagios Press in Regina, Rove is a long poem that looks at the colonial settlement of the Prairies, from homesteading through to the proliferation of the suburbs, all through the lens of a single family line.

’97 Bradley Tolppanen, MLIS, has published a book, Churchill in North America, 1929: A Three-Month Tour of Canada and the United States, with McFarland Publishers. The book tells the story of Winston Churchill’s trip across the United States and Canada, including his visits with important figures in politics, business, newspapers and entertainment (President Hoover, Prime Minister Mackenzie King, William Randolph Hearst and Charlie Chaplin) as well as his visit to Edmonton and the rest of Alberta.

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Iron Woman SHE’S GETTING READY TO TAKE ON THE IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN OCTOBER, BUT THIS ALUMNA’S BIGGEST FOCUS IS GETTING OTHERS ACTIVE

PHOTO BY MARIE WREDE

t’s a miserable cold, rainy day in September 2013 in the mountain village of Kaslo, B.C. Race director Janis Neufeld, ’95 BPE, is wrapped up in her wet-weather gear at the finish line of the fourth annual Kootenay Sufferfest. She greets each race participant, regardless of their finish time, with enthusiastic clapping, hoots and a supportive hug. “What brings a smile to my face is watching everyone who crosses the finish line. I love seeing how happy and proud they are of their accomplishments, regardless of how far they went or how long it took,” says the soon-to-be Ironman competitor (more on that later). Whether they’re serious athletes or firsttimers, Neufeld’s enthusiasm for all of them illustrates an infectious commitment to good health that has enriched the lives of many living in southeast British Columbia. And as a professional coach and owner of a sports store in Nakusp, B.C., with her husband, Shon, helping others set goals for physical fitness is something she loves to do. “Moving to the Kootenays in 2009 was a great opportunity for me to help others get

off the couch, get active and get the most out of their incredible natural surroundings,” Neufeld says, describing the motivation to start up the Kootenay (originally Kaslo) Sufferfest in 2010. “I had already started up a local runners club for people of all ages and abilities, and the Kaslo Hotel suggested the idea of an event to draw more people into the community, something family-friendly that anyone could take part in.” The Sufferfest includes separate events for trail running, mountain biking and cyclocross, as well as an extreme, not-for-the-faint-hearted multi-day trail running race called the “Loonie Toonie.” It’s rapidly gaining in popularity and notoriety among riders and runners in British Columbia and Alberta. “Some competitors said our 100-kilometre event last year might even have been the hardest one-day mountain biking ride in Canada,” Neufeld says. But she says the Sufferfest is primarily a festival, rather than a competition, designed so every family member can take part. “There are distances and disciplines for everyone.”

Her favourite events are those the kids can do. “I often cry standing at that finish line; it’s just so great to see kids out moving and giving it their best.” Have her kids inherited her love of sport? “Yup! Setting an example works much better than nagging. I’m glad they think it’s just ‘normal’ to have a mom compete in a 12-hour race,” she says of steep goals she has set for herself. The most recent was to tackle the 2014 Coeur d’Alene Ironman in Idaho on June 29. She finished third in the 40-44 women’s age group, qualifying for a coveted spot at this year’s Ironman World Championship Oct. 11 in Hawaii. She’ll be one of 2,000 athletes who will swim, cycle and run a 226-kilometre course on the black lava fields of Kona and along the Kona Coast. Now she’s training for the Ironman World Championship on top of organizing the 2014 Sufferfest. The pace doesn’t faze her, though. “It is so worth it,” she says. “We live in such an incredible part of Canada, and it’s amazing how many people come back year after year to take part [in Sufferfest], despite the name.” — Wanda Vivequin

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CL A SS NOTES

2000s

’03 Tyler Arnold, BCom, writes: “I graduated from the University of Saskatchewan College of Law with a juris doctor degree and will be articling at my family’s firm, which has served High River, Alta., for 114 years.” ’03 Courtney Thomas, BA(Hons), ’05 MA, writes: “After earning my MA in history at the U of A and working for several years in the Office of University Governance, I graduated with a PhD in history and renaissance studies from Yale in 2013. I’ve relocated back to Edmonton and currently serve as the director of governance and services at the Graduate Students’ Association, working closely with the graduate student community at the U of A. I’ve had several academic articles published in the past few years (my most recent is on honour and family unity in early modern England, published in the journal Cultural and Social History) and have a monograph out for publication consideration. I also serve as a sessional instructor in MacEwan University’s Department of Humanities.” ’03 Trent Gillespie, BEd, and his family relocated to Prince Albert, Sask., in late 2007. The father of two busy girls, Trent is now a correctional educator with Correctional Service Canada and an actor/director with the local Odyssey Productions theatre group. He has released two books so far in his self-published science fiction series, Galactic Odyssey. Book 1, Escape from Tykonia, was published in December 2012, and book 2, Rise of the New Rebellion, was released in October 2013. Book 3 in the series, Legion of the Red Ring, was to be released in summer 2014. All books are available on Amazon. ’04 Mary Pat Barry, MA, is the presidentelect of the University of Alberta Alumni Association. She will take on the presidency on June 1, 2015. Mary Pat is vice-president 58

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of communications for Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures and has won numerous awards as a communications professional. ’04 Scott Deederly, BA, moved to Red Deer in September 2006 and served the Central Alberta community as constituency assistant, first under MP Bob Mills and later under MP Earl Dreeshen. Scott married Bryndis Whitson of Calgary in July 2010. He moved to Calgary in fall 2010 when he was recruited to work for Mayor Naheed Nenshi as a policy analyst. Scott has worked for the City of Calgary for the past three years and has recently been promoted to the position of senior policy adviser in the Calgary mayor’s office. ’05 Aaron Schulha, BPE, ’09 MA, is the 2014 winner of the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association Coaching Excellence Across All Sports award. Aaron was also named CCAA Men’s Volleyball Coach of the Year. The awards cap a successful year for his Red Deer College Kings volleyball team, which won the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference and CCAA championships, maintaining first place in the CCAA throughout the season. Aaron is a former Golden Bears volleyball player, Canadian Interuniversity Sport champion and son of former Golden Bears football player and athletics director Dale Schulha, ’72 BPE, ’74 MSc, ’74 Dip(Ed). ’06 Kailan Ruth Rubinoff, PhD, and Aaron S. Allen are delighted to welcome their son. Taliesin Robert Allen-Rubinoff was born Aug. 19, 2013, at Greensboro Women’s Hospital. Tali was 6 lb. 8 oz. and 19.5 inches long. Both Kailan and Aaron recently achieved tenure at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Kailan is now associate professor of musicology and Aaron is the academic sustainability co-ordinator and associate professor of musicology.

’06 Peter Midgley, PhD, wrote to let us know about his new book. “Counting Teeth is more than a memoir or a travel narrative. The return to the country of my birth and the journey around the country become vehicles through which I explore the history of Namibia and its struggle for independence, the first genocide of the 20th century and my own position as a conscientious objector. I write about growing up there and about my experiences of returning after an absence of 20 years. I write about my daughter’s first encounter with the country and about how the return of 70 skulls taken as trophies during the genocide has become a metaphor for the country and a symbol of what needs to be done to repair the past. In that way, it becomes a fitting book for Canada at this moment when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is wrapping up its investigations.” Peter was recently awarded the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence from the Editors’ Association of Canada for his work on The Last Temptation of Bond, by Kimmy Beach, ’98 BA(Hons). Peter is also nominated for the Lois Hole Award for Editorial Excellence for The Last Temptation of Bond.

SHOW YOUR SCHOOL SPIRIT. WEAR GREEN AND GOLD.

Green & Gold Day Friday, Sept. 19

Main Quad 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Now online: Who’s coming and the complete list of Alumni Weekend events. Plan your weekend: uab.ca/aw2014

THANK YOU TO OUR ALUMNI WEEKEND SPONSORS:

CL A SS NOTES

00s ’06 Richard Johnson, LLB, and Shellee Ritzman, ’01 BCom, married in 2010 in Edmonton before moving to Vancouver. On Dec. 8, 2013, they welcomed their first child, Shepherd Cole Johnson.

’03 Yukari Meldrum, MSc, ’09 PhD, published her first translated book, Will not forget both laughter and tears, with the University of Alberta Press. Originally written by Japanese author Tomoko Mitani, the collection of short stories and a novella reflects the everyday life of Japanese people from the point of view of a middle-class married woman. Yukari hopes that readers enjoy these down-to-earth stories. ’07 Zac Robinson, PhD, edited Conrad Kain: Letters From a Wandering Mountain Guide, 1906-1933, a collection of 144 letters written by Kain, an internationally renowned mountain guide, to his lifelong friend Amelie Malek. The letters provide a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to Canada in the early part of the 20th century as well as offering insight into the life of one of Canada’s great mountaineers. ’08 Jordan Abel, BA, is the winner of the 2014 B.C. Book Awards Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for The Place of Scraps. The poem centres on Marius Barbeau, an early-20th-century ethnographer who studied many of the First Nations cultures in the Pacific Northwest, including Jordan’s ancestral Nisga’a Nation, and explores the relationship between First Nations cultures and ethnography. 60

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2010s

’13 Kendra Barss, BA, wrote to say: “Since graduation, I’ve taken on several roles. I’ve got a job in social work and I’m the co-ordinator for an adult learning council. I’m also president of my local Catholic Women’s League chapter and secretary of the local Railway Preservation Society, and I sing in a Sweet Adelines Chorus and a barbershop quartet. I hold the title of music librarian within the chorus and sit on the nomination committee. I teach piano lessons to a couple of students. I also got married and bought a house this past year.”

Catherine Hunt beams with pride next to her brothers Scott (left) and David Hunt, ’78 BA, ’83 MA, after collecting her certificate in residential interiors from the Faculty of Extension at spring convocation. Catherine wrote to us on Facebook: “I’m so blessed to have my two brothers at my convocation. Mom got to watch ... via live streaming. It was an amazing day!”

F O REV E R G RE E N & G O LD

We all have a campus memory that sticks with us long after convocation — whether it be of a formative personal moment or one of those shared experiences that connects us all. Share your memory at alumni.ualberta.ca/connect/class-notes.

SOAKING UP THE BRIEF MOMENTS

ILLUSTRATION BY JASON LIN

Great professors teach you how to learn outside the classroom ONE HAND WAS ON THE STRAP of my backpack under my narrow desk, the other was holding a pen, and as I swiftly pulled the bag upward, the pen went flying, narrowly missing my professor. Minutes earlier, the classroom had been full of about 20 students, making it my smallest class that fall semester in my second year at the University of Alberta. But when my classics professor, Edward Blodgett, ended his discussion of the Epic of Gilgamesh or Oedipus the King or whatever the lecture was that long-ago day, the other students fled in hot pursuit of a long weekend. I glanced up to see Blodgett walking over. We chatted about our weekend plans. He asked if I was involved with the campus community. I told him I had grown up in a small town and my friends were all outside the campus. He nodded his head slowly. The size of the university could be overwhelming, he said, even for professors. “But you have to make it smaller; do something, anything, to make it a community.” You’re at university for a short time, he told me. Make the most of it. Until that point, I had seen university as no more than a means to an end. Having grown up in a rural setting, taking classes in auditoriums with upward of 200 students was intimidating. I went to my classes, and the rest of life happened elsewhere. A few months later, my rental lease was up and I remembered Blodgett’s advice. I packed my books, my bookshelf and my computer — I was a minimalist by necessity — and moved from a cramped basement suite near Southgate Mall to an even more cramped dorm room in St. John’s Institute, overlooking Whyte Avenue. The John, as we used to call it, first opened in 1949 to help students with Ukrainian backgrounds ease into university life and learn more about their heritage. When I arrived in the early 2000s, I met residents from Italy, Taiwan, Mexico and, yes, Ukraine. I was a throwback to the type of student who had initially filled the rooms. Within weeks, I was learning kick-boxing at the university, singing in the dorm’s Ukrainian choir and hanging out with neighbouring frat

boys. I handcrafted perogies, which we sold to fund a trip to a sister dorm in Toronto. I spent hours discussing lectures with dorm mates in the cafeteria. I even enjoyed my university classes more, and the campus suddenly seemed much smaller. In the years since leaving university, plenty of what I studied in class — facts and classic plots — has left my mind, but several important lessons remain. Primarily those taught by professors who cared about more than just their students’ marks. I remember, toward the end of the semester, Blodgett pausing mid-sentence and staring out the window of the classroom.

My eyes followed his to a tree alive with snowflakes hanging in crystalline patterns on its branches. “Sorry,” he said, “I had to soak up that brief moment. The light against the snow was just perfect.”

Caroline Barlott, ’03 BA, is a writer whose work has appeared in Reader’s Digest and Alberta Venture. She is managing editor of Avenue Edmonton. She enjoys painting, yoga, consuming large quantities of matcha green tea and looking after other people’s pets. newtrail autumn 2014

IN MEMORIAM

The Alumni Association notes with sorrow the passing of the following graduates (based on information received between March 2014 and May 2014)

’33 William James Stickney, BSc(ChemEng), of Lindsay, ON, in December 2013

’48 Irene Elizabeth Doyle (Strilchuk), Dip(Nu), of Vancouver, BC, in April 2014

’52 H.F. Lloyd L. Pinkney, BSc(EngPhys), of Kanata, ON, in May 2014

’55 Nick Wengreniuk, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2014

’65 Ian McLean Alexander, DDS, of Victoria, BC, in October 2013

’34 Nellie May Harvey, BA, ’35 Dip(Ed), of Sault Ste. Marie, ON, in March 2014

’48 Theodore Herman Schmidt, BEd, ’51 BA, in April 2014

’53 Alice May Bell, Dip(Nu), ’54 BScN, of Calgary, AB, in May 2014

’56 Lorna G. White (Daverne), BPE, of Sylvan Lake, AB, in April 2014

’65 Gordon Andrew Bulat, BSc(CivEng), of Edmonton, AB, in May 2014

’53 Alofa Colleen Cahoon, Dip(Ed), of Seattle, WA, in March 2014

’57 Mary Philomena Fitzpatrick, Dip(Ed), ’72 BEd, of North Vancouver, BC, in February 2014

’65 Marie Alberta Elcombe (Moreau), MSc, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2014

’35 Marjorie Laura Mallett (Foucar), BA, of Red Deer, AB, in March 2014 ’36 Amy Ross Cogswell Abell, BSc(Pharm), of Ottawa, ON, in April 2014 ’39 Theodore Herschel Aaron, BSc, ’42 MD, of Edmonton, AB, in March 2014 ’41 Margaret Vivian McKeague, Dip(Nu), of Calgary, AB, in April 2014 ’42 Isabel May Collins (Dean), BA, ’45 BEd, of Olds, AB, in April 2014 ’43 Doris Eda Govier (Kemp), BEd, of Calgary, AB, in April 2014 ’43 John Kenneth Penley, Dip(Pharm), of Calgary, AB, in April 2014 ’43 Ivan Mearns Six, BSc(MiningEng), of Calgary, AB, in May 2014 ’45 Violet Myers (Morrow), MD, of St. Albert, AB, in March 2014 ’46 Marion Elizabeth Hollingshead (Pullar), BSc(HEc), in May 2014 ’46 Jean Herriot Nettleton, Dip(Pharm), of Calgary, AB, in April 2014 ’48 George Lish W. Brown, BEd, ’50 BA, of Edmonton, AB, in March 2014 62

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’48 Allan Ross Walker, BSc(CivEng), of Vulcan, AB, in April 2014 ’49 Albert F. Hans Oeming, BSc, ’55 MSc, of Sherwood Park, AB, in March 2014 ’50 Gordon Stuart Foster, BSc, ’54 DDS, of Mesa, AZ, in March 2014 ’50 Lorraine Viola Harris (Gillies), Dip(Nu), ’51 BSc(Nu), of Edmonton, AB, in April 2014 ’50 T. Herbert Maginley, BSc, of Calgary, AB, in September 2013 ’50 Metro Surkan, MD, of Prince Albert, SK, in February 2014 ’51 Alwon Sidney Engman, BSc(ElecEng), of Calgary, AB, in April 2014 ’51 Julia Pauline Holman (Benfield), Dip(Ed), ’52 Dip(Ed), of Calgary, AB, in May 2014 ’51 Irene Leckie, Dip(Nu), ’54 BScN, of Fredericton, NB, in November 2013 ’51 Howard Leroy Sharpe, BSc(Ag), of Mayerthorpe, AB, in March 2014 ’51 Bertrum James Strain, BEd, of Stettler, AB, in April 2014 ’52 Frederick A. Davediuk, BSc(ElecEng), of Kanata, ON, in October 2013

’53 Daphne Irene Clements (Lingas), BSc, ’55 MD, of Alamo, CA, in April 2014 ’53 Chester C. Dahms, Dip(Ed), ’55 Dip(Ed), of Terrace, BC, in October 2013 ’53 Ladimer Alexander Dushenski, BSc, ’57 MD, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2014 ’53 John Charles Godel, BSc, ’55 MD, of Campbell River, BC, in March 2014 ’53 Leroy Boston Lightfoot, BEd, ’60 BSc, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2014

’57 Elliott Webster N. Macdonald, BA, ’58 LLB, of Medicine Hat, AB, in May 2014 ’57 Kenneth William Morris, BSc(Ag), ’60 BDiv, of Lethbridge, AB, in May 2014 ’57 R. James Twa, BEd, of Theodore, SK, in October 2013 ’58 Harry James Stewart, BSc, of Calgary, AB, in April 2014

’65 Kenneth Mackenzie Fraser, BSc(ChemEng), of Calgary, AB, in April 2014 ’66 Roma Aileen Anderson (McNally), BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2014 ’66 Marvel Joyce Telfer, BEd, ’67 Dip(Ed), in May 2014 ’67 Leonard George Basaraba, BSc(CivEng), of Richmond, BC, in April 2014

’59 Ronald David Bercov, BSc, of Edmonton, AB

’67 Roderick Hugh Florence, DDS, ’83 PostgradDip(Dent), of Edmonton, AB, in May 2014

’53 Lloyd Howard Nixon, BSc, ’55 MD, of Kamloops, BC, in February 2014

’60 Ethel Marion Johnstone (Turner), Dip(Nu), of Calgary, AB, in April 2014

’68 Katharine Louise Borgen (Niwa), BEd, of Vancouver, BC, in April 2014

’53 Doreen A. Smillie (Knowlton), Dip(Nu), of Edmonton, AB, in May 2014

’61 Stanley Brun Mellsen, BSc(MechEng), of Medicine Hat, AB, in February 2014

’68 James Alan Day, BSc, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2014

’54 John Sylvester Low, BSc, ’59 MD, of Calgary, AB, in April 2014

’61 Herbert Daniel Peters, PhD, of Saskatoon, SK, in May 2014

’68 Mary Gadowsky (Pawlyk), BEd, of Myrnam, AB, in April 2014

’54 Harold Robert Nix, BSc, ’61 MD, of Salt Lake City, UT, in May 2014

’62 Ivanhoe Ferdinand Goodin, DDS, of Nepean, ON, in December 2013

’68 David Lucien Maynard, MA, of Queensland, AU, in March 2014

’55 James Albert Carson, BSc(Ag), ’58 MSc, of Edmonton, AB, in March 2014

’63 Robert Joseph Hunter, BSc(CivEng), of North Saanich, BC, in March 2014

’69 Avtar Singh Atwal, PhD, in December 2013

’55 Betty Jean Kelley (Tomlinson), Dip(Nu), of Titusville, FL, in April 2014

’64 Clarence Raymond Prochnau, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in September 2013

’69 Sheila Margaret Ball, BEd, ’71 MEd, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2014

’69 Phyllis Leona Bentz, BEd, of High River, AB, in December 2013

’75 Christopher Brian Adkins, BA, ’76 Dip(Ed), of Vancouver, BC, in December 2013

’81 Elizabeth Joan Dangerfield, BFA, of Calgary, AB, in May 2014

’69 Dennis William Fendall, BA, of Calgary, AB, in April 2014

’75 Jean Kathleen Coutts, BA, ’79 LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2014

’81 Marie Martha Waritsky, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2014

’69 Garth Leonard Funk, Dip(Ed), of Edmonton, AB, in May 2014

’75 Terrence Albert Kosinski, BSc, of St. Albert, AB, in March 2014

’82 Elroy Jay Carlson, MA, of Seattle, WA, in March 2014

’69 Barrie James Lydiatt, BA, of St. Albert, AB, in April 2014

’75 Carol Wavea A.A. Otto, MMus, of St. Albert, AB, in April 2014

’82 Lynn Carroll Mills, BEd, of Leduc, AB, in March 2014

’70 Irma Loreen Porter, BEd, of Regina, SK, in March 2014

’75 Siegi Solty, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in February 2014

’84 Alexander Maxwell Brown, BSc, ’89 MD, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2014

’75 Ronald Gordon Stevens, LLB, of Calgary, AB, in May 2014

’85 Christine Mary Fielding, BEd, of Calgary, AB, in April 2014

’75 Wade Walter Williamson, BSc(Spec), ’76 Dip(Ed), of Edmonton, AB, in May 2014

’85 Wolf Ernest Stroebel, BSc, of Edmonton, AB, in January 2014

’76 Herbert Robert Driechel, BEd, of Victoria, BC, in April 2014

’86 Louise Campbell (Leitch), BEd, of Westerose, AB, in April 2014

’77 Irene Elizabeth Burback (Branconnier), BEd, of High Prairie, AB, in January 2014

’86 Barbara Anne Hall, MEd, of Prince George, BC, in November 2013

’77 Jane Dorothy MacPherson, BA, ’81 LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2014

’86 Carmelo Regalbuto, MEng, of Calgary, AB, in March 2014

’77 Louise Anne Punko, BA, ’82 BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2014

’88 Daphne Jill Wlosek, MPM, of Kaslo, BC, in April 2014

’78 Milton David Ness, BSc, of Sherwood Park, AB, in May 2014

’93 Russell Gibson Doig, BSc(CivEng), in April 2014

’79 Barbara Lynn Jacobson (Scollon), BEd, ’86 MEd, ’00 EdD, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2014

’11 Tore Martin Purdy, LLB, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2014

’70 Linda Diane Wigelsworth (Cunningham), BA, of Calgary, AB, in May 2014 ’72 Peter Cheperdak, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2014 ’72 Clement Theodore King, Dip(Ed), ’78 PhD, of Brampton, ON, in March 2014 ’72 Gordon Wesley Schafer, BEd, of Red Deer, AB, in October 2013 ’73 Berthe LaFrance (Gauvreau), BEd, of St. Paul, AB, in March 2014 ’73 Rhoda Bernice Ristock, BEd, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2014 ’73 Ronald Alan Sveen, BEd, of Calgary, AB, in April 2014 ’74 Leanne Gail Mitchell (White), BLS, of Regina, SK, in July 2014 ’74 Danica Obradovich, BSc(ChemEng), of Fort Saskatchewan, AB, in March 2014

’79 Darryl Scott Stewart, MD, of Beaumont, AB, in May 2014

’13 Erica Hope Engman, BSc(Nu), in December 2013

CORRECTIONS Due to a process error, the following people were mistakenly listed as deceased in the Spring 2014 issue of New Trail. We apologize to these alumni for the inconvenience. Alexander Kane Lewoniuk, ’65 BCom, ’71 MBA Kelly Gordon Morstad, ’87 BCom Evelyn Samuel, ’59 BA, ’71 Dip(Ed) Donald Terry Unger, ’71 BSc(Med), ’73 MD

If you’ve lost a loved one who is a University of Alberta alumnus, contact alumni records at alumrec@ualberta.ca, 780-492-3471 or 1-866-492-7516. newtrail autumn 2014

It’s a rare quiet moment at the Saville Community Sports Centre on South Campus, which is normally buzzing with activity. The facility won the 2014 Mayor’s Award for Universal Design in Architecture – Non-Residential for a design that demonstrates creative sensitivity to concerns of accessibility for persons with disabilities. 64

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PHOTO BY JOHN ULAN

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What will your legacy be? A small town Alberta girl, Sheena Bethell’s life journey took her from Fairview, where her father operated Mundamin Seed Farm, to the University of Alberta and all the way to Switzerland—where she met her husband, Brian. When she was told “you have cancer,” she decided to establish the Mundamin Bursary through her will, honouring her family and giving other rural students like her a chance to benefit from higher education. Although Sheena lost her battle with cancer in 2013, her legacy of caring lives on through the people who knew her and in the bursary created by her heartfelt gift to the University of Alberta.

giving.ualberta.ca To create a legacy gift that keeps on giving, please contact us: P 780-492-2394 | TOLL-FREE 888-799-9899 | EMAIL giving@ualberta.ca