ABOUT ME
About Me!
WHERE I COME FROM
I grew up on a cattle ranch in central Alberta, learning first hand about long hours, hard work and community. I began working in community organizations as a youth, and chaired my first meeting at the age of 14. My parents both held jobs off of the farm, my dad in the oil and gas industry, and my mom took jobs in retail, carpentry, and in agriculture.
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My grandparents were also farmers with jobs off the farm. My grandfather worked in road construction, eventually owning his own business in Killam, Alberta.
My other grandfather passed at a young age, and my grandmother began a career in the health care industry, working at the Bashaw Valley Lodge, which is now a Bethany Care Site represented by AUPE. My roots run deep in Alberta, and in the industries that have helped this province to grow.​​​​
Like many, it was when I went to post-secondary schooling when my activism took hold. While a student at Red Deer Polytechnic (then Red Deer College), I became active in student government, sitting on Student Council for four years, two years on the Student Council Executive, as Vice President for one year, and as President the next. During those years, my focusses included standing up to fight student tuition and fees increases, advocating for change for student loans, and improving student life on campus.
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It was during this time when I attended my first sit in, a protest against rising student tuition costs, and my first picket line, where we protested the lack of accessibility to premier Ralph Klein. It was also during this time when Klein retired, leading to a leadership election, where I was able to meet with 5 of the candidates who were vying for the PC Leadership, including future premiers Ed Stelmach and Dave Hancock, to advocate for student issues.
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I was serving as President of the Students’ Association of Red Deer College when Stelmach dissolved government and announced an election. As Communications Director for the Alberta Students Executive Council (ASEC), we partnered with fellow student leaders from the Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS) to generate a large scale marketing campaign, Imagine, which focused on raising the profile of post-secondary student issues during that election. The campaign was successful, and contributed to post-secondary education being seen as a key issue during that campaign.
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I have continued being an advocate ever since, speaking out against all governing parties in this country at one point or another, joining picket lines and political protests on a regular basis.