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WIB Committee
Chair, Jennifer Hillmer| Chartwell Emerald Hills, JHillmer Design and Creative, and Exploring Strathcona County
Jennifer is the Business Development Manager for Chartwell, in the Edmonton region. Chartwell’s Vision is Making People's Lives BETTER. As the owner and operator of over 200 retirement and long-term care residences, Chartwell Retirement Residences is the largest participant in seniors living in Canada. Their shared mission is to provide a happier, healthier, and more fulfilling life experience for seniors, to provide peace of mind for their residents’ loved ones and to attract and retain employees who care about making a difference. In Alberta, the company operates 11 retirement residences, and 6 in the Edmonton region. As local experts, they are dedicated to providing education about retirement options and the health care system to their professional partners, seniors and their families.Jennifer has an extensive background in sales leadership, marketing, and business development. As a dedicated relationship builder, and responsible to build local partnerships, Jennifer is committed to supporting other business professionals offer guidance and advice to their senior clients. She enjoys having fun along with inspiring and mentoring people and is a fierce advocate for local business. In addition to her full-time career with Chartwell Retirement Residences, Jennifer is the owner and primary content curator for the website explorestrathconacounty.com and is also a member of the Chamber through that organization. Outside of work, Jennifer is a wife, stepmom, new Grandma, dog-mom, and proud auntie. She is a mediocre ping-pong player, dedicated Edmonton Oilers fan, great bocce ball player, and completely terrible golfer. She welcomes connection, if you would like to get in touch, please feel free to reach out to jhillmer@chartwell.com .
Katherine Loranger | Katalyst Coaching
As a certified Life Mastery Consultant with the Brave Thinking Institute: The Premiere Training Center for Transformational Coaching, Katherine can help you create a life that you love living. Katherine specializes in helping heart centered entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, business owners and dreamers build their dreams, accelerate their results and create richer, more fulfilling lives.
For over 25 years Katherine has been researching, studying and implementing transformational success principles. This has given her the insight and ability to achieve many of her own dreams, both personally and professionally while helping others do the same. In addition to her coaching certification, Katherine holds an M.Ed. in Counselling, is an NLP practitioner and has experience in the business, education and not for profit sectors. Katherine’s workshops and coaching programs help people breakthrough limitations and achieve greater results than they’ve known before. If you are looking to gain clarity, confidence, and achieve your next level of success, while enjoying the highest levels of fulfillment in life Katherine’s coaching programs can help you get there. email Katherine to learn more about how you can achieve your dreams and create a life you truly love living.
Tamara Dabels, Executive Director | Fort Saskatchewan & District Chamber of Commerce
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Tamara has been the Executive Director for the Chamber since 2017 and is passionate about leadership in general and women in leadership in particular. She is proud to work on behalf of the region's exceptional businesses community who inspire Tamara every day. She earned her Bachelor of Commerce Degree with a major in Finance and minor in Marketing from the University of Alberta. Tamara discovered her passion for working with entrepreneurs while developing business plans and doing market research for new and aspiring business owners while working at the Canada Saskatchewan Business Service Centre. The unique stories from new and existing businesses in the District, inspires and motivates her every day. While she loves helping these businesses grow, she also enjoys road trips with her husband Trevor, and spending time with their two kids, Logan and Samantha.
Tanya Shewchuk, Program Manager | Careers Under Construction
Tanya is the Program Manager for Careers Under Construction an employment resource centre in Fort Saskatchewan. CUC is a AB government funded program that offers employment services such as resume and cover letter writing, access to a local job/career information board, access to job search tools including photocopier, telephones and internet. Career assessments and consulting, job readiness workshops and possible funding for short courses and workplace incidentals. CUC services Fort Saskatchewan, Sturgeon and Strathcona counties. Tanya has over 20 years’ experience working in the employment/recruiting sectors. She is passionate about helping people with their employment goals, finding it so rewarding when someone finds their ”spot”! Tanya is a natural leader and enjoys mentoring others and sharing her knowledge. Her infectious sense of humour will always lift your spirits.
Claire Gannon | RBC Royal Bank
Claire joined the Chamber Board of Directors in 2020, and was named treasurer in November of that year. Originally from the UK, Claire's career in finance has taken her to Qatar, Hong Kong, and then Canada in 2012. She's proud to call Canada home! She’s blown away by the passion, support, and warmth of the Chamber's staff, Board and membership. Since joining the Chamber, she’s loved working with the Scholarship, Women in Business, and Policy Committees, and looks forward to advocating for the interests of the business community. Claire is also a qualified Zumba instructor, certifying during the Covid lockdown and is looking forward to teaching friends and colleagues as soon as she has a chance. Claire brings bright, fun energy into every room, and loves spending time with her husband and teenage son.
Connie Shears | Ultimate Spa Supplies
Connie joined the Chamber Board of Directors in 2020. Her focus is to support to young entrepreneurs and women in business with her experience. Over the years, her career path has crossed with many powerful influential people, other non-profits and another Chamber in a different town that mentored and shaped Connie’s out-of-box type thinking and being fair and kind. She is grateful to be a Director of the Fort Saskatchewan and District Chamber of Commerce.32 years of working one-on-one with people, reflective listening to help them make decisions and watch them develop, grow and transform over the years has been such an honour. She believes she learned more then they did. After 32 years of combined corporate management and entrepreneurship, she has developed management, leadership, and business skills, not to mention strong communication skills. Business ownership helped her to realize her experience and passion to guide others in the business community. She loves to share her business experience with others, especially when they’re struggling to meet a goal; for Connie, the goals not met are the ones you learn the most from. Connie constantly is upgrading, volunteering in the community, developing ways to help others and she constantly looks for ways to just be kind. Connie looks forward to serving and retirement in the City of Fort Saskatchewan, where she loves to relax with her dogs, family, and friends at the cottage.Julia Le | The Fort Distillery
By drawing inspiration from local communities to create uniquely innovative tastes and smells, Julia Le redefines how to stand out in a growing Alberta industry. After moving to Edmonton from Calgary, she attended the University of Alberta – receiving a Bachelor of Science with a double major in Chemistry and Biology. That venture led her to spend a year researching water and creating low-cost water safety sensors, then a summer researching crabs at a marine station, until eventually she was drawn towards a more creative passion. Having worked with The Fort Distillery from the ground up, Julia has hand-crafted countless of distinctive spirits and cocktails that have impressed eager consumers time and time again. She refers to the distilling process as ‘both extremely technical and refreshingly creative,’ noting that there is so much variety in the industry because every distiller’s interpretation shines through in their final product. Julia loves experimenting with flavour profiles and tackles new challenges head-on as one of the first Asian female distillers in the province.Kristin Kirkland | 360 HR Consulting
Kristin is the Owner of 360 HR Consulting and an experienced HR Generalist with over 15 years of experience. She’s worked in numerous industries including Construction, Transportation, Oil & Gas, and Health Care. She offers a wide range of services, providing full scope Human Resources solutions. Whether you have a single question about how to handle an employee or need a full HR program implemented, she can put it all together for you.
Kristin is a fun loving, easy going type of person. Her zest for life and helping others has driven her to continue to balance between employee and employer needs. Whether it is through her individual clients or the companies she dedicates her hours to, finding the best solution for all parties involved is always top of mind. By being a part of the Chamber, and the Women In Business Committee, she hopes to be able to help offer balance to community members as well.