Patti is a leader in the social profit sector who has been striving to bring best practices, innovative strategic thinking, and visionary leadership to positions for over three decades. She holds a Masters of Continuing Education Degree with a specialization in workplace learning, focused on creating and shaping learning environments that foster individual and organizational success.

Presently Executive Director of the Alberta Real Estate Foundation, Patti has also held roles such as: Founding CEO of Wellspring Alberta, Executive Director of the Alberta Mentor Foundation for Youth, and CEO of the Developmental Disabilities Resource Centre of Calgary. She has served on numerous Boards and Committees and has been an active volunteer, including becoming friend and guardian to a woman with a disability through an organization called Citizen Advocacy when she was 14 – a role that she continues to be very grateful for.

“My life has been enriched by doing work and volunteering in change projects that I am passionate about. I have been privileged to meet changemakers and to be affirmed of the goodness in our world and possibility that abounds.”

I have spent my career in the social profit and academic sectors working in roles such as: CEO of the Developmental Disabilities Resource Centre of Calgary, Executive Director of the Alberta Mentor Foundation for Youth, Founding CEO of Wellspring Alberta, and Executive Director of the Alberta Real Estate Foundation. I have also enjoyed sessional teaching roles at the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University.

I have loved all of my work, but a particular point of pride has been working with a Board and group of remarkable and passionate volunteers in my role as Founding CEO of Wellspring Alberta, a thriving cancer support community. www.wellspringalberta.ca. Although I am no longer CEO (a role I played for 14 years), I am thrilled to continue to volunteer for this important organization.

After my father’s early death from cancer, I also felt moved to consider how we could positively impact life for people living with, or impacted by cancer. I was invited to play a role in establishing Wellspring in Alberta – a unique community sharing a plethora of free programs, speakers, resources, peer support and hope for anyone living with cancer and for those who love and support them. It was a privilege to be a part of this supportive and transformational community.

I have continued in a role I started when I was 14 through an organization called Citizen Advocacy (CA). CA asked volunteers to make a life-long commitment to a person with a disability who had nobody else unpaid in their life to look out for their interests. Through CA, I became friends with, and guardian to, a brilliant woman named Sherry. I am happy to keep this role up still today. I have had many other roles including: Board roles with Citizen Advocacy, the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations, Firefighters Benevolent Society, and most recently Arts Place – an arts and culture community in Canmore, Alberta. I have, and continue to play, a role in support of fundraising, leading events such as: the Firefighter Stairclimb Challenge, Light It Up Calgary, and Arts Place. I have enjoyed many other volunteer roles.