Our Board of Directors

For over thirty years, she’s helped people find resolution for their tough problems. Barbara was a hearing commissioner with the Alberta Energy Regulator from 2013 – 2017, adjudicating and mediating oil and gas issues. She has a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and a Masters in Public Administration.

Barbara’s work takes her throughout Alberta, where she meets wonderful people and gets to see our province’s beautiful landscapes. With more enthusiasm than talent she enjoys skiing, tennis, golf, sailing and competitive bridge.

The elders of his village were often referred to as mediators and in situations of conflict they would call involved parties together and help them explore all relevant perspectives. The goal of the elders-come-mediators was to help each side develop a common understanding and to encourage parties to generate solutions amenable to all interests. Building off these childhood experiences, Sam aims to practice his belief in the importance of interest-based negotiations through his everyday interactions with people and their values.

Sam currently works as a Socio-Economic and ADR Specialist with the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) formally the National Energy Board (NEB). His role primarily involves working with CER’s regulated companies, landowners, Indigenous communities, stakeholders, and other land users to reach resolution on complex and often very controversial energy and pipeline development issues. Sam also provides professional advice to the CER’s leadership, Commissioners, and staff on socio-economic and conflict resolution matters relating to the energy industry.

My areas of experience include but are not limited to: workforce planning, talent management, classification, organizational effectiveness, grievance management, training and development, disability management, collective agreement bargaining, negotiations, dispute resolution, mediation, investigations, and employee relations.

I completed my Bachelor of Management with a focus in Human Resources and Industrial Relations at the University of Lethbridge. Early in my career I learned conflict is a natural part of workplace relationships and most of these “hiccups” are able to be resolved by supporting open communication between the impacted parties. It has therefore been my honor to date to facilitate and coach employees to have these important tools to communicate, and to navigate their own conversations. 

My interest in furthering ADR practices is that it become a part of proactive workplace initiatives that are both restorative where needed and preventative where possible and yes, both are possible.

Another significant aspect of my life is volunteering. I have served on non-profit Boards since 2007.  My experience here has been to support policy development, governance processes,  strategic planning,  Board recruitment, evaluation and ad hoc committee work. At this time, I would like would like to shift my focus and contribution to support Human Resources and ADR, two professional areas that I have and continue to grow in.

If elected to serve with ADRIA as a Board of Director, my goal is to contribute by serving on working groups committed to actioning strategic objectives that move ADR forward.

Dora has over twenty-five years of experience working with the public, corporations, professional associations, not-for-profit, and government (police agencies, correctional agencies, educators and medica health professions).

Dora acquired the skills and experience required to obtain her Chartered Mediator (C. Med.), Chartered Arbitrator (C. Arb.), and Chartered Mediator-Arbitrator (C. Med.-Arb.) designations. 

Dora is the founder and owner of her own firm helping clients reduce the anxiety and stress often experienced during the divorce and separation process.  Dora believes that ADR provides the parties with the opportunity to develop insight into their own dispute resolution style and possible contribution to unproductive interactions.  To-this end, Dora collaborates and negotiates bi-lateral, and tri-lateral agreements with people in conflict.  She assists parties in handling issues with others, and practises conflict-coaching techniques and skills with them including self-reflection and conflict skill building exercises. 

Dora strives to empower couples going through divorce to make decisions and form agreements outside the courtroom through arbitration and or mediation.  Dora has dedicated her life’s work to create a safer community and enhance access to justice and dispute resolution.

Dora is a proud Calgarian and in her leisure time, you might find Dora chilling with family and friends or nurturing her inner “foodie” at a Calgary restaurant.

He has mediated numerous disputes in a variety of settings involving governments, companies, municipalities, landowners, condominium boards, civil claimants, and neighbours. 

Paul also has experience as a specialized ombudsman and administrative decision-maker involving complex, financially material and politically sensitive issues.

He completed his undergraduate degree in Biology (BSc. Biology) from the University of Ottawa and a postgraduate (Dip (MPM) in Pest Management from Simon Fraser University.

Over the last 25 years or so, he has been actively involved in volunteering on various institutional bodies within the Ismaili Muslim and the greater community, including being Chairman of the Aga Khan Education board, Vice Chair of the Aga Khan Social Welfare board, Member for the Ismaili Tariqah and Religious Education Boards for Edmonton and the Aga Khan Economic Planning Board of Canada.

He has also served as President of the Pest Management Association of Alberta, Member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Pest Management Association, member on the Telus – Yellow Pages Advisory Board and on board of directors of the MRJC (Mediation and Restorative Justice Centre).

He has a strong interest in conflict resolution and is currently the Chairman of the Aga Khan Conciliation and Arbitration board for Edmonton (www.cabcanada.org ) He believes that mediation has an important role to play in conflict resolution.

His interests are Travelling and learning through meeting and engaging with people.

Currently he is President of Ecopest Inc. – a company headquartered in Edmonton dealing in Pest control and Hygiene services throughout Alberta. He is married with 2 children (young adults) and a proud grandfather to 2 grandchildren.

She assists parties primarily in occupational health and safety, commercial, contract, real estate, construction, municipal, indigenous, employment and environmental matters.

As an arbitrator and member of the ADR Institutes of Alberta and Canada, Sharon enjoys working with parties to ensure fair, transparent processes and procedures yielding a final result that will enable them to bring closure to conflict. Sharon is also a Certified Psychological Health and Safety Advisor and an occupational health and safety legal practice, in which she advises and represents clients in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.

Sharon volunteers as the Board Chair of the Alberta Lawyers’ Assistance Society (Assist) and limps along as Board Secretary to her young sons’ community hockey league. She is a heart-led mentor, passionate animal rescuer, disability and mental health champion, runner and writer. Sharon is schooled in humility, is fiercely compassionate and suffers from periodic misanthropy. She tries her best, eats nut butters by the spoonful and loves her kids to bits.

Jerry has over 40 years of accumulated experience in the building and civil construction industry, working predominantly in Canada on transportation, energy, commercial, industrial, multi-family residential, civil & building infrastructure projects throughout the procurement, pre-contract, execution, and post contract phases.

Prior to starting his own consulting service, Jerry also acquired broader international experience including living and working in the USA, Bermuda, and South Africa. His professional accreditations include PQS, PMP, GSC and MRICS.

Jerry joined the ADRIA board in August of 2021 and is Past President of the Prairie Chapter Region of the Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (CIQS) and a former CIQS National Board member.

his spare time Jerry enjoys travelling, reading, golfing, cycling, hiking, and fishing.

Diana recently retired from the Court and established a consulting practic. She continues to support the Reforming the Family Justice System (RFJS) initiative in Alberta, and also works with other jurisdictions interested in justice system transformation.

The RFJS is a multi-year, multi-sector collaboration, designed to effect system-wide change in the family justice system in Alberta, based on brain science and Adverse Childhood Experiences. The RFJS is seeking to shift the focus in family justice matters away from adversarial, legal responses, to making supports available to assist families with the social, relationship, parenting and financial issues that arise in family matters. Mediation plays an important role in this shift away from adversarial legal responses to family matters. The outcome collaborators are seeking is family well-being, which they define as “Helping Families Thrive”.

Diana is also a member of the board of the Lieutenant Governor’s Circle on Mental Health and Addiction, and the International Justice Partnership. She is a proud Mom of an active and engaged young man, and enjoys time with her parents, step-parents, family and many friends. She spends her free time reading, learning from Indigenous Elders, biking, hiking and travelling.

Andrea teaches “Reconciliation and Lawyers” at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Law and also co-instructs “In Search of Reconciliation Through Dispute Resolution” at Osgoode Hall Law School in the Masters of Dispute Resolution Program. Co-founder of the Indigenous Lawyers’ Forum, an Alberta-based networking group for Indigenous lawyers, legal academics and law students, Andrea is also on the Advisory Board for the Centre of Constitutional Studies at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law, she is a member of the Canadian Bar Association, the Indigenous Bar Association, and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Alberta, and Andrea is currently nominated as the one of the Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada currently through Canadian Lawyer Magazine.

I am pleased to join ADRIA’s Board of Directors. I look forward to contributing over twenty years of practise and education towards building Indigenous law into common law, mediation, arbitration, human resources, communications, and human rights. I look forward to honouring reconciliation on my journey towards building capacity and sustainability on strategic matters and furthering alternative dispute resolution in Alberta.

Prior to his legal career, Stephen had a successful engineering consulting practice.  Known for being reliable, his attention to detail and applying creative approaches to the dispute resolution process, Stephen has appeared before all levels of court in Alberta, including the British Columbia Supreme Court and the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench. He has also been involved in several mediations and arbitrations and has completed the ADRIC-RICS Certificate in Adjudication.

My goal in being a director of ADRIA is four fold:  assisting ADRIA in becoming a Nominating Authority for the adjudication process contemplated by the new Prompt Payment and Construction Lien Act; participation and providing equity, diversification and inclusion within ADRIA and the ADR space; innovation; and business development.  If elected, during my term on the board I am looking forward to working with the current and new board members as well as the ADRIA staff to advance these goals.  The success of my term would be measured by the amount these goals are accomplished, all well hopefully meeting many ADRIA members in person at future events while we depart the virtual meeting world.