Joan Ivany

Many women care deeply about children and their communities; relatively few do as much about it as Joan Ivany.

Ivany’s 30-year involvement with the Allen Gray Continuing Care Centre culminated in a September luncheon honouring donors who had contributed to the Joan Ivany Child Development Centre at the Millwoods auxiliary hospital, which houses 136 aged and incapacitated Edmontonians.

The idea of combining youthful vibrancy and elderly wisdom resulted in this initiative that developed as the Allen Gray centre moved into a building designed to help seniors combat loneliness, helplessness, and boredom with the presence of children, animals and plants.

Ivany, who has held major leadership positions in the Gray House Guild that owns the hospital and the Board of Management that oversees its operation, garnered major gifts for the daycare providing spaces for 66 children and kindergarten for 20. Wife of the late Randall Ivany, an Anglican priest and later Alberta Ombudsman, Ivany began fundraising with the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to support her youngest daughter, Mary, who later died from the disease.

Her other community involvements include the Edmonton City Centre Church Corporation, On Eagle’s Wings, Alberta Baroque Society and Meals on Wheels.

Colleen MacDougall

Colleen MacDougall was recently appointed chair of the national board of the Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE), becoming the eighth female chair of the board, and the first female chair from Western Canada and Alberta.

MacDougall is extensively involved in the society’s Edmonton Chapter, where she served as president in 2000 to 2001. She helped raised the profile of the chapter and Alberta to the national level. Her efforts brought the society’s annual national Conference to Edmonton in October 2006, and with it 476 delegates from across Canada to our city.

Since 2001, MacDougall has been the executive director and registrar of the Association of Massage Therapists and Wholistic Practitioners, a national not-for-profit association headquartered in Edmonton. Under her management, the association has grown from 1,000 members to 6,000; strategic priorities have been initiated in research and advocacy on behalf of complementary and alternative medicine; and a multi-category model for massage therapy has been developed. In February 2006, the association submitted an application to the Minister of Health and Wellness for the regulation of the massage therapy profession; and a national municipal policy is being developed for holistic practitioners and is receiving support across Canada. These initiatives have the potential to affect all Canadians to the extent that complementary and alternative medicine are increasingly integrated into our healthcare system.

Throughout her career, MacDougall has brought recognition to Western Canada, and Edmonton in particular.

Jan Reimer

Jan Reimer is probably best known for her tenure as mayor of Edmonton. What many probably don’t know is that for the past four years, she has worked tirelessly in an area where Alberta leads, silently – domestic violence. This province has one of the highest rates of spousal assault, stalking and domestic murder/suicide in Canada.

As the provincial coordinator for the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters, Reimer has made huge progress providing support for 41 member shelters by overseeing the development of educational tools, resource materials, training seminars, research and public awareness. In turn, women’s shelters provide the support mechanisms that empower women and their children to escape an abusive relationship.

Reimer has brought government experience and the knowledge of how systems work to the council. Under her leadership, concerns like core funding for shelters and wage parity for shelter workers have been addressed and the organization has become recognized as an expert authority on family violence. Research, documented studies and the frontline experience of shelters have provided information to establish best practices and continuing strategies to reduce domestic violence. Jan Reimer is, an Edmonton woman making a difference.