Doug Mills was born in Winnipeg, grew up in Montreal and came to Alberta in 1975.  Doug lives in Edmonton with his wife Trish and has three children.  After College Doug worked in the Hospitality Industry including management of hotels, hotel chains, restaurant chains and contracted foodservices prior to entering the seniors’ supportive living industry.  He and his partners at Connecting Care have been involved in Seniors Management with supportive living projects since 1994.  Doug’s organization provides contracted foodservices to 800 people a day including home meal production and delivery and management of 1,350 supportive living suites in Alberta and British Columbia.  Doug is active in the governance of Connecting Care, Points West Living and Housing Organizations.  Doug’s previous Board experience includes The Jaycees and Junior Achievement of Northern Alberta Board Executive.  With ASCHA Doug has participated in Formal Arrangements in Supportive Living Committee, Health Care Aide Education Steering Committee and the Health Services Committee.  Doug enjoys time with family, camping and hiking throughout Alberta.

Jim Hubbard was born in Montreal and is fluently bilingual. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree, and has worked in various management positions in marketing.  He has served on boards of different associations in a number of provinces, and is currently on the board of MCF Housing for Seniors in Calgary.   Jim has two girls, two grandsons, one granddaughter, and his lovely wife of 45 years.  Although his first language is French, all his education from grade one through to university was in English.  Jim worked for 30 years for “big oil”…Shell. His business travels took him all over North America, Europe, Africa, Turkey and the Caribbean.  He had the pleasure of working with many different cultures. Jim and his wife love to travel and have been in such places as Antarctica, Galapagos, Indonesia, Australia, four countries in Africa, Europe, Thailand, Malaysia and many more. Most of these trips were adventure type with little comfort but lots of exciting fun.  Jim played and coached baseball, hockey, football and ringette (that’s what you do when you have girls), and now golf is his passion.  Jim plays as much golf as he can and says that he is probably still the worst player in the world, but loves it.  He tries to go to the fitness centre at least five times a week.  Jim sees seniors housing as a great opportunity to use his expertise and help people live a much fuller life in a very positive, active and comfortable environment of their “home”.  His passion is challenges and winning – he loves helping people win!

Walter Weber was born and raised in Castor, Alberta. His secondary education consists of a Diploma in Agriculture from Olds College and a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Alberta. He has served on a multitude of boards and committees at the local, provincial and national level in a variety of interests. His agricultural Committees involve everything from Northlands to Canadian Livestock Records. He also enjoyed his time serving on the Church Board, FCSS, Housing Committees and most recently the ASCHA Board. He is a county councilor with the County of paintearth and farms with his 3 brothers on a mixed farming Operations around castor. Walter and his Wife, Veronica have 2 sons and a daughter. In is spare time he drives a school bus and keeps a well groomed farmyard which hosts a garden party for seniors each summer. He also enjoys music, drama (having appeared in several local productions)and volunteering for the community.  Anything that improves the quality life for seniors is a passion for him.

Stan Fisher

Profile Coming Soon.

Cindy Rota is the General Manager of Whitehorn Village Retirement Community in Calgary, AB.  Cindy was born in Prince Albert, SK, and attended Okanagan College and Mount Royal University.  The ability and opportunity to provide quality services to seniors in Alberta has become her career and consequently her passion.  She supports and leads a team of 150 employees and contributes to many organizations such as gerentology studies at Mount Royal College, the Alzheimer's Society and enjoys the opportunities arising from a rapidly growing and increasingly diverse population. 

"Every day is an extraordinary reminder that when you do what you love, there is immense joy"

Arlene Adamson Profile coming soon.

Sharon Purvis is the General Manager of the Eau Claire Retirement Residence in Calgary, AB.  Sharon was born in Yorkshire, England, and immigrated to Canada after completing school. She has a business background having been a Logistics instructor and auditor for the Canadian Armed Forces and an Operations Manager for high-tech companies. Changing the focus of her talents, the ability and opportunity to provide quality services to seniors in Alberta has become her career and consequently her passion.  She supports and leads a team of 150 employees and contributes to many organizations such as the Studies in Aging program at Mount Royal University, the Alzheimer's Society and the Alberta Association of Gerontology.  

"All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honour, duty, mercy, hope".  Winston Churchill

Karen Burnand is the Chair of the Piper Creek Foundation and President of the Central Alberta Zone (Central Alberta Seniors Housing Association).  She has been on the Piper Creek Foundation for seven years and became President of the Central Zone in 2007.  Karen is employed by Red Deer County as an Assessor.  Karen was born, raised and lives in Central Alberta.  Traveling and politics are a couple of her interests.  Providing seniors of modest mean with affordable, secure, home like housing is a vital service in her community and it is her pleasure to work for the Piper Creek Foundation to further this cause.  ASCHA provides great leadership to its’ members and Karen is honored to have the opportunity to sit on the ASCHA Board.

Renate Sainsbury took her B.A. Rec. Admin. (Major in Special Pops) degree at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, AB from 1979-1981. She has held various positions from travel manager, recreation director, recreation therapist and small business owner.

From 1983 to July 1995 she was responsible for setting up therapeutic recreation programs at the Misericordia Hospital in various areas as pediatrics, psychiatry, long term care and geriatric assessment.

Renate has also set up and operated two group homes for seniors/special needs individuals called Lifestyle Options Inc. in 1993. They offered 24 hours care/support and allowed individuals to live in the community as independently as possible.

In 1996 Ken Ferchoff and Renate Sainsbury brought their vision to provide quality affordable housing for senior citizens to reality when construction started on Lifestyle Options Whitemud and since then, they have completed three additional buildings, Lifestyle Options Terra Losa, Lifestyle Options Riverbend, and Lifestyle Options Leduc, with ambitious plans for many more locations throughout the City of Edmonton and throughout Alberta.   

Renate has been involved in numerous Boards that look at senior’s issues relating to quality of life. She also chaired a community health council looking at grass roots solutions to healthcare. 

She as also been involved with the University of Alberta in setting up a Therapeutic Recreation Course and has taught the RLS (T.R.) Course. She has been involved is numerous presentations as it relates to aging. Renate has published research on Life Satisfaction and the Elderly.

She was a founding member of the Alberta Therapeutic Recreation Association and has held various board, chapter and committee positions.

Renate’s philosophy in life is “Live your life to the fullest, strive to be the very best you can, when one door closes another opens and have lots of love and laughter in your life”.

Raymond Swonek Raymond Swonek was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta where he lives with his wife, Angelika, and their 2 children. Raymond is the Executive Director of GEF Seniors Housing, the largest provider of seniors subsidized independent and supportive living in Alberta serving over 3,000 seniors.  Raymond is a Chartered Accountant and has over 25 years of business experience in Canada, New Zealand and Australia.  He has been involved in the Seniors Housing Industry since 1997.   He is the current President of the Alberta Public Housing Administrators’ Association.  Raymond is passionate about positively influencing seniors’ quality of life.

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” ~ Winston Churchill

Lionel Cherniwchan is a Councillor with a wealth of experience. He served two terms as Mayor from 1995-2001, then, after a break, returned as a Councillor in 2004 and again in 2007. He is now following up with another term, running from 2010-2013.

Enthusiastically active in the community, Lionel has served on the board of the Athabasca General and Auxiliary Hospital, serving as board chair for eight years. He spends time volunteering with various local groups and is an active member of the Rotary Club of Athabasca.

Lionel was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002 in recognition of his contribution to the community and he is a recipient of the Government of Alberta Centennial Medal. In 2007, he was honoured by Athabasca University as an inductee into the Order of Athabasca University in recognition of his support of AU at both the local and provincial levels.

After a 36-year career in public education as both a teacher and an administrator, Lionel has been enjoying an active and fulfilling retirement.

Councillor Cherniwchan sits of the following committees:

Municipal Planning Commission (MPC)
Assessment Review Board (ARB)
Greater North Foundation
Alberta Energy Corridor (AEC) (Alternate)
Aspen Regional Water Services Commission
Athabasca Regional Waste Services Commission

Phyllis Belaire had a 26 year career as a Municipal Administrator. Lifelong community involvements both as a member and on the executive of her church, recreational and social groups are also greatly enjoyed. For several years she served as President of the Provincial FCSS Association. Travel has been a continuing interest and Phyllis has toured extensively in 44 countries around the world. She brings to ASCHA her perspective on seniors housing by living 8 years in a lodge (where she assisted in the care of her Mother) and 6 years residency in a seniors independent living apartment. She lists being a Mother of 3 and a Grandmother of 4 as her main accomplishments in her life. Her passion is family and community service “A core value is to give back to your community and build local capacity”.

Tom Spackman is a care provider for adults with disabilities in Magrath. He was born in the town of Neepawa in Manitoba. Tom holds a Bachelor of Arts and Education degree and is a retired teacher. Since he was 15 he has known that he was put on the earth to make others’ lives better. Spending 35 years in the classroom as a counselor and special education teacher, has prepared him for this phase of his life as a “professional volunteer”.

Now that Tom is a senior, he finds that his interests have definitely shifted to looking out for the interests of those in the “grey generation”.

Housing that is pivotal to ensuring quality of life for all of us is his focus. His life’s main accomplishment is his family. He is happily married and has five children.

‘ASCHA is an amazing organization and I look forward to serving’, says Tom.