Advisory Board
The Centre of Crisis & Risk Communications values input, guidance, and advice from academic and communications professionals. Our Advisory Board helps shape the future of CCRC, promotes relevance, and informs our consultation practices. We are extremely grateful for the participation and support of our Advisory Board.
Dr. Vincent Covello
Dr. Covello is the founder and Director of the Center for Risk Communication in New York, NY. He is nationally and internationally recognized trainer, researcher, consultant and expert in crisis, conflict, change and risk communications. He has held numerous positions in academia and government, including Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences and Clinical Medicine at Columbia University. Prior to his joining the faculty at Columbia, Dr. Covello was a senior scientist at the White House Council on Environmental Quality in Washington, D.C., a Study Director at the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences and the Director of the Risk Assessment Program at the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Timothy Coombs
Timothy Coombs (PhD from Purdue University in Public Affairs and Issues Management) has held the Abell Endowed Professorship in Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University. He has received the 2002 recipient of Jackson, Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Science Prize from the Public Relations Society of America, the 2013 Pathfinder Award from the Institute of Public Relations in recognition of his research contributions to the field and to the practice, and the 2014 Business Impact Award from the Association for Business Communication and USC Marshall School of Business, Center for Management Communication. Dr. Coombs has won multiple PRIDE awards from the Public Relations Division of the National Communication Association for both books and research articles and was selected for the prestigious Arthur W. Page Society.
Dr. Coombs was a Fulbright Scholar in Estonia in the Spring of 2013. In the Fall of 2013, he was the named NEMO Professor at Lund University, Helsingborg Campus. In 2015 he was
invited to lecture at Tsinghua University, Beijing China. From 2015 to 2020 he was designated an honorary professor in the Department of Business Communication at Aarhus University. He is the past editor for Corporation Communication: An International Journal.
Dr. W. Timothy Coombs’ primary research focuses on crisis communication.
In 1995, he published the first article that would lead to the articulation of the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). SCCT is recognized as one of the most influential theories in crisis communication. His work has been at the forefront of establishing crisis communication as an identifiable research field within corporate communication. The recognition of his expertise is reflected in the variety of speaking engagements in U.S., Europe, and Asia. He has keynoted at a number of academic and practitioner conferences as well as lecturing on crisis communication at a number of international academic institutions.
Dr. Peter Ryan
Peter completed both his BA and MA at the University of Alberta, before moving to Toronto to accept a Rogers PhD Fellowship in the joint Ryerson/York Universities’ Communication and Culture Programme. While completing his PhD, he taught for the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson for five years until 2010. He then moved to MacEwan University in Edmonton to work as an instructional designer in their eLearning Office, while also teaching for their Department of Communication.
His research interests include Canadian political communication, government public relations, digital research methods, and social media issues management. His co-authored research with Patrice Dutil earned the J.E. Hodgetts’ award from the Institute of Public Administration (IPAC) for article of the year in 2013, and an innovative collaborative online project with CBC News’ Susan Ormiston Online and Greg Elmer’s Infoscape Research Lab earned the “Best
Cross Platform Project” Gemini Award for their coverage of the 2008 Canadian federal election (note: the Gemini Awards are now known as the “Canada Screen Awards”, since 2013). You can follow Peter on Twitter @prnetworks. In Fall 2016, Peter began teaching Financial Public Relations, Government Public Relations and Issues Management, Risk and Crisis Communication.
Dr. Chaseten Remillard
Chaseten Remillard is a communications scholar interested in questions of social and environmental justice. With expertise in visual and professional communications, Remillard’s research includes topics as varied as homelessness, Canadian artist Bill Reid, hockey art, the Alberta Oil Sands, and shark films. Despite this eclecticism, he consistently interrogates how images gain and transmit meaning and how these meanings serve to reinforce particular “ways of seeing” ourselves and the world around us. Currently, Remillard is completing a book on the visual communication of homelessness in the Canadian press. He is happily married to his wife Tanya and is a proud father of three.
Mr. GREG SOLECKI
Greg has over 25 years of senior leadership experience in emergency, continuity, crisis, and risk management. His Emergency Management career began as a firefighter in Langley BC and Calgary AB before becoming a Certified Emergency Manager and Business Continuity Professional working with Municipal, Provincial, Federal, and First Nations entities.
The focus of his expertise is to ensure leaders and executives are prepared for major business interruptions through site alignment and corporate crisis leadership. He has created numerous preparedness, continuity, and security programs to ensure progressive and sustained operations, additionally serving during countless emergencies and disasters in Canada including the 2013 Calgary Floods where he was the EOC Director, and most recently Recovery Director in Merritt, BC.
Greg also provides his expertise for international standards development related to crisis, emergency, and continuity management as past President of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) – Canada. His work writing international standards in emergency management and business continuity afforded the opportunity to successfully implement programs for major corporations and municipalities in preparation for his response to the largest disasters in Canadian history.
Ms. Terry Bullick
Terry Bullick is creative thinker, leader and communicator with exceptional experience in health and wellness, agriculture, safety, oil and gas, business, education, business and the not-for-profit sector.
Currently, I she is the publisher and editor of Apple, Alberta Health Services’ health and wellness magazine, and AHS’s brand manager. Ashe is the former editor of Frontline, Energy Safety Canada’s health and safety magazine for field workers.
An effective collaborator and project leader, Terry excels at working with organizations of all sizes and descriptions. She has guided the demands of many complex projects, campaign and publications for more than 20 years. Recent examples include developing and rolling out branding standards across AHS. In summer 2017, the Apple team produced a 128-page
double issue, the magazine’s largest ever. Terry’s work with Apple magazine has set a new standard for public health information in Alberta. In 2014, She was one-half of the secretariat for the Alberta Wheat Commission.
Ms. Sandra Stillwell
Sandra is a proven C-suite level executive who has led HR departments at some of Canada’s largest energy companies, (including Suncor and Conoco-Phillips.) She specializes in enhancing organizational effectiveness and is passionate about improving systems and cultures, as well as working with leaders and teams to accelerate their development and maximize their contributions.
Sandra has deep expertise in leadership development and coaching, change management, organization diagnosis, team effectiveness, employee engagement and culture change.
Sandra has over 25 years of experience as a senior human resources professional in the telecommunications, energy and manufacturing industries.
In her most recent roles at an executive level she was instrumental in leading the
organizational design,
staffing and cultural change efforts during several multi-billion dollar mergers and divestitures.
Sandra brings a solid business background and unique perspective, borne from her C-suite level experience, to her work and is known for her strategic thinking, leadership coaching, facilitation and design of innovative solutions, to address the needs of every business.
Ms. Leslie Ann Kalman
Leslie Ann Kalman, CA has extensive business experience with start-up companies, taking them from the inception stage to public success. Some of the companies Leslie Ann worked for are as a Vice-President and/or Chief Financial Officer were Northridge Petroleum Marketing, TC Energy (formerly Trans Canada Pipelines), MetroNet Communications, AT&T Canada, and Quick Link Communications.
As a consultant she has provided advice to many different companies, non-profits, and municipal governments in the areas of business and strategic plans; investor presentations; budgets; financial forecasts and statements; grants; policies and advising on methods to improve corporate performance and profitability. She has worked with many companies in the oil and gas, educational, high tech, medical, recreation and service industries.
