Derrick Pieters, APR, FCPRS,
President 2008-2009

is Director of Communications, Department of Justice Canada, Prairie Region, based in Edmonton, Alberta. He has over 35 years extensive experience as a strategic communications planner, team leader, media relations strategist, editor, government information administrator, and public relations consultant.

He is an accredited, award winning member of the CPRS having received his APR 26 years ago in 1982. He has held several positions of increasing responsibility within the CPRS. He was elected to the National Board of Directors in 2008 to serve a second three-year term and is a former President of the Edmonton Society in which capacity he was an appointed National Board member for many years.

He is the former vice-president of the CPRS National Education Committee. He is Past Presiding Officer of the CPRS National Council on Accreditation on which he served for approximately 15 years. Under his leadership, the Council, in cooperation with the Accreditation Task Force, successfully implemented several important improvements to the accreditation process.

He has been a guest lecturer at the University of Alberta, Grant MacEwan College and Mount Royal College. In 2000, he received the Alberta Premier’s Award of Excellence for his contribution to Capital Health’s Y2K communications. In 2008, he received a Team Achievement Award from the Deputy Minister of Justice Canada for his communications contribution to a high impact litigation case. Mr. Pieters has considerable training in business and association management.

National Executive Committee Member
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Dr. Terry Flynn, APR, FCPRS
Vice President/Treasurer

Dr. Flynn, APR, FCPRS is Professor and Director of the MCM Degree Program, DeGroote School of Business - McMaster University and has been a member of CPRS since 1986 and received his accreditation in 1993. A 22-year member of the CPRS Toronto Society, Terry also became a member of the Hamilton Society in 2004. In early 2005, Terry was appointed as the Chair of the Task Force on Public Relations Education and at the 2007 national conference in Edmonton he was re-elected to the board for a three-year term. Since his first election to the Board in 2005, Terry has helped guide the development of the new National Council on Public Relations Education, has been active in helping to design a national market study on the scope and value of the practice of public relations in Canada, and helped to secure sponsorship for the national membership satisfaction survey. Terry has also been a strong supporter of educational awards programs at the national level.

National Executive Committee Member
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Anita Wasiuta, APR
Vice President & Secretary

Ms. Wasiuta, APR is BC Transit's Manager of Marketing and Communications based in Victoria, British Columbia. She was elected to the Board in 2005 and again in 2008 to serve a three year term and has been elected for a second term as VP-Secretary. During 2007/08, she developed and implemented evaluation tools including a Board Self Evaluation and a new Management Services Performance Evaluation. She served on the CPRS-Vancouver Island board for more than 10 years in various portfolios including communications, president and sponsorship, and was a committee member of the successful 2001 Whistler national conference team. Ms. Wasiuta is an active member of the Canadian Urban Transit's Authority Communication Committee charged to build awareness of public transit throughout BC and Canada. Ms. Wasiuta's areas of expertise include facilitation, marketing and sponsorships. And yes, she rides public transit in all the cities she travels to.

National Executive Committee Member
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Colleen Killingsworth, APR
Immediate Past President

Ms. Killingsworth is the President of CK Communications in Calgary. With more than 19 years' experience in communications, Colleen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism degree from the University of Nevada, Reno. She is Accredited Public Relations (APR) through the Public Relations Society of America and Accredited Business Communicator (ABC) through the International Association of Business Communicators, and the past-president of the Sierra Nevada chapter of the Public Relations Society of America as well as a past-president for CPRS Calgary. She also served as a CPRS National Board member for 2000/2005 and as President for two terms 2006-2008. Colleen chaired the CPRS National Accreditation Task Force for 2000/2002 and the CPRS National Accreditation Process Improvements Implementation Team in 2003 and participated in the Governance Review Task Force in 2004. In 2002 and 2004, Colleen was honoured with a Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) Major Award - the CPRS Lamp of Service - Canada's most coveted public relations honour for an individual member.

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Lucie-Anne Fabien, ARP, FSCRP

Ms. Fabien was elected to serve a second three year term in 2008. She has spent the first 17 years in public relations organizations, mostly as a manager. For the last 6 years, she has been working as a consultant in PR and teaching Management and PR at the Executive MBA program at UQAM. Ms. Fabien has been volunteering in the profession for more than 13 years, 10 of which were in Quebec where she was President of SRQ in 2003-2004.

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Pierrette Leonard, APR, FSCRP

Involved in the health-care field for 26 years, Ms. Leonard is currently senior advisor for national partners with the Canadian Patient Safety Institute. Ms. Leonard's background also includes social work and teaching. She joined CPRS in the early 1990s as a member of CPRS Ottawa, and became a member of the Board of Directors shortly afterwards. As a Board member, she served as French Editor of the chapter newsletter, member of the Professional Development Committee, as secretary, and treasurer for the 1994 national conference. Nationally, Ms. Leonard has served CPRS as a grader, exam development lead and as chief examiner for the National Council on Accreditation from 2000 to 2007. Being involved from the ground up in the setting of standards for CPRS has enabled her to understand the sacred trust that comes with holding any position involving the accreditation of peers, especially concerning ethics, teamwork, and relationship building with colleagues. Ms. Leonard was elected to serve a three-year term and received her FCPRS in June 2007.

Christina A. Marshall, APR

Ms. Marshall was elected to serve a three year term in 2007 and has practised public relations for 19 years. Her areas of expertise include working with boards in the not-for-profit sector, change management, project management, team building, branding, media relations, issues management, writing articles for newspapers, public speaking, chairing conferences and developing expert panel reports. Ms. Marshall has served on the CPRS (Toronto) board as the 2006/2007 past-president, 2005/2006 president, 2004/2005 president and as chair of the 2004 CPRS (Toronto) Awards of Communications Excellence. Prior to working in Toronto, Ms. Marshall served on the CPRS (Hamilton) board in 1993/1994 and 1994/1995. For more than 10 years, she's participated in CPRS awards of communications excellence, from co-hosting Hamilton's Pinnacle awards, to judging awards for CPRS (Hamilton) and CPRS (Toronto).

Blair Peberdy, APR

Mr. Peberdy is Vice President, Marketing, Communications & Public Affairs at Toronto Hydro Corporation. He was re-elected in 2007 to serve a second, three year term and served as VP Treasurer for four years. He has an extensive background in the communications field, having worked in advertising, public relations and in senior administrative positions throughout his career. A graduate of Concordia University's Communication Arts program, he has continued his education by completing the Executive Development Program at Queen's University, the Advanced Program in Managing Strategic Change at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Business, and modules in the MIT/Harvard Public Disputes Program. Mr. Peberdy is an Accredited Member of the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) and is a former Vice President-Treasurer of the national board of directors of CPRS. He was named CPRS Toronto "Mentor of the Year" and is also past - President of the Ontario Forestry Association (OFA), and remains a member of the board of directors of OFA. Blair also is a member of the board of directors of the Canadian Centre for Ethics and Corporate Policy, a member of the Electricity Task Force of the Toronto Board of Trade, and is a past-member of the board of directors of the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance.

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Béatrice G. Pepper, ARP

Mrs. Pepper has been playing an active part in the CPRS Accreditation Program for about six years as Chief Examiner for Quebec and French-Language candidates. She was elected President of la Société québécoise des professionnels en relations publiques in 1986 after several years on the Board of Directors. She has considerable experience as a consultant and as communications manager in corporations and public organizations. She is recognized for her role as media spokesperson and for developing national and international media relation strategies. Throughout her career, she has been called upon for developing and carrying out communication strategies, for instance, in developing an employee information program after a corporate buyout, and for taking part in Canadian public hearings and Québec Parliamentary Committees. Mrs. Pepper has worked in the Airline, Tourism, Telecommunications and Engineering industries. She holds a B.A. in Spanish and Public Relations from Université Laval. Mrs. Pepper is Consultant in Communication and Public Relations and teaches at McGill University’s Public Relations Management Program.

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Adele Stevens

Just elected to the Board in 2004, Adele was re-elected to serve a three year term in 2007. Ms. Stevens is an award-winning marketing communications specialist with over 30 years' experience in media relations, crisis communications, corporate communications, advertising and training. Currently as President of ASC Marketing Communications Inc. she works with executives in a wide-range of industries including financial, law enforcement, tourism, retail, media, and all levels of government. Her diverse experiences challenge leaders to think beyond their industry norm to create innovative, marketing, communications and public relations strategies that achieve the desired results. As an 11-year member of the Manitoba Society she has held the positions of Program Chair, Vice-President and President. She has volunteered as a CPRS National Board member for four years and serves as a judging coordinator for the CPRS National Award of Excellence program. Ms. Stevens is also in her 6th year as a Director of the 110 million dollar Winnipeg Police Credit Union and a much sought after speaker in the North American Cooperative Community.

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Christina Winsor, APR

Ms. Winsor was appointed in 2008 to serve a one-year term to replace Rod Stanley, APR who stepped down. She is Director of Internal Communications with the New Brunswick Government and is located in Fredericton, NB. Having worked in the private and public sectors, her areas of expertise include issues management, strategic communications, internal communications, labour relations and employee engagement. Ms. Winsor received her APR in 2007 and has been actively involved in CPRS at both the local and national level in a variety of roles including President of CPRS-NB and Chair of the National Professional Development Committee. Her work with the Government of New Brunswick has been recognized by the CPRS Awards of Excellence and the CPRS Atlantic Gemstone Awards.

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Lynn McGregor, APR

Ms. McGregor was elected in 2008 to serve a three year term. Throughout her career, Lynn has been a CPRS member in good standing, establishing one of the first official public relations positions in a municipal parks and recreation department. Since then, her varied experiences - including agency work; independent consulting; directing the Canadian operations of an international trade association with four separate regions across Canada; coordinating the advancement, marketing communications and special events activities of a national educational organization; managing the alumni relations program for a high profile Toronto-based business school with chapters in 15 countries worldwide; and currently directing the development of an international association of executive search consultants - have given her the knowledge and understanding required to make a positive contribution to the National CPRS organization. Since joining CPRS in 1986, she has had various CPRS leadership positions.

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