Writer and professor Aritha van Herk at the University of Calgary’s Central Library.
Aritha van Herk
When the land gets into your bones.
For Aritha van Herk, her province is also her muse. “Alberta is the place that inspires my writing more than any other, and it’s here that I have been able to write most of my 14 books,” she says. Growing up on a farm in central Alberta, van Herk can remember yearning to get out of her small town and go to university. She did, attending the University of Alberta to study English before launching an extensive career as a novelist, editor and professor. Van Herk’s writing has helped amplify the Canadian voice — representation which she felt was missing in her early career. Her novels span genres, from fiction to historical works, but the common thread is the foundation of Western Canadian culture and history. “We have an incredible diversity here, with people from so many backgrounds who have brought so much richness to our culture. It’s a diversity that we need to cherish.” Now Professor Emerita at the University of Calgary, van Herk is writing a book of poetry and non-fiction and readjusting to the paradigm shift that comes after a long teaching career. “I’ve lived in many other places in the world, and I feel very much like home is something that gets embedded in our bones... Alberta really has shaped me.”
Founder of Give a Mile, Kevin Crowe, outside his office in the Eau Claire neighbourhood in downtown Calgary.
Kevin Crowe
How to make hearts soar.
Kevin Crowe understands how life is better when it takes flight. Crowe came to Calgary in 1996 for a single six-week university work term and never left. And as the COO of Long View Systems, Crowe has been part of Calgary’s tech boom, growing this company to 1,300 employees across North America. That’s his job. His passion? Helping people see their ailing loved ones before they pass. Crowe launched Give A Mile after he lost his good friend, Ryan Westerman, to brain cancer at the age of 37. He remembers seeing and hearing of families, unable to buy a plane ticket, struggling to say goodbye from afar over the phone. The kernel of his idea: in the world of customer loyalty and rewards, there are billions of unused travel miles out there. Why not put them to good use? Give A Mile could connect people for one last incredibly meaningful time. “It’s hard to put into words when you give somebody the gift to say goodbye,” says Crowe. “There is this ethos in Alberta that you have to take care of community and Give A Mile would not be here without that. That is what has got us to 1,400 flights using 65 million miles.”
David Benjestorf at the Edmonton Food Bank where, since the COVID-19 pandemic, P3 Farms has donated over 550,000 pounds of produce.
Dave Benjestorf
When helping others truly takes root.
Sometimes opportunities are disguised as daunting challenges. For Dave Benjestorf, a lawyer and Edmonton Food Bank board member, the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic offered him just that: an opening. Years before, Benjestorf had purchased 23 acres near St. Albert, but he never had a clear plan for the land. That all changed one night as he watched the documentary The Biggest Little Farm about a couple in Los Angeles who traded city living for farm life. “I said to my wife, ‘Why don’t we grow vegetables for the food bank?’ It was one of those few times in my life where I knew what we were going to do.” P3 Farms was born. He soon jumped on YouTube to start learning how to farm, and received help from friends and family to get growing. “Albertans are known for their volunteerism and commitment to community,” he says. “No matter what my issue or problem was, there was always somebody willing to help me.” In fact, lots of people pitched in at the farm. Neighbours sold him land for one dollar to expand, while others hauled water and school groups and hockey teams began calling with offers to help. Since its first season in 2020, P3 Farms has donated close to 500,000 pounds of produce to Edmonton’s Food Bank. “There’s no better feeling than being able to help your fellow Albertan.”
Viola Birss is a renowned researcher and educator who is passionate about climate change.
Viola Birss
Fuelling a passion for positive change.
As a teenager, Viola Birss couldn’t stop staring at a cross-section diagram of a battery — today, that same fascination is helping turn water and carbon dioxide into clean fuel cells. “I couldn’t get over how interesting they were,” she says. “It was very innate. I always wondered, how did they work?” Inspired by her Grade 12 chemistry teacher — first diving into chemistry and then into electrochemistry — Birss completed a PhD at the University of Auckland before joining the University of Calgary as a researcher and educator. “One of my big concerns that still drives me to work very hard is climate change and loss of habitat and species,” she says. “It’s a passion.” As the scientific director of CAESR-Tech (Calgary Advanced Energy Storage and Conversion Research Technologies), Birss works on clean energy conversion or storage. The organization develops electrochemical methods to produce future fuels, such as hydrogen from water, which could then fuel vehicles efficiently, quietly and without combustion. She is also the electrolysis co-lead for the Hydrogen Production Technologies (HyPT) Global Research Center. “My hope is what we’re doing will be part of new technologies, open new pathways, or inspire people and investors to support these technologies and move it all forward,” says Birss.
Filmmaker Shawn Tse in Edmonton’s Chinatown.
Shawn Tse
The power of film.
In a province at times defined by stereotypes, Shawn Tse is using film to make space for the untold Asian stories already shaping Alberta. Tse was born and raised in Toronto, but met his Edmontonian partner while living in Asia and decided to follow her back in 2016. He now considers Edmonton home, a place that has nurtured him as a filmmaker as well as an arts and cultural worker. Tse’s work often centres on social change in the local community, connecting him with people across the nonprofit and cultural sector. As festival director of Edmonton’s 2025 FascinAsian Film Festival, he and his team sold out multiple events in its inaugural year. It returns to the city in May 2026. “The biggest driving force and passion for FascinAsian is making space for those important stories that should be celebrated here in our city,” he says. Tse’s place-making work creates spaces to highlight regional diversity and challenge the stereotypes of what it means to be Albertan. “Everyone deserves to feel heard and that this is a safe place,” says Tse. “I think that is such an important aspect to place making — what drives my work is holding space for people to feel dignified in the place that they live.”
Uyen Nguyen is a physical therapist and founder of the charity, Synaptic.
Uyen Nguyen
A healthy dose of pay-it-forward.
When a client who was injured in a car accident struggled to access ongoing physical therapy, it revealed a gap in Alberta’s healthcare system that Uyen Nguyen, a physical therapist, couldn’t ignore. In 2011, she decided to stop working with elite athletes and build a charity that offers long-term neurological rehabilitation access to anyone. Nguyen couldn’t believe that post-hospital neurological rehab was limited. “It truly kind of broke my brain trying to understand how it is that we didn’t have this level of care for those that needed it the most,” she says. “I was just compelled to help a community and a population that’s been so under served.” The charity, named Synaptic, was built grassroots-style, from a carpenter offering to build shelves for free, to a high-powered lawyer doing legal work in exchange for homemade cookies. What started as 800 square feet is now 12,000. Nguyen has created a model that treats a range of conditions, from children to end-of-life, all on a cost-recovery basis. The charity is constantly innovating, adopting new technology and research, to give better recovery options. “It has truly been the kindness and generosity of Albertans that have allowed this to happen,” says Nguyen. “If we collectively pay it forward in our own way, I know our impact will be greater.”
Jenna Galloway
Developing young minds for a brighter future.
Jenna Galloway has always known she wanted to have a positive impact on children — what changed was the manner of her approach. Originally intending to be a pediatrician, her own mental health challenges in university instead led her to build ways for children to understand how their brains, bodies and emotions work together. Galloway founded Wymbin, a preschool in Calgary where she put her innovative techniques to work. “I quickly realized that what I love is the research and innovation in creating programs and being in community with others.” Wymbin then led to Fledge, a digital platform and program that equips parents and educators with tools to support early childhood development in four key areas: stress and anxiety, focus and attention, social interaction and emotional regulation. “It’s designed to set kids up with the tools and skills they need, so if they encounter some struggles, which we all do, they feel better equipped to navigate them.” Galloway wants to equip as many parents and educators with the tools as possible, so they can have a connected experience with children as they support their development. “Sometimes as we get older, we lose that sense of curiosity and wonder and excitement, but my favourite thing about working with children is their optimism,” she says. “Every day, kids come in excited.”
Jenna Galloway outside Wymbin in Calgary’s Inglewood neighbourhood.
At his home office in Whitemud River Valley, Timothy Caulfield is surrounded by the things that mean the most to him: facts, family and a feline friend.
Timothy Caulfield
The search for scientific truth and certainty.
Timothy Caulfield is certainly grateful for his career — even if his young children might not know what he does at work. Caulfield is the host of television show A User’s Guide to Cheating Death, an author, and a law professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where he explores health law and science policy. Since he was a kid, he’s always had a fascination with what science says about the world. As he got older, Caulfield noticed a disconnect between the evidence and policy, or the current celebrity fad and it sparked a passion for the topic, leading to his book Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?: When Celebrity Culture and Science Clash . “It’s emerged as one of the greatest challenges of our time: the misinterpretation of evidence, science and knowledge more broadly.” Much of Caulfield’s work has been debunking myths and assumptions about health and science. His most recent book, The Certainty Illusion: What You Don’t Know and Why It Matters, dives into the misinformation crisis and the challenges it presents to regular people and experts alike. “We’re going to need to come at it from multiple directions,” says Caulfield. “The good news is I think there’s a growing understanding of the gravity of the situation, and people want to get involved.”
Lourdes Juan
Growing businesses for the better of all.
Why start one company when you can start six? Ask Lourdes Juan, for whom the moniker “serial entrepreneur” might be an understatement. Juan has called Calgary home since she was a baby. And as a University of Calgary alumni with a Master of Environmental Design, she has focused her entrepreneurship on social innovation. “I grew up seeing my dad working in a basement office and growing that company into something bigger,” says Juan. “I saw the ebb and flow of entrepreneurship, and I think I have modelled that.” She certainly comes by her commitment to hard work honestly. Her mother worked three jobs while her father was in school, shaping Juan’s desire to create something from the ground up, which she did with her companies including the Leftovers Foundation, Knead Technologies and Fresh Routes, which all deal with issues of food security. Juan’s community-mindedness stems from her Filipino culture and its adherence to taking good care of one another. She and her sisters all live within walking distance, with their kids growing up together just as her generation did. Calgary has been the perfect environment for growth, giving her the space to test ideas and get honest feedback. “I have really felt support from this community, both in Calgary and province wide,” says Juan. “All my businesses are in different industries, but in each one, there is a common thread of folks wanting to support people who want to grow their business here in Alberta.”
Entrepreneur Lourdes Juan at La Boulangerie on 4th St in Calgary.
Naturalist and author John Acorn at Edmonton’s Whitemud Ravine.
John Acorn
Bringing science — and understanding — to life.
Years ago, John Acorn was walking through Dinosaur Provincial Park when he spotted something on the ground he didn’t recognize: a peculiar spider. He snapped a photo and, it turned out, it was unknown to science — never before seen. “It was a jumping spider. They are the cutest kind of spider — really adorable.” He would know. Acorn is a naturalist with a decades-long career in zoology, entomology and paleontology at the University of Alberta. He’s also the namesake behind the Canadian television series, Acorn the Nature Nut, which ran for several seasons in the ‘90s, introducing kids and science enthusiasts to nature in Alberta and beyond.
“The contribution I felt best about was introducing so many people not to the exotic species of nature, but the really cool stuff that lives right around us in your backyard.” Acorn has authored more than 20 books — many featuring “of Alberta” in the title — focusing on birds, butterflies and aspects of nature. He also garnered awards for his work promoting science to the public. “Nobody wants to protect the environment unless they like it,” he says. “Introducing people to all of this wonderful stuff, all of this detail, complexity and diversity gives you a motive to care, one way or the other.”
