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President
Erin Sieger
Erin is the Deputy Director of Emergency Management for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. She holds a degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of Saskatchewan, and is currenlty finishing her diploma in Emergency Management from JIBC. She has a well-rounded career, including publishing, fitness, finance, property management and municipal service. The RMWB has benefited frist hand from the ASIST Team, and its vlaue is undeniable. Erin is eager to build team depth for both Alberta and Saskatchewan supports should an incident need our service. In her spare time, Erin is an avid golfer and mother of two adult children.
Vice President
Karrie Blackbeard
Karrie, who is from Marsden SK, where she is the Public Works Coordinator for the RM of Hillsdale No. 440 has been with ASIST since 2017. Karrie responded to the 2020 flooding and Fort Chipewyan wildfire support within the ECC in the Rural Municipality of Wood Buffalo. On both occasions she was an integral part of the Planning Section (Advanced Planning Unit and Resource Unit respectivley). She has used her public works background to create sound re-entry plans. Karrie has taken on several projects to grow and promote ASIST and has been activated on several deployments. Karrie's leadership and dedication to the team is certain to be a tremendous asset.
Secretary
Andrew DeGruchy
Andrew is the Manager of Emergency Management and Director of Emergency Management (DEM) for the City of Lloydminster and has over 13 years of experience in the emergency management and emergency response sector. Andrew has previous experience as a firefighter, public safety answering point dispatcher and Red Cross volunteer. He has completed his Master of Arts in Disaster and Emergency Management through Royal Roads University where he focused his studies on how media affects risk-reducing and self-protecting behaviours.
Training Coordinator
Hugh McKay
Hugh has been a long-term member of ASIST and is well-connected to the board having previously attended all board meetings as our grant holder. Hugh has also taken on the project of overseeing D4H and stays strongly connected to other All Hazard Incident Managemetn Teams and provincla ongoings. Hugh's day-to-day consists of Training and Operations for Cold Lake Fire-Rescue and his expertise in organizing and facilitating team training should come as a tremendous asset to the team in his new board role.
Director at Large
Eric Healey
Eric is a communications advisor for Cenovus Energy. He provides external communications support for Cenovus's operations and social investment initiatives in the Lloydminster region. Eric previously worked for the City of Lloydminster where he served as communications co-ordinator, helping support engineering, transportation and environmental services, and mayor and council initiatives. During his time at the city, he supported introducing Alberta's Be Prepared program locally and played a key role in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic as an active member of the city's incident management team. He has a keen interest in emergency response and community preparedness. Outside of work, he enjoys ultrarunning and cycling.
Director at Large
Ryan Deschamps
Ryan joins the team out of the Cold Lake area and brings a wealth of enforcement knowledge. Previously working in municipal enforcement, Ryan now spends time in corporate security in a leadership position. Ryan's ability to remain organized and interpret information is certain to be helpful to the board as we work through legislative requirements of the Alberta Incident Management System (AIMS).