Public Relations Instructor Bios

Vicki Barnett Vicki_Barnett_Bio_Picture
Vicki Barnett is a public relations professional with more than 12 years’ experience in the public and private sectors. Currently, she works as a communications officer for the National Energy Board. During her career, Vicki has been responsible for media relations, stakeholder engagement, investor communications, speech writing for executives, and development of strategic and crisis communications plans.

She holds undergraduate degrees in English and Journalism from the University of Calgary and Ryerson University, a Master of Communication Studies from U of C and a Master of Arts in Leadership from Royal Roads University.

Previously a journalist with the Calgary Herald, Vicki was at various times a columnist, an editorial writer and a reporter who covered many different beats. These days, she teaches in the journalism degree program at Mount Royal University as well as well as in the Public Relations Extension Certificate program. She is a passionate believer in life-long learning who has demonstrated it can be the key to a rewarding career and fulfilling life.

ce_pr_mona_gauvreau Mona Gauvreau
Mona is a public relations professional with over 19 years of national and international experience in strategic communication planning, media relations, community relations and event planning.

She provides strategic and crisis communications counsel to clients in the energy sector. Mona frequently conducts media training and key message development sessions for her clients, including sessions with senior executives, members of the management team and front-line team members. Her interactive and interesting sessions cover a wide variety of topics, including crisis communications, stakeholder engagement, media relations and delivering strategic and effective key messaging.

Currently Mona is working with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts to provide crisis communication and media training at the property level.

Most recently Mona was a Vice President with Hill & Knowlton Canada, leading the Public Relations practice in Calgary. In addition, she was a member of the national crisis communication team.

Prior to joining Hill & Knowlton, she operated pr works, a small full-service agency with an impressive portfolio of clients, including the Delta Lodge at Kananaskis, WIC Television (Alberta) and Alberta Economic Development.

She has created award-winning campaigns that increased the profile of clients in both the tourism and oil and gas industry on a local, national and international scale.

Mona provided on-site communications initiatives for the 2002 G8 Summit and the 1999 APEC Finance Ministers Meeting; designed and managed media relations strategies for the Global Petroleum Show and GoExpo; and developed awareness campaigns for Kids Help Phone, Jasper Ski Consortium and Tinhorn Creek Vineyards.

Prior to that, she was Public Relations Director for the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and was instrumental in garnering international recognition as a world-class year-round destination and overseeing the public consultation process for development.

She was awarded the Canadian Public relations Society’s Award of Excellence for Special Events for her work on the North American Ski Journalists Annual Meeting.

Mona is an accredited member of the Canadian Public Relations Society and is a Past-President for CPRS Calgary Society.

Paul Hagel, ABC ce_bio_pr_paul_hagel
A seasoned communications and government relations practitioner with over 12 years in the energy sector, Paul Hagel is Senior Government Relations Advisor for Shell Canada. He has been in this role since December 2009.

Paul has worked in a number of roles since starting with Shell in 2005; however his most significant work assignment was as a senior communications advisor within Shell’s Oil Sands/Heavy Oil business. In this role, Paul tackled a number of key growth projects including the recent expansion of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, Expansion 1, and Quest Carbon Capture and Storage Project.

Paul works closely with provincial and federal governments on a number of key files and businesses including oil sands, carbon capture and storage, wind, and biofuels with a view to creating a positive policy environment in Canada for Shell to do business in.

Paul Hagel graduated from Mount Royal University with a Bachelor of Applied Communications degree in 2003 and earned his Accredited Business Communicator Designation in 2009 through the International Association of Business Communicators.

Sheridan McVean, BA, MBA, DMC, APR
Marketing, public relations and communications has been the focus of Sheridan’s 25+ years in business. Over the years, he has consulted for a wide range of businesses from global corporations to small and medium enterprises.

For 15 years he owned and managed a full-service advertising agency which included marketing, graphic design, public relations and media buying. For seven years, he was Senior Associate with Hill and Knowlton, an international public relations/public affairs consultancy. For the last several years he served as Vice President Communications and Fund Development at the Calgary Homeless Foundation and now has returned to consulting and teaching public relations, government relations, and business courses.

Sheridan has a BA in Political Science from the University of Calgary, an MBA from Royal Roads University, an Investor Relations Management certificate from the Ivey School of Business,and a management consulting diploma from the Grenoble Graduate School of Business in Grenoble, France. He also holds and maintains the APR professional designation from the Canadian Public Relations Society.

“My passion is to help others experience the joy of learning and to encourage them to integrate these new skills into their business and personal lives,” he says.

Paul Newmarch
Paul Newmarch is a marketing and communications professional with more than 10 years of experience in the not-for-profit, performing arts and government sectors. Paul currently works for The City of Calgary as the team lead, Social and Media Relations, where he and his team are responsible for bridging the ever-narrowing gap between traditional media relations and social media relations. Paul is also responsible for leading The City of Calgary’s crisis communications team.

Paul has a BA in Communications Studies from the University of Calgary and has been an active member of the Calgary Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).

Karen Richards
Creativity and innovation have always been strong forces in Karen’s diverse career. After living abroad in Japan for two years teaching English, Karen returned to Calgary to complete her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Calgary in 1994. After graduation she worked in the oil and gas sector as a communications coordinator while also taking her Graphic Art and Design diploma at SAIT.

In 1997, Karen moved to the Cayman Islands where she worked as a graphic designer at an ad agency and print house for several years before expanding her experience to marketing coordinator and creative director. After category-five Hurricane Ivan hit Grand Cayman, Karen moved back to Calgary and took a position as Marketing and Communications Associate in Mount Royal’s External Relations department in 2005. Since then, Karen has been an integral part of the development, implementation and maintenance of Mount Royal’s brand introduced in 2008 as well as leading the Mount Royal University marketing campaign in 2009. Karen has been involved as strategic and marketing lead with many university events over the past five years such as Shakespeare in the Park, Open House, Convocation and Mount Royal’s signature fundraiser, Pearls of Wisdom.

With a passion for technology and a creative brain, it is a natural that Karen is currently leading the social media marketing movement at Mount Royal, and as a member of the international Word of Mouth Marketing Association, has opened up an entire new world of marketing. Online and social media marketing is a new way of thinking about marketing and turns principles of traditional advertising on its head. Karen brings her extensive knowledge, experience, technical expertise and passion in this emerging field of marketing to the Event Management program, and in 2010 to the Public Relations Certificate program.

Melissa Rolfe, BAA, APR
With 20 years of communications experience, Melissa Rolfe brings a well-rounded perspective to teaching public relations. Melissa has lived and worked in Alberta, Manitoba, the Yukon and Ontario. She has been a manager of communications at electricity and oil and gas companies and a senior practitioner at a leading non-profit organization. In addition to teaching at Mount Royal University, she is an independent consultant to clients primarily in the energy sector. Her areas of specialization are external communication, stakeholder relations and writing.

Melissa began her communications career as a journalist in remote northern communities. A strong believer in continuing education, she then studied public relations in the University of Winnipeg’s continuing education program in the early 1990s.

Melissa earned a Bachelor of Applied Arts from Ryerson University in 1988 and was accredited by the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) in 1999. She has been a volunteer with CPRS and winner of a CPRS award.

Her teaching focus is instilling a high standard of ethics and professionalism in the practice of public relations and, in particular, raising the standard of writing as a core competency amongst practitioners.

Tony Tighe
Tony Tighe is a news reporter and anchor with Global TV in Calgary. He has worked in radio and television broadcasting for 30 years. He has been in Calgary since 1985, first with CJAY-92 radio and then with CFCN Television, where he developed Calgary’s first full-time Consumer Reporter position and also co-anchored the news. He began working with Global TV in 1999, both as a consumer expert and evening news anchor. He has received several provincial and national awards for investigative news reporting and received the Better Business Bureau ethics award for contributions to a fair marketplace. Tony has volunteered as a media relations consultant with several nonprofit organizations and taught media relations for the Public Relations certificate at Mount Royal University since the fall of 2008.