2020/2021 Council

President

Mac Hickley, RPP

Mac Hickley is a seasoned planner with a strong background in strategic policy development, sustainability planning and stakeholder engagement. For five years he worked for the Government of Alberta, developing regional plans for the Land Use Secretariat, working on consultation policy with Indigenous Relations and promoting watershed resiliency with Environment and Parks. For ten years prior to that, he led a volunteer-driven non-profit organization delivering urban environmental planning advice to the city and citizens of Calgary. In all of his work, Mac facilitates and integrates local knowledge and experience into planning processes. He has degrees in philosophy and planning and he brings a passion for new knowledge with him wherever he goes.

President Elect, Treasurer

Jeff Chase, RPP

Jeff Chase is currently the Director of Local Economy at the City of Edmonton.  Jeff brings more than a decade of experience leading planning, economic development and sustainability related policy projects and programs in both the public and private sectors. Prior to the City of Edmonton, Jeff served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Mayor in Calgary, and spent 3 years working in urban development in Vancouver. Jeff’s approach is focused at the intersection of innovation, creativity, collaboration, and risk taking. Jeff holds an MA in Planning (UBC) and a PhD in Human Geography (Newcastle, UK).

Councillor

Carol Bergum, RPP

Carol is a planner and planning leader with 25 years experience in the municipal, provincial and non-profit sectors in the Edmonton region.  With a graduate degree from York University, her work has included all aspects of planning in the region from downtown Edmonton to mid-sized cities to the rural countryside, and from hands-on planner to planning director. 

In any community she works with, she envisions the potential for its future, and serves as the catalyst to bring those ideas to fruition.  Carol has recently changed her career direction to serve communities as a private consultant and create practical educational opportunities for planners.

Councillor

Glinis Buffalo, RPP

@glinisbuffalo 

Glinis Buffalo is a proud member of Samson Cree Nation, Maskwacis, and a Planning Lead with AECOM with over 15 years of project experience within the public and private sector. She has extensive experience in a wide range of community planning and policy initiatives that includes First Nation community development plans, provincial regional plans, area structure plans, municipal development plans, strategic planning and municipal land use applications. She has extensive experience in designing and facilitating indigenous and stakeholder engagement including working with industry and government.  Additionally, Glinis has managed the review of numerous municipal environmental impact assessments to support urban land development applications for large and small infrastructure and recreational development projects. Glinis is a Registered Professional Planner with the Alberta Professional Planners Institute and a Registered Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners.

Councillor, Secretary

Heather Chisholm, RPP

Heather is a senior planner with B&A Planning Group in their Edmonton office. She has over 10 years of professional planning experience as a land use planner in both the public and private sectors. After completing the University of Guelph’s Master of Science in Rural Planning and Development program, Heather worked as a planner in the Atlantic provinces before moving to Edmonton. While at the City of Edmonton, Heather worked as a downtown planner in Current Planning, on the urban renewal team, on the annexation team, and as both a department and branch strategic coordinator. Heather has completed the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Foundations in Public Participation certificate and enjoys engaging residents in discussions about their communities. 

Councillor

Peter Ohm, RPP

Peter Ohm is a Registered Professional Planner (RPP, MCIP) whose career spans over three decades. Upon his retirement from the City of Edmonton in late 2019, Peter was Edmonton’s Chief Planner where he led a number of integrated teams to develop and
implement urban policies and programs to help build a livable, inclusive and resilient city. The diversity of Peter’s leadership experience includes policy development at the city-region scale to design and policy implementation at the site-specific scale.

Passionate about building great communities, Peter worked with a team of planning leaders to advance positive change, improve processes, and support creativity and innovation. Peter was honored with the Edmonton City Manager’s Award of Excellence for Stewardship and is an alumni of Alberta Venture magazine’s “Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People” award. As Chief Planner, Peter and his team of planners, engineers, ecologists and technicians took the strategic lead to plan for great places that are well designed, livable and green. This effort served to shape the appearance and function of the city in the short and long term by promoting best practice land use planning, transportation policy, and urban design to establish a more compact, resilient and vibrant city.

A lifelong resident of Alberta, Peter obtained undergraduate degrees from the University of Alberta with a focus on geography, political science and history. He currently sits on an advisory committee to the School of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Alberta. Through the course of his professional planning career, Peter has developed a strong interest in municipal government and finance, organizational development and process improvement, regional planning, growth management, and policy and development planning.

Councillor

Amanda-Brea Watson, RPP

Amanda-Brea is a Planner and Project Manager working for Dillon Consulting at the Yellowknife Office in the Northwest Territories. After graduating from the University of Waterloo in 2006, Amanda-Brea joined the Alberta Municipal Internship Program and worked with the Country of Grande Prairie. In 2011, Amanda-Brea became a Member of the Canadian Institute of Planners and a Registered Professional Planner with the Alberta Professional Planners Institute. Prior to working with Dillon Amanda-Brea was employed as a Planner for several municipalities in the NWT, Alberta and Ontario. Working within various parts of Canada has allowed for a wide range of experience in dealing with planning, development, community building and politics in both urban and rural contexts.

Councillor

Chelsea Whitty, RPP

Chelsea holds a Master of Planning degree in Urban Design from the University of Calgary and a Bachelor of Education with a major in Biological Sciences from the University of Alberta. She has lived abroad, studying at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and working as cultural program coordinator in Japan. In the field of planning, she has worked in Calgary and Edmonton, holding positions in both the public and private sectors. Currently, Chelsea is an Associate at DIALOG, on the Urban Design and Planning team. Her portfolio of work spans across traditional policy development, broad scale master planning, urban design, and public engagement.

Public Member

Marilyn Hooper

Marilyn Hooper was most recently Executive Assistant and Outreach Co-ordinator to Mayor Don Iveson. She retired June 2016 after 10 years with the City of Edmonton. She has had a long history working in the public sector and feels she still has some public service left in her. She served as Outreach Coordinator for the NDP Opposition from 1998-2004 and Constituency Assistant for 2 years before that.  She spent two years as Instructional Assistant with the American Sign Language Training Program at Grant MacEwan College and one year as a freelance sign language interpreter. Marilyn holds a diploma in Counselling Women from the U of A Women’s Studies Program.  As a passionate music lover, she is an active volunteer for CKUA Radio Station.