Ranjith (Ran) Narayanasamy

MEng'05, EMBA'11

Ran Narayanasamy is the President and CEO of the Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC) and comes from a senior management position at SaskPower. Ran has been working in the utility industry since 2005 and has over 17 years of versatile experiences in Cyber Security, Engineering and Operations, Corporate Finance, Business Transformation, Green Field Hydro Electric Development and Indigenous Business Development. Ran also worked on SaskPower’s Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Mobilization to India Initiative to build partnerships with Indian thermal utilities. Ran successfully created more than $350 million dollars of new indigenous economy by implementing an Indigenous Procurement strategy at SaskPower and won the Premier's Award for Public Service Excellence in 2019. The same year, Ran was selected as a CBC Saskatchewan Future 40 Finalist.

Teresa Posyniak

BEd'73, BFA'81

Teresa Posyniak is an established artist based in Calgary whose work explores themes of vulnerability and resiliency in contemporary society. With a career spanning more than 40 years, she has worked in materials as diverse as steel, wood, concrete, handmade paper and felt, oil and encaustic, ranging in scale from room-sized installations to intimate drawings and paintings. Teresa has always been a socially engaged artist and her activism, primarily on behalf of women, children and the environment, drives her practice. Notable is her 1992 sculpture LEST WE FORGET, dedicated to missing and murdered women, which was permanently installed at The University of Calgary Faculty of Law in 1994. You can find more of Teresa's artwork on her website or her instagram account @posyniakstudio. More of Teresa's artwork can be found on the Christine Klassen Gallery website.

Jada Yee

DAdmn'08, CHGEM'10, BAdmin'15, MAdmin'20

Jada Yee is the Director of Business Development for FHQ Developments and a proud member of the Wood Mountain Lakota First Nation and is of Chinese-Canadian heritage. Jada also teaches at the First Nations University of Canada’s Indigenous Business and Public Administration program. Jada is an active volunteer on numerous boards, including the Regina Police Service Board of Police Commissioners; the Regina Food Bank; Regina Crime Stoppers; Regina Aboriginal Professionals Association (RAPA); and as the Indigenous Representative for the Kenneth Levene Graduate School of Business’ Students’ Association. In October 2021, Jada was elected to the National Board of Canadian Association for Police Governance, where Jada represents Saskatchewan. Jada was awarded the Presidential Leadership Award from SaskGaming and has presented his research at the Annual Gaming and Problem Gambling Retreat regarding Problem Gaming/Addictions and Indigenous communities. In June 2022, Jada presented his findings to the Governor General of Canada, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon.

Kelsey Zipchen

BEd'10, BA'17

Kelsey has a unique job: She’s a teacher on film and television sets across Canada, tutoring young actors who are missing school. Kelsey earned her Bachelor of Education from the University of Regina in 2010 and taught in Regina and Saskatoon before relocating to Toronto with her husband, actor and host Tanner Zipchen. While spending time with him on location, she learned about on-set teaching. In an intense four-year journey, she went on to earn her Masters in Education from the University of Saskatchewan in 2018, and soon after earned a California Certified Studio Teacher designation. Since beginning her career as a Studio Teacher, Kelsey has worked on many different film and television projects including Netflix's The Umbrella Academy and The Adam Project. You can read more about Kelsey in Degrees magazine.

Katie Sveinson

BSRS’12, MSc’14, PhD’19

Dr. Katie Sveinson earned her PhD in Kinesiology from the University of Regina in 2019 and has also recieved both her Master of Science in Kinesiology (2014) and a Bachelor of Science in Sport and Recreation Studies (2012) from the University. Her research combines sport management and sociology of sport, with a focus on sport consumer behavior. Specifically, Dr. Sveinson utilizes critical qualitative methodologies to understand how gender impacts the sport fan experience.

Dr. Sveinson has spent the past three years as an assistant professor (tenure-track) at Temple University in Philadelphia and is now an assistant professor (tenure-track) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Jacq Brasseur (they/them)

BA'15, MEd'21

With over 15 years of experience working in 2SLGBTQ+ communities, Jacq Brasseur (they/them) is the CEO & Principal Consultant at Ivy + Dean Consulting, a firm they founded to provide equity-informed consulting to small & medium non-profits.

They are a queer, non-binary registered social worker in Saskatchewan who has worked within a wide range of 2SLGBTQ+ sectors as a community leader. The 2SLGBTQ+ organizations that Jacq has had the joy of working or leading include NWT Pride, TransSask Support Services, UR Pride Centre for Sexuality & Gender Diversity, Fierté Canada Pride and the Enchanté Network.

Joan Pratchler 

B.Ed.,’82 (U of Sask),  B.A. ’83 (S.T.M.) P.G.D. Ed. Admin. ’94, M.Ed. (Ed. Admin.) ’97 (U of R), CT/RTC, SCBScN ’19 (SaskPolytech/U of R)

After a full career in Education, she retired, or as Joan puts it “reloaded”. Joan completed a 4-year degree in the Saskatchewan Collaborative Bachelor of Nursing program at the U of R in 2019, just before the pandemic began. Nursing and education have provided a myriad of opportunities for Joan. Along with her consulting work, she has had a variety of nursing practices over the past 3 years working as a Public Health Nurse as a contact investigator and tracer, a Community Mental Health nurse in an NGO, and as a vaccination nurse in Primary Healthcare in Regina.