PID, RSE, Electrician
Instructor, Electrical Program
AJ was born in Calgary around the same time that original Nintendo came out. She was raised on a farm east of Ponoka, Alberta, with six other siblings. It was there that she learned to live off the land and the value of hard work.
She had many different jobs, starting at just seven years old as a farmhand at a horse ranch. As an adult, she worked as a “Jill-of-all-trades” at a small company in Camrose, Alberta, where she serviced two-way radios, cellphones and computers and accessorized vehicles with communication systems. She also worked in the IT department servicing many local companies, including the electrical company where she would eventually become an apprentice electrician.
When it was time to go to school, AJ packed up and headed south to Calgary to attend the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) near the base of the Rocky Mountains, where she could hike, bike, boulder and cross-country ski.
Her time at SAIT introduced her to her love of teaching. She was hired on as a tutor for all levels of apprenticeship until she received her electrician certification and Red Seal endorsement. A few years later, she met her partner, Justin, who was from the Kootenays. They made the move to Fruitvale together in 2015, buying a 10-acre 1935 fixer-upper. A few months into the move, AJ secured a position as a relief electrical instructor at Selkirk College (as well as on-call tool crib, first aid attendant and maintenance electrician). She is now a full-time Instructor and received her teaching diploma from Vancouver Community College in January 2023.
AJ is on the BCGEU PD, Service Enhancement Fund, Electrical Articulation, and Hiring committees, as well as the Electrical Curriculum subcommittee. She is a BCGEU executive member, co-chair of the Diversity in Trades & Industry Training group, regional representative of BC Centre for Women in Trades and an active member of South Columbia Search and Rescue.
If you see AJ cruising in her 1981 Ford Bronco “Hank,” give her a wave (just be sure it’s her and not her identical twin sister, Ami)!