CHILLIWACK – The list is out! In celebration of UFV’s 40th anniversary, the UFV Alumni Association and University of the Fraser Valley have chosen their Top 40 Alumni. The group received this unique honour at this year’s Giving Thanks alumni and donor appreciation event, held Oct. 8 at the Chilliwack campus, Canada Education Park.

“The UFV Top 40 Alumni exemplify a range of exceptional qualities, from career excellence and leadership to acts of selflessness, courage, creativity, and innovation. We congratulate all of them on their achievements,” says UFV Alumni Association chair Justin P. Goodrich (BA ’12).

“When I look at this list, I am truly impressed by breadth, depth, and variety to be found in our alumni ranks,” notes Nancy Armitage, Manager of Alumni Engagement. “And it really illustrates the impact that UFV alumni are having in our communities and around the world.”

UFV has over 30,000 alumni. More than 260 nominations were received for the Top 40 Alumni awards after a community-wide appeal. Representatives from the UFV Alumni Association and the university then selected the recipients based on a set of criteria that included community contributions, commitment to others, career/professional excellence, leadership, creativity/innovation, and acting with selflessness or courage.

Read their full stories in the Top 40 Alumni special edition of UFV’s Skookum magazine.

The UFV Top 40 Alumni are:

• Shirzad Ahmed, UT ’94 — Lawyer, human rights advocate, and UFV 2011 Distinguished Alumni winner
• Rebecca Anderson, Dip ’93 — Women and family rights advocate and lawyer, community volunteer; attended UFV during its university-college phase and helped shape curriculum for degree programs
• Luke Armstrong, BGS ’11 — International security professional, providing security services to NGOs in nations experiencing turmoil
• Shelley Besse, Dip ’99 — President of Envision Financial and internationally recognized leader
• Kelly Chahal, MA ’11 — Probation officer, community volunteer, key member of Friends of UFV, a community group that campaigned for university status for UFV in the mid-2000s
• Stu Chahal, BCIS ’06 — Computing professional; National Director of Partner Operations for CISCO; 2012 UFV Distinguished Alumni winner
• Iuliana Czeck, BA Crim ’11 — Conflict resolution expert; MA in dispute resolution; has worked at Abbotsford Restorative Justice
• Dave Dhat, ASc ’00 — Emergency physician; philanthropist whose family foundation works on curing the blind in India
• Peter Eppinga, BKin ’06 — Physician focusing on supporting aboriginal communities and promoting health awareness
• Debbie Greene, BBA ’96 — Author; wife and supporter of brain-injured Afghanistan veteran Trevor Greene; raises awareness of brain injury effects and treatment
• Gus Hartl, Dip ’80 — CEO of Aldergrove Credit Union; UFV 2008 Distinguished Alumni winner
• George Hemeon, BA ’04 — Senior aboriginal advisor for TransCanada Corporation, renowned aboriginal carver, 2008 UFV Distinguished Alumni winner
• Ken Hildebrandt, BA ’96 — Founder of Gallery 7 Theatre; community theatre producer
• Stacey Irwin, BBA ’97 — Manager of Web Services at Prospera Credit Union; first chair of the UFV Alumni Association; current vice chair of UFV Board of Governors; dedicated community volunteer
• Brad Jalbert, Cert ’89 — Internationally renowned horticulturalist; expert rose breeder; owner of Select Roses
• Tanya Jonker, BA ’09 — Psychology doctoral candidate at the University of Waterloo, specializing in mechanisms underlying forgetting in human memory; UFV 2014 Young Distinguished Alumni winner
• Lisa Kelly, AA ’01 — Lawyer with a focus on social justice, Harvard PhD candidate, Trudeau Scholar
• Amarjit Kingra, Cert ’94 — Staff Sergeant with the Abbotsford Police; 2004 UFV Distinguished Alumni winner
• David Lanphear, BCrim ’99 — Vice President, Banking and Insurance, Envision Financial; Abbotsford Community Foundation board member
• Matthew Loewen, BBA ’03 — Regional Director at Kings Volunteer, Botswana ( part of The King’s Foundation, a UK registered charity that believes that sport has a vital part to play in a child’s development)
• Jason Lum, UT ’06 — Chilliwack City Councillor; president, Myriad Information Technology Solution; active community volunteer
• Patti MacAhonic — BA ’03, Executive Director of Ann Davis Transition Society, community leader, advocate for surviving family members of workplace injury, business consultant; 2014 Distinguished Alumni winner
• Alex McAulay, BBA ’08 — CFO and COO, Garmatex Technologies; former Chilliwack Board of Trustees member, inaugural UFV Young Distinguished Alumni Award winner (2012)
• Kathleen McIntosh, BA ’02 — Lawyer, crown prosecutor, has worked on several high-profile murder trials
• Sherry Mumford, BA ’96 — Director, Mental Health and Addictions, Fraser Health; UFV’s first Distinguished Alumni Award winner (2003)
• Shawn Neumann, UT ’93 — Founder and CEO of Domain 7 digital marketing agency; entrepreneur; public speaker; board chair at First West Credit Union
• Robert O’Brennan, UT ’76 — Early alumni and Fraser Valley Regional Library CEO
• Jennifer Owen, BSc ’06 — Particle physicist, PhD; doctoral research was performed as a member of the ATLAS experiment, located on the Large Hadron Collider ring at CERN
• Barry Penner, QC, Dip ’86 — Lawyer, former Chilliwack MLA, Attorney General of BC, and provincial Minister of Environment; now Senior Counsel at Myanmar Legal Services
• Darren Penner, BA ’04 —Long term Alumni board director, volunteer and mentor to UFV students, Vancouver lawyer
• Jaclyn Rea, BA ’95 — PhD, instructor and associate chair, UBC Arts Studies in Research and Writing program; key activist in supporting university-college campaign in 1991
• Bonnie Reilly Schmidt BA ’04 — Historian with a special focus on history of women in the RCMP; PhD in women’s history, dissertation on Women in Red Serge
• Myrtle-Anne Rempel, Dip ’86 — Artist, businesswoman, philanthropist, and community arts supporter
• Adam Simpson, BA ’06 — Regional project management specialist for United Nations Office for Project Services
• Terry-Lynn Stone, BA ’98 — Executive Director at Kamloops Brain Injury Association; UFV Board of Governors member; founding chair of the Alumni Association Society; UFV 2005 Distinguished Alumni winner
• Andy Thompson, UT ’90 — Actor, producer, playwright; Artistic & Managing Director at The Virtual Stage
• Tracey Vanderaegen-Jones, Dip ’94 — Leader and educator in the field of nursing; UFV 2010 Distinguished Alumni winner
• Mary Anne Waterhouse, Dip ’84 — Film producer; Head of Production, Blue Ice Productions; UFV 2007 Distinguished Alumni winner
• Evan Wiens, BSc ’06 — Award-winning dentist and community volunteer; UFV 2013 Young Distinguished Alumni winner
• Chris Woods, UT ’90 — Artist whose work examines the impact of popular culture (Star Wars, fast food) on the mind of the contemporary individual.