BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President - Garth Frizzell

Garth has a Master's degree in International Studies from UNBC. His young business, Terra Cognita Software Systems, continues to expand as an award-winning software company.  Terra Cognita's main office is on Third Avenue in downtown Prince George.

Garth is an elected councillor for the City of Prince George. In that role, he sits on the Finance and Audit Standing Committee, the Regional District of Fraser-Forth George, and has been appointed vice-Chair of the BC Caucus for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

Garth speaks English and French, and enjoys public speaking, fireworks (Level I Supervisors Ticket) downhill skiing, karate, cycling, swimming and spending time with his family.

Garth was president of the Board of the Prince George Chamber of Commerce (2007-08), and sat on the BC Chamber of Commerce Policy Review Panel (2008, 2009).  He is a member of the BC Small Business Roundtable, which advises the Minister of Small Business (2008, 2009). He also sits as vice-Chair of the Innovation Resource Centre (2007-09), and is currently on the board of the Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society (2008-09).

Garth can be contacted by email at garthfrizzell@gmail.com

Secretary / Treasurer -

BOARD MEMBERS

Charlie Grove - is a teacher at PGSS in the Special Needs dept. Students here all have varying degrees of mental disabilities. Transition planning from high school to life in the community is a focus of his work. Charlie brings a teachers' perspective to the meetings and tries to ask questions that some of his students would ask if they were present.

Don Wittmeier - has been a board member for over 9 years. He is a special needs teacher at the Prince George Secondary School. Don hopes to help young adults make a smooth transition from high school to finding employment.

Wes Pederson, CFP - is an Investment Advisor with CIBC Wood Gundy. Wes is the past president of Choices and has continued his association by joining the new board at Employment Action. As a father of a child with a disability he looks forward to gaining a better understanding of the services available in the Prince George area and what we can do as an organization to provide these services and implement changes to better serve the needs of individuals with disabilities.

Cynthia McEwan - brings almost 25 years of dedication to people with disabilities as a service provider, advocate, policy developer and government and community relations specialist. She has extensive experience bringing business, government and disability sectors together to resolve long-standing issues. Her successes include the establishment of two notable consortiums, the Provincial Equipment and Assistive Devices Committee in BC - the pre-curser to the Personal Supports Program now piloted in Prince George – and, the Provincial Interagency Network on Disabilities in Saskatchewan. Cynthia was also responsible for the implementation of a ground-breaking disability hiring plan within the Saskatchewan Highways and Transportation Department and was recognized for her developmental work helping high schools students with disabilities transition to adult employment, education and other adult opportunities. More recently, Cynthia was the Director of the Measuring Up program with 2010 Legacies Now where she worked with communities to enhance accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities and others. She has ample experience volunteering on boards related to youth, social, community, disability and church organizations. Cynthia is happily married to Tim and has one daughter, Katherine.