The Team
Jason Grelowski
Jason is a business executive and entrepreneur, with over 20 years’ worth of experience advising and leading organizations. He assists corporations and businesses, in both the private and public sectors, to re-invent and re-position themselves to be stronger and more effective. As a native Albertan and proud Calgarian, he has lived and enjoyed cities across Canada and has developed a strong commitment to his community and the arts.
Jason is a creative thinker and strategist, with an infectious passion and positive outlook. He is committed to Calgary On Purpose’s desire for positive dialogue, supplemented by fact-based policy discussions.
Colin Jackson
Having retired after a career in the performing arts and broadcasting, Colin volunteers in support of education, poverty relief, and community building organizations. He admires the wisdom of First Nations author, Thomas King, who says that "we are the stories we tell."
As a proud Calgarian, Colin wants to be part of revealing, then telling, a story of our city as a place of deep connectivity, remarkable kindness, and selfless compassion.
Daranne Harris
For Daranne, a commitment to community and the common good is the thread that weaves through her life. After two decades in business, community development, and healthcare, Daranne is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on how experiences of awe and wonder relate to compassion expressed by healthcare providers in long-term care settings. She is the Founder of Catalyzing Compassion, a channel for evidence-informed compassion education and coaching that supports individual and organizational well-being.
Andrew Ng
Andrew has made a career out of listening to the stories of others as a journalist in Edmonton and Calgary. His favourite stories to cover involved average folks doing amazing things, even more so when those people were youth. There’s a fairly well-known adage in journalism that everyone has a story and Andrew sees Calgary on Purpose as an opportunity to live that adage and discover what Calgarians have to say about their community.
Brenda Kenny
Brenda brings extensive experience in sustainability, innovation, energy and environment. Her work and leadership has spanned government, industry, civil society and academia. For Brenda, the intersections, gaps and “creative collisions” are what matter most in times of crisis and conflict. Her career has navigated those gaps seeking to connect people and ideas toward innovative solutions and deeper trust.
She sees as crucial the many new ways of engaging and seeing our city and our world, and draws inspiration from thoughtful citizens such as Parker Palmer, understanding “By the tragic gap I mean the gap between the hard realities around us and what we know is possible — not because we wish it were so, but because we’ve seen it with our own eyes.”
DANIKA DINKO
Danika grew up in rural Manitoba and spent the first decade of her career working in the credit union system. In spring of 2018, Danika decided to pursue a business degree and moved to Calgary to attend Mount Royal University. During her time in the credit unions system, Danika held executive positions with several provincial boards, as well as volunteered with local groups and organizations.
Danika is majoring in the Social Innovation program at MRU and hopes to use her understanding of systems, agency, and storytelling to support innovative and positive change within our communities.
phillipe reicher
Philippe has made Calgary his home for many decades. He has worked in public affairs, strategic communications, and stakeholder engagement in the private, not-for-profit and public sectors for over 20 years. He has led major engagement programs and campaigns in highly complex stakeholder environments.
Philippe believes that openness, transparency and authenticity are fundamental principles to meaningful citizen engagement. He sees Calgary on Purpose as a great opportunity to be part of an initiative that combines the principles of public engagement he adheres to and his love for the City.