Council Advisor
| Name of Appointee |
First Appointed |
Term |
| Councillor Andrew Knack |
Apr 17/18 |
(Remainder of) 2017-2021 Council Term |
Bryan Shepherd
Appointed May 1, 2019
Bryan Shepherd is the Dean of Student Services and College Registrar at NorQuest College. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Education from the University of Alberta and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Royal Roads University. Bryan has spent most of his career in the post-secondary sector, with the past 19 years in various senior management positions. He has a wealth of experience working with boards and other governing bodies. Bryan has spent all of his professional life in the public sector, providing him with many opportunities to work with all three levels of government. Bryan is married and a father of three. He is involved in his community and over the years has spent a lot of time at various hockey arenas, sports fields and recreation centers in and around the Edmonton area. He truly understands what it means to live, work and play within our City.
Charles Kelly (Chair)
Appointed May 1, 2016
Charles Kelly was born and raised in Northern Ireland and spent four years in England before arriving in Canada in 1972, and became a Canadian citizen six years later. Prior to his retirement in September 2015, he spent forty-four years as a Physiotherapist. His work was mainly in clinical practice, but also included teaching, and participating in many different capacities with the College of Physical Therapists of Alberta. As a visually impaired person, he has depended on ETS as his main mode of transportation during his more than thirty years in the Edmonton area, and watched with interest the growth and improvements of the system during that time. Being very interested in the subject of public transit he looks forward to being a constructive contributor of the ETS Advisory Board.
Giselle General
Appointed May 1, 2018
Giselle came to Canada as a teenager in 2007, and has made Edmonton her home since 2008. She has her Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Alberta. Transit is her primary form of transportation, supplemented with the occasional taxi or car ride. She works helping people in poverty at the Edmonton Community Legal Centre. Through her employment, volunteering and personal experience, she has an appreciation of how poverty, status, trauma and personal recovery impacts someone's access to services in the city. She is an active volunteer through her community league, a regular writer for the Alberta Filipino Journal and has had multiple speaking and writing engagements to share her experiences as an immigrant woman. Her hobbies include abstract art, blogging, board games and donating plasma at Canadian Blood Services.
Isabell Hubert Lyall (Vice Chair)
Appointed May 1, 2017
Isabell is a PhD Candidate at the University of Alberta, where she does experimental research to understand how aspects like an individual’s personality and political leanings, for example, influence their automatic language comprehension processes. Since moving to Edmonton in 2014, Isabell has been commuting by public transit, and by walking and cycling. She is passionate about making public transit and human-powered forms of transportation an attractive and preferred choice for Edmontonians. Whether for work-related or leisure travel, Isabell makes a point of using the local public transit system to get around, which has given her insight into transit in various cities across three continents. In her spare time, she enjoys urban and landscape photography, playing board games with friends, and re-watching The Office.
Jarret Esslinger
Appointed May 1, 2019
Jarret is a born and raised Albertan and has lived in Edmonton since 2010. He has a Bachelor of Management degree from the University of Lethbridge and his career has largely been focused on the climate change/environmental sustainability sector in addition to work with Indigenous communities. He has previously worked at the municipal and provincial government levels which has provided him with a broad perspective on the issues and policies relating to public transit in Edmonton. Jarret is an avid daily user of the Edmonton Transit Service and believes that an expansive, barrier-free yet cost-efficient transit system is paramount to the success of Edmonton’s future. He is greatly interested in regional transit systems, the continuing development of the Valley Line LRT project and the future implementation of smart technologies within Edmonton’s transit system.
Jorge Arango
Appointed May 1, 2017
Jorge Arango Diaz is a professional engineer with experience in transportation planning and engineering including road safety, sustainable transportation, and transit. He has a Master of Science in Engineering degree from the University of Manitoba. He also studied Fine Arts and is very passionate about drawing, painting, and enjoying art amenities. He moved to Edmonton in 2010 to stay, loves Edmonton's vibrant communities and cultural richness, and would like to see his children enjoy a more sustainable city in the future. He is a believer in sustainable development and public transportation, as well as engaging others by example; living in a centralized community, such as Richie, and being a regular user of the Edmonton's transit and LRT systems. He has experienced many public transportation systems worldwide and realizes the potential of transit for changing Edmonton's urban form as per our city's vision. Through his volunteering work he hopes to contribute to this vision.
Philip Reid
Appointed May 1, 2016
Phil Reid has been an Edmonton resident since 2013. He has previously lived in four different provinces across Canada, and has been active in those communities. He has a college and university educational background in emergency management. He has been involved in emergency services at the Federal, Provincial and Municipal levels of government, and currently works for the Alberta Wildfire Management Branch with the Alberta Government. He has extensive experience working on high-level issues and initiatives, acting as a group, committee, board or association member in varying capacities with large-scale implications. Phil is passionate about Edmonton, its development, and overall success as a community. His belief is, for Edmonton’s growth to remain stimulated, an efficient, effective and convenient transit system is one of the main key elements.
Maurice Vincent
Appointed May 1, 2018
Maurice sees the transit system as a transformative community builder. A resident of King Edward Park, he has been excited about the LRT serving his neighborhood since the early planning stages. He and his family are transit users, and advocate the green direction that our City must follow to achieve a sustainable legacy. Maurice graduated from University of Alberta in Civil Engineering in 1987. When his class was given a tour of the Grandin Station construction site in 1987, he had the idea of bringing public art into the space. The landmark 1987 project resulted in the development of the 1% for art policy which facilitates and stimulates the expression of our City's spirit. Maurice also participated in the working circle that led to Aaron Paquette's brilliant 2014 Truth and Reconciliation counterpoint. Since 2015, he has been doing contract work, and has also helped his brother, a family doctor, found ezReferral, which is a cloud-based medical referral system designed to replace the error-prone, fax-based, paper intensive referral process currently used in healthcare. Maurice has worked over the years as a Project Manager, primarily for Alberta Transportation, Saville Systems, and Enbridge Pipelines, and currently works as a Business Analyst at Firma Currency Exchange.
Bob Macklon
Appointed April 30, 2014
Bob moved to Edmonton in 1973. He is married with two adult sons and two granddaughters, all residents of Edmonton. A wheelchair user since 2000 Bob has seen and been part of Edmonton’s growth in the area of accessibility. He is part of the Community Services Department Parks and Recreation Accessibility Committee, the Alberta Safety Codes Council and a Council member and volunteer for the Multiple Sclerosis Society Alberta Division. Bob firmly believes in transportation as a basic need for everyone in society for fully participating in life and is proud to be part of ensuring this need is met.
Stewart Smith
Appointed May 1, 2017
Stewart is a lifelong Albertan. He is a civil engineer who has spent the past 15 years focusing on planning, designing and constructing a wide variety of transportation projects from local roadways to transit facilities to major transportation infrastructure. Stewart currently leads a team of transportation professionals in Edmonton, providing consulting services for planning, roadways, bridges, rail, and transit. He is passionate about serving Edmonton and its residents through active community engagement and advocating for urban-style, sustainable transit and transit orientated development. He believes in working collaboratively with stakeholders to make our transit more accessible, efficient, and reliable. He also serves on the board of the Centre for Transportation Engineering and Planning, which facilitates the growth and enhancement of transportation knowledge through education and research.
William Agbakoba
Appointed May 1, 2019
William is a Management Consultant who located to Edmonton in 2010 from the USA, where he worked and obtained an MBA from Case Western University. Originally from West Africa, he is an avid public transit user, and has continuously observed the opportunities and challenges which abound in metropolitan transit systems on his trips to other countries. William’s core areas of expertise are in business strategy and process re-engineering, which has led him to work on several transformational projects. With diplomas in Innovation, Organizational Change and Human Resource management, he hopes to leverage his professional and educational experiences to help position the Edmonton Transit system in line with global standards and provide unique rider experiences to Edmonton’s citizens.
