Ria is an accomplished leader who for almost three decades has worked with large, complex organizations undergoing significant transformational change. Her passion for optimizing organizational effectiveness, while fostering meaningful relationships and building safe, healthy and inclusive work spaces has been the recipe for success in moving change forward. Her mantra of “progress over perfection”, along with an proven Service Launch model has allowed her teams to consolidate and establish services quickly, while staying flexible and agile to changing and growing environments. In two short years she built the brand new Shared Services unit for the University of Alberta, establishing 10 service teams to support human resources, finance, and distribution services, a Staff Service Centre to support HR, finance and IST related requests and the Service Innovation and Business Support services teams responsible for process design, change management, training and technology improvements. Co-designing the space where the majority of teams would work in Enterprise Square was a critical task to building the “power of connection within the team, and continuing to chair the building Operations Committee ensures there is a safe, healthy and inclusive community for all the UofA tenants. She is a firm believer in the shared services model and the value her team continues to bring to the university. Ria is a U of A alumna and holds her Prosci designation in change management, her CPHR (Certified Professional Human Resources) designation, SHRM-SCP (Certified Senior Practitioner, Society Human Resources Management) and CPC (Certified Personnel Consultant). Outside of work, Ria loves to travel and is a proud parent to a daughter studying to be a Broadway performer in New York City.