A new HCA Advisory Team was formed in early 2025 to ensure that the community of practice is the driving force behind our collective efforts. By centering the voices, insights, and expertise of campus communities and community partners, we aim to create a dynamic and responsive support system that reflects the diverse realities of post-secondary life.
One role of the Advisory team is to bring lived experience, knowledge and emerging best practice to inform HCA’s direction and support its mission. Our aim is to ensure that the Advisory reflects the diversity of Alberta’s campus communities, recognizing that our strength lies in embracing varied experiences, identities, and perspectives.
The Advisory Team is led by two co-chairs, including the Coordinator of Healthy Campus Alberta and one rotating chair that is nominated among Advisory Team members.
View the Advisory Team ToR (Terms of Reference) here.
Your current HCA Advisory Team
Chelsie Graham (she/her) – Co-chair – Chelsie Graham, BSW, RSW, is the Manager of the University of Calgary Recovery Community (UCRC) and Recovery on Campus (ROC). She joined ROC in 2022 as a coordinator and stepped into her current leadership role in 2024. In 2025, she received the Collegiate Recovery Program Staff of the Year award from the Association of Recovery in Higher Education (ARHE) in recognition of her leadership in expanding recovery-oriented supports, strengthening cross-campus partnerships, and advancing recovery-friendly initiatives across Alberta. This includes supporting the signing of four recovery-friendly campus pledges and helping secure a $3 million provincial grant to expand Recovery on Campus through 2028. Chelsie lives in Airdrie on Treaty 7 territory with her partner and their two dogs, and enjoys reading and gaming in her spare time.
Kyrsti Macdonald (she/her) – Co-chair Kyrsti holds a Secondary Education degree from Campus Saint-Jean at the University of Alberta and has previously worked as a School Counsellor, Mental Health and Wellness Coach, and French Immersion Teacher before joining Healthy Campus Alberta as Coordinator. With a background in education, she believes in the power of upholding mental health and well-being for everyone on campus and building a strong sense of community and belonging as essential foundations for meaningful learning. She is a lifelong learner who is passionate about sharing knowledge and experiences. Having been actively involved in various community organizations, Kyrsti values inclusion, relationship-building and honouring diverse voices.
Debbie Bruckner (she/her), M.S.W, R.S.W. – Debbie served as Senior Director of Student Wellness, Access & Support at the University of Calgary from 2006 until her retirement in 2022. She was active in developing the Campus Mental Health Strategy and its implementation as well as the Suicide Awareness and Prevention Advisory Committee, implementing a framework that aligns with the Zero Suicide model. Debbie was a founding member of Healthy Campus Alberta and has continued to serve as a volunteer. Her interests include leadership, mental health, suicide awareness and prevention, and safer substance use.
Anika Zepp (she/her) – Anika is a U of A alumni and worked in the nonprofit sector and at MacEwan University before becoming the Executive Director of the Alberta Students’ Executive Council (ASEC) in 2023. In her current role, Anika empowers student leaders to be excellent advocates for students to the provincial government and within other communities that impact student success. She is delighted to contribute to the work of the Advisory Team, to bring forward insight form ASEC’s 15 members, students’ associations from across the province, and bring back information and ideas to student leaders who represent and serve over 90,000 Alberta students. As a systems thinker and community builder, Anika hopes she can contribute to the advisory team in a way that shapes an interconnected, holistically healthy mental health ecosystem across Alberta campuses. Anika is an avid runner, amateur tennis player, lover of cheesy rom coms, and has two kiddos; her and her family reside on treaty 6 territory – Edmonton.
Carmen Lawrence (she/her) – Carmen Lawrence is a Health Promotion Facilitator with Recovery Alberta. In this role, Carmen supports Alberta communities, including post-secondary institutions, in their substance use prevention and mental health promotion initiatives. Carmen’s values around human and non-human flourishing guide her practice professionally and in her personal life. Carmen’s passions include health promotion, community development, care of the land, neighbourhood health, family, friends, art, and mountain biking.
Danielle Smith (she/her) – Danielle Stewart-Smith was the HCA Coordinator from 2015-2018. She has a deep appreciation for the work of HCA and enjoys being a part of meaningful, systemic conversations relating to mental health. Danielle works as a chiropractor in private practice, and loves spending time with her family, fur babies and wakesurfing when summer finally shows up.
Lori Harasem(she/her) – Lori Harasem started working at Lethbridge Polytechnic as the Health Promotion Coordinator in 2022 in the Wellness Services department. Prior to that she spent almost two decades in municipal government working to address barriers to accessing community resources, in program development, and overseeing nonprofit grant funding in the social services and recreation, sport, arts and culture. She loves to focus on unique partnerships to create innovative and flexible programming that centers on inclusion, accessibility, and belonging. She is currently working on her M.Ed with a focus on post-secondary students and mental health.
Chantel Walker (she/her), M.Ed – Chantel Walker is a Registered Psychologist who works on the Lloydminster campus at Lakeland College. She has been working as a psychologist in school systems for 25 + years. She is a published journal article author and has presented her work locally and internationally. In 2015 she was awarded the Murray Jampolsky award for outstanding practicing school counsellor in the province of Alberta.
Debbie Jansen (she/her), RSW – Debbie Jansen is a Registered Social Worker (RSW) and one of two Mental Health Navigators at Portage College, where she helps students connect with campus and community supports to support their well-being. She has a background in community social work and mental health, and is passionate about creating safe spaces, reducing stigma, and making mental health resources more accessible—especially in rural communities. She’s also a student in the process of completing her Bachelor of Social Work, and is always looking for new ways to promote strengths-based, trauma-informed, and anti-oppressive approaches in mental health advocacy.
Fawna Bews (she/her) – Fawna began her career with a Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy from the University of Alberta. After a few years in practice, she was drawn to the mind-body connection and pursued a Master of Arts in Counselling from Gonzaga University, she’s worked in Mental Health ever since. Fawna has a passion for ‘helping helpers’. She is now in the role of Program Director at the Canadian Mental Health Association Alberta and Centre for Suicide Prevention and is committed to supporting the well-being that Healthy Campus Alberta promotes. Fawna serves on the Advisory team as the representative of the Canadian Mental Health Association, Alberta division and Centre for Suicide prevention.
Dr. Jennifer Thannhauser, Ph.D., R.Psych. (she/her) – Jennifer is a Registered Psychologist (AB) serving as Academic Director, Mental Health & Wellbeing in UCalgary’s Office of Institutional Commitments and Evaluation & Research Lead for UCalgary’s Community Mental Health & Well-being Strategy. Jennifer also serves as team lead for UCalgary’s inaugural Post-secondary Mental Health and Well-being Research and Knowledge Hub. She has 12+ years’ experience as a post-secondary counsellor, administrator, and researcher with UCalgary’s Student Wellness Services. Her research and clinical work focus on improving post-secondary students’ mental health and well-being through strengths-based and systems approaches, with an emphasis on resilience. Jennifer has held multiple tri-council grants to advance understanding of resilience in the post-secondary context, currently leading a national multi-disciplinary research team in a SSHRC-funded study exploring students’ perceptions of resilience.
Former HCA Advisory Team Members
Kevin Friese (he/him) – Past Co-chair Kevin Friese is the Assistant Dean of Students, Health and Wellness at the University of Alberta. With over twenty-five years of experience in health & wellness, Kevin has the privilege of leading a multidisciplinary team of health professionals that support a holistic approach to the well-being of students, their families, faculty, and staff at the U of A. His work includes focuses on student mental health, student homelessness and precarity and supporting student wellbeing. He is the recipient of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal for Excellence on post-secondary student affairs, sits as a member of the Healthy Campus Alberta (HCA) Post-Secondary Mental Health Community of Practice and is the co-founder and Co-chair of the Alberta Post-Secondary Health Association (APSHA).
Andrew Szeto (he/him) Dr. Andrew Szeto is the Executive Director of the University of Calgary’s Office of Institutional Commitments, which unites efforts to advance Community Mental Health and Well-being (CMHW); Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA); and Sustainability under one integrated framework. He is also a Full Professor in the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts. Over the past 14 years, Dr. Szeto has focused on the development and evaluation of mental illness stigma reduction and mental health promotion programs, such as The Working Mind, The Inquiring Mind Post-Secondary, and The Inquiring Mind Youth. He is also a member of the Technical Committee that developed the Canadian Standards Association and Mental Health Commission of Canada’s National Standard for Post-Secondary Student Mental Health and Wellbeing.