2025 MISA Prairies Annual
Conference & Trade Show

Charlene has an Interdisciplinary PhD in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences & Medical Sciences-Pediatrics and an MSc in Geography with Specialization in GIS and Remote Sensing. With over 20 years of educating and researching with GIS, she has developed and applied spatial data science solutions in several inter-organizational collaborations involving children's environmental health, habitat conservation, and climate change vulnerability. She delivers courses in ArcGIS Pro and extensions, ArcGIS Online and web apps, ArcGIS Insights, ArcGIS Knowledge, Python and change management.

Certifications:

CompTIA CTT+ Certified Virtual Classroom Trainer

Esri ArcGIS Pro Professional

Prosci Certified Change Practitioner

Esri ArcGIS Online Administration Associate

Neo4j Certified Professional

Neo4j Graph Data Science Certification

A Wall Street Journal Bestselling author, World's Top #10 TEDx Talk Speaker (2022), and nominee for the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award (2022), Dr. Karyn is the CEO and co-founder of DK Leadership. She has spoken to over half a million people in 17 countries, including Fortune 500 executives, family businesses, entrepreneurs, professional associations, and school boards. Since 2022, she has been honored to be one of five premier coaches for celebrity Jesse Itzler's global business mastermind. In addition, she collaborated with professors from The Wharton School to develop a leadership EQ curriculum for family businesses, and The Consul General of Canada in New York hosted a private reception honoring her work for organizations and families A media personality for over 20 years, Dr. Karyn has consulted for prestigious brands including LIVE With Kelly Mark, Good Morning America, New York Times, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc. Magazines and Cityline. She holds a Doctorate in Marriage & Family and certifications in leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and career direction. With 25 years of experience as a professional registered therapist and executive coach, she practices what she preaches & embraces a "work smart, play hard" philosophy. Her hobbies include interior design, tennis, skiing, traveling, and cherishing moments with her husband of 22 years, twin teenagers, friends, and two energetic puppies in their home north of Toronto.

A Wall Street Journal Bestselling author, World's Top #10 TEDx Talk Speaker (2022), and nominee for the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Award (2022), Dr. Karyn is the CEO and co-founder of DK Leadership. She has spoken to over half a million people in 17 countries, including Fortune 500 executives, family businesses, entrepreneurs, professional associations, and school boards. Since 2022, she has been honored to be one of five premier coaches for celebrity Jesse Itzler's global business mastermind. In addition, she collaborated with professors from The Wharton School to develop a leadership EQ curriculum for family businesses, and The Consul General of Canada in New York hosted a private reception honoring her work for organizations and families A media personality for over 20 years, Dr. Karyn has consulted for prestigious brands including LIVE With Kelly Mark, Good Morning America, New York Times, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc. Magazines and Cityline. She holds a Doctorate in Marriage & Family and certifications in leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and career direction. With 25 years of experience as a professional registered therapist and executive coach, she practices what she preaches & embraces a "work smart, play hard" philosophy. Her hobbies include interior design, tennis, skiing, traveling, and cherishing moments with her husband of 22 years, twin teenagers, friends, and two energetic puppies in their home north of Toronto.

Yana Voronkova is a highly skilled and driven Business Analyst and Consultant with over three years of experience in Enterprise Document and Records Management Systems (EDRMS) implementation, Data Governance Consulting, and Project Management. She has worked extensively with OpenText solutions, specializing in Records Management and Physical Object Modules implementations, as well as Microsoft solutions, focusing on governance for SharePoint, and Power Platform.

Currently, Yana serves as an Application Analyst at the City of St. Albert, where she develops and implements governance strategies across critical Microsoft applications to enhance operational efficiency and compliance.

Passionate about bridging technology with business processes, Yana is dedicated to driving digital transformation and helping municipalities effectively manage and govern their information ecosystems. She is excited to share her experiences at the City of St. Albert and support other municipalities facing similar challenges.

Sean’s career spans three decades of dynamic roles in information technology, telecommunications, and project management, culminating in his current position managing the City of Winnipeg’s IT Project Management Office. His expertise in technical solutions, operations, and leadership has shaped his ability to lead complex portfolios and programs. Combining his old-school approach with artistic flair as a performing artist and storyteller, Sean brings creativity and structure to his project delivery methods. His dedication to mentoring others and enhancing the project management profession within the public service demonstrates his enduring commitment to service and transformation.

With 30 around years of varied experiences, Sean leads the City of Winnipeg’s IT Project Management Office, drawing on a deep background in IT, telecommunications, and project management. His leadership approach blends solid technical and operational expertise with creativity, pulling from his artistic passions as a poet, performer, and western equestrian rider. Sean’s mentorship of project managers in both the science and art of project delivery fosters a culture of innovation and transformation. His commitment to elevating the profession of project management within the public service reflects his dynamic attitude and dedication to impactful service.

An GIS Engineering Executive by profession and systems architect by nature, with an uncommon blend of experience in operations management, solutions architecture, strategic planning, development, and integration with an emphasis in geospatial data management, governance, and intelligence.

Part visionary, strategist, business leader and technologist, I bridge the gaps between engineering, IT, and business by translating technology solutions into positive business impact, aligning IT with business strategy and effectively communicating vision and goals across all enterprise functions.  I specialize in building technology roadmaps, formulating strategic plans and architecting innovative location intelligence-based solutions that help companies achieve their enterprise business goals.

Much of my work has been featured in various articles in the CAD-GIS and Telecommunication sectors: “Painting the Big Picture”, “How to turn Bad data into Gold”, “Reality Check: What’s Next for GIS?”.

 After my 23-year career with Comcast (Philadelphia) as the Executive Corporate Director of Enterprise Geospatial Intelligence,  I have returned home to the City of Regina as the Geospatial Solutions Manager to support Regina's transformation in becoming a Smart City.  

Natalia Madden is an accomplished leader and strategist with over two decades of experience in IT governance, digital transformation, and business solutions. 

Currently serving as the Senior Manager of Digital Transformation for the City of Lethbridge, Natalia leads the IT department's strategic initiatives, focusing on IT governance, operational efficiency, and long-term planning. Her leadership has revitalized team morale and achieved significant milestones in project delivery, emphasizing both strategy and execution. 

Melanie leads a team of passionate business and technical experts who manage the geospatial platforms, data, tools, guidance and support to GIS users and leadership across the organization. Melanie’s roots are in communications, directly supporting and advising both operational and strategic programs in over 12 business units over the last 22 years for The City of Calgary.

I am a dedicated professional with over two decades of experience in IT, ranging from Help Desk roles to managing a global datacenter. My career has been marked by entrepreneurial ventures, including running a video streaming company before the advent of YouTube, providing IT and network consulting services, and I currently own and operate a medical clinic with my wife and my mother.

For the past 2.5 years, I have been serving as a Cybersecurity Analyst leading a team of two Junior Cybersecurity Analysts, in a Cybersecurity team consisting of nine people along with two external business partners. In this role, I have been instrumental in building the Cybersecurity Program at the City of Saskatoon. My primary focus areas are Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance. One of my key responsibilities has been developing the Incident Response program, which encompasses everything from creating processes, responding to incidents and conducting TableTop Exercises.

I am passionate about my work and enjoy discussing with and educating people and teams on various aspects of cybersecurity.

Outside of work, I have a beautiful wife and two wonderful kids, who are both studying at the University of Saskatchewan. I also love to travel, enjoy good food, and spending quality time with family and friends.

With over 20 years of experience across diverse industries such as Insurance, Telecom, Oil & Gas, Retail, and Municipal Government, I have honed my skills in various roles including Software Developer, Systems Administrator, Systems Architect, and Cloud Architect. Currently, I am a valued member of the End User Computing team at the City of Calgary, serving as a System Administrator II. In this role, I handle Endpoint & Identity reporting and focus on Cloud Infrastructure operations management in Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud, ensuring compliance with audit and governance strategies while managing our SIEM infrastructure. 

Corry Flatt is a technology and public sector professional with a career focus on using software, data, and AI to drive innovation in government operations. He founded Bonfire, a procurement platform used by over 1,000 public institutions to manage more than $100 billion in mission-critical projects. Bonfire was acquired by GTY Technologies (now Euna Solutions) in 2019. At Euna, Corry led product strategy in multiple govtech domains, including budgeting, finance, permitting, grants, and citizen engagement. His work has given him deep expertise in integrating AI and advanced data analytics into core government functions, which helps agencies modernize processes and improve service delivery.

As a Senior Business Analyst in the Information Technology Enterprise Support Systems division at The City of Calgary, Andrea Hamm has been a key team member in this division for over 20 years.  From starting off as a Project and Functional Analyst on PeopleSoft projects to the past 12 years as a Senior Business Analyst, Andrea’s focus has been utilizing the PeopleSoft Human Capital Management (HCM), PeopleSoft HR HelpDesk (CRM) and PeopleSoft Interaction Hub (IHUB) applications to deliver effective solutions to support Human Resources, Information Technology and many downstream applications that rely on HR data.  Andrea’s expertise across the PeopleSoft suite helps business partners and her team make strategic decisions on the use of these applications.   

From upgrades to implementation of new delivered or custom functionality, Andrea is responsible for the oversight and management of 6-8 projects a year, ensuring that all technology solutions are providing business value by using the applications strategically to deliver robust end-to-end process and technology solutions to the clients.

Andrea’s biggest accomplishment was the 2016 launch of The City’s employee and manager self-service portal called myHRconnect, by utilizing PeopleSoft HCM and Interaction Hub applications to provide anywhere, anytime access to self-service functionality both in and outside of the office. This was the first time that all City employees could access basic self-service functionality and was foundational for Human Resources to start the process of eliminating many paper-based processes like mailing pay advices, T4s, and income verification letters.  Since its launch, it has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in time and money, and demand for incorporating more employee and manager self-service functionality into this space has not slowed down.  Andrea and her teammates are continually implementing new features and functionality to support City employees such as ability to print off income verification letters, ordering city issued clothing and uniforms, ordering employee transit passes, remote worker requests, and network account requests. 

In 2022, Andrea and the team’s work was recognized by Oracle by winning the PeopleSoft Innovator award for using PeopleSoft HCM and the Interaction Hub (myHRconnect) to enhance the user experience for employees and for utilizing new delivered tools and functions to better enhance the management the applications and support a stay current strategy. 

Travis and Isaac, bring a combined expertise in technology, data management, and digital transformation to Lac La Biche County. Travis leads the County’s IT department including traditional records management functions, ensuring the seamless operations between technical and non-technical specialists. Isaac specializes in records management, information governance, and unofficially becoming the County's Sharepoint expert. Together, they focus on optimizing municipal operations through efficient, and innovative solutions, bridging the gap between technology, records management and processes to enhance service delivery and digital transformation.

Travis and Isaac, bring a combined expertise in technology, data management, and digital transformation to Lac La Biche County. Travis leads the County’s IT department including traditional records management functions, ensuring the seamless operations between technical and non-technical specialists. Isaac specializes in records management, information governance, and unofficially becoming the County's Sharepoint expert. Together, they focus on optimizing municipal operations through efficient, and innovative solutions, bridging the gap between technology, records management and processes to enhance service delivery and digital transformation.

With over 15 years in Information Technology and two and a half years as the Devices Coordinator at the City of Saskatoon, Clifton Bennett specializes in managing and supporting a wide range of end-user technologies, including desktops, laptops, mobile devices, and peripherals. Clifton Coordinates the Devices team which has expertise in device imaging, configuration, patch management, software packaging and deployments, and troubleshooting complex hardware and software issues across Windows and mobile platforms.

Clifton excels in developing and implementing policies for device usage, security, and lifecycle management while maintaining strict compliance with organizational standards. This has been exemplified through the Devices team rolling out Mobile Device Security for full management of over 650 Corporate Mobile phones and protecting City data being accessed by over 2,380 personal mobile devices through mobile application management. Clifton’s other hands-on experience includes RFPs, Microsoft License Enterprise Agreement Budgeting with Cross-Charging, and coordinating with vendors to procure and maintain equipment.

By collaborating with IT teams and stakeholders, Clifton streamlines device deployment processes, the application intake process, optimizes performance, and enhances user satisfaction while acting as a critical bridge between technical operations and business needs.

Manjeet Kaur is an RPA Developer at the City of Calgary, where she has been contributing for over a year. With around six years of experience designing and implementing software solutions across various industries, she specializes in streamlining business processes through automation. Born and brought up in India, Manjeet moved to Canada in September 2024, embracing a new chapter of life and professional growth. She has a passion for teaching and learning new skills, enjoys experimenting with new recipes, and loves exploring exciting activities and adventures in her free time.

As a Senior Programmer Analyst in the Emerging Technologies division, Sabari Thankakrishna has been a dedicated team member in Information Technology for the City of Calgary for the past 16 years. Born in India, Sabari began an illustrious career in Atlanta before eventually settling in Canada—a decision that has brought immense satisfaction.

With a solid 25-year foundation in development and support using varying technologies, Sabari seamlessly transitioned into the world of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) over the past five years. This role has allowed Sabari to leverage vast experience while continuously learning and embracing new technologies.

Throughout a dynamic career, Sabari has relished the challenges and opportunities presented by evolving technological landscapes. Beyond professional achievements, Sabari holds a deep appreciation for the natural beauty of Canada. Free time is often spent hiking and camping, exploring the stunning landscapes the country has to offer. For Sabari, nature is not just a hobby; it is a way to relieve stress and rejuvenate. The journey from India to Canada has been filled with growth, learning, and a profound connection to both work and the natural world.

Christus has over 16 years of experience in the IT security domain, with an extensive understanding of privileged identity and access management concepts. His core responsibilities at ManageEngine include technical consultation and training for PAM360 customers, evaluating and analyzing clients needs to identify and solve pain points, and product implementation.

IT Business Relationship Manager | IT Strategist | Digital Transformation Leader | Efficiency Advocate

With over 15 years of experience driving technology strategies across Financial, Retail, and Government sectors, Sam is no stranger to tackling complex IT challenges. Possess a Master’s degree in Information Technology and certifications in BRMP, COBIT 5, CBAP, ITIL, and more, he knows how to turn tech roadblocks into strategic wins.

Passionate about bridging the gap between IT and business, Samuel specializes in aligning technology with corporate objectives to drive efficiency, innovation, and real impact.

MISA Conference Speaker – "Breaking Through the Backlog: The Saskatoon’s Strategic Way"

Every municipality faces the same struggle—too many projects, too few resources. But the City of Saskatoon has flipped the script, creating a game-changing project intake system that puts leadership in control and ensures IT resources are aligned for maximum efficiency.

Join Samuel’s session to discover:

✅ How Saskatoon streamlined IT project prioritization

✅ Strategies to align resources with corporate goals

✅ Practical takeaways to break free from the backlog

Don't miss this chance to learn how your municipality can take charge of its tech future!

Stuart Lee has been with the Government of Alberta for almost 28 years and joined the Corporate Information Security Office (now the Cybersecurity Division) in 2010. His experience in Information Technology includes operations management, client services, project management, IT disaster recovery, business continuity and cyber security. He is currently the Director of Cybersecurity Strategy and External Stakeholder Engagement and is responsible for facilitating the development of strategic and tactical plans for the CyberAlberta initiative. His main roles include working with the Ministry of Education and their partners to incorporate more cybersecurity into the K-12 curriculum and act as a liaison with external Alberta stakeholders providing leadership in matters of cybersecurity.

Zeshan Randhawa is a Principal Consultant at MSP Corp with over 24 years of experience. He focuses on envisioning, planning, and delivering modern workplace solutions, helping organizations transform their business by leveraging Microsoft 365. Zeshan provides strategic leadership on modern workplace technologies both internally and to organizations. With extensive experience working with cities and municipalities, he has become a trusted advisor in guiding public sector clients through their digital transformation journeys.

C. Ashiq Rahman has been working in the field of video and image processing for more than 20 years. He is recognized for innovative engineering, adaptability, flexibility and drive to improve technological solutions. Dr. Rahman has proven expertise in product development, technology evaluation, solution architecture, customer engagement and project management of various platforms. He received several awards and scholarships, including iCORE and NSERC, throughout his career. He has authored/co-authored more than 20 journals and peer-reviewed conference papers and 3 issued patents in the US and Canada. Dr. Rahman is a Senior Member (SM) of the IEEE, a licensed Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) in the province of Alberta and a Project Management Professional (PMP).

Neha Gianchandani is an Engineer-in-Training for Artificial Intelligence at The City of Calgary, with a strong foundation in AI and machine learning. She holds an MSc in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Calgary, where her research focused on brain imaging using machine learning. Neha has received multiple scholarships in recognition of her work and has published AI research across various applications, with over 800 citations. 

Her experience spans both academic research and practical applications, blending technical expertise with innovative problem-solving. As an early-stage professional, she is passionate about leveraging AI to drive meaningful impact and is dedicated to enhancing urban innovation, improving public services, and advancing technological development in the municipal sector.

Cara Simpson is a Business Performance Specialist leading the Endpoint Management Team at the City of Regina. Her team focuses on end-user hardware and software for all City employees. She also works on continuous improvement projects which included the ITSM project implementation where she took on the role of Business Lead. Cara has been working in Technology for 20+ years and has spent the past 9 years at the City of Regina.

Fredrick Abe is a seasoned and goal-driven data strategist with over 18 years of experience in Governance, Risk and Compliance, Privacy, Data Governance and Management, Data Protection, Regulatory and Financial Crimes Compliance, Audit, Internal Control, Business Advisory, Fraud, and Risk Management. His extensive experience spans across the banking and public sectors.

 Fred is currently the Data Governance Lead at the City of Saskatoon, where he plays a pivotal role in shaping and implementing data governance and management policies and strategies. He is recognized for his expertise in Information & Technology Governance and Compliance, as well as his leadership in Data protection and security initiatives.

Fredrick holds several professional qualifications, including:

COBIT'19 issued by ISACA

Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP) issued by DAMA

Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) issued by IAPP

Certified Scrum Master (CSM) by Scrum Alliance

Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist issued by ACAMS

Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria

 In addition to his professional achievements, Fredrick enjoys traveling, meeting new people, and exploring new towns and places.

Austin Stewart is an experienced program and project manager specializing in digital transformation, strategy development, and business analysis.

As the Smart City Program Manager for the City of Saskatoon he leads the development and implementation of the City’s Smart City Strategy, helping business units leverage technology solutions to enhance civic operations, and ultimately improve quality of life for citizens by addressing real-world challenges with technology.

With a background in IT project management, process optimization, and strategic planning, Austin has successfully implemented enterprise-wide solutions, governance frameworks, and technology projects ranging from local to international in scale. Austin maintains several professional certifications including project management (PMP), business analysis (CCBA), change management (Prosci), agile delivery (CSM, SAFe), process improvement (LSS) and IT operations (ITIL).

Manager of Application Services, City of Medicine Hat

Experienced people and technology leader with a background in municipal government and telecommunications, I’ve successfully delivered technology solutions across both team and individual projects. My passion lies in fostering collaboration, driving innovation, and empowering teams to achieve their best.

With a unique background as a former Geologist, I bring a distinctive perspective to the IT world. Passionate about building strong relationships and delivering solutions that make a real difference, I excel at bridging the gaps between people and technology. I have found the most successful way to implement technology is to focus on fostering relationships, growing trust, being accountable for commitments, and delivering practical results.