Margo Baptista, Senior Manager, Board Operations and President's Office
Margo Baptista has been the Senior Manager, Board Operations & President's Office with Grant MacEwan University since 1989. She began her career in post-secondary education with Keyano College. Prior to this Margo held various administrative positions with the Royal Bank of Canada (Labrador and Alberta) and the Federal Aviation Administration (Germany).
With more than 25 years experience in post-secondary education, Margo is respected among her peers for her in-depth knowledge of current trends and issues in higher education and her expertise in board governance activities such as orientation, development, evaluation and presidential search. She has presented extensively at provincial workshops and national conferences on board governance topics and the role of professional board staff. A member of the organizing committee (since 1994), Margo has worked with her post-secondary colleagues across Canada and the U.S. to develop a network of professional board staff members. In October 2000, Margo developed curriculum for and conducted a workshop for Executive Assistants to CEOs in Kyiv, Ukraine.
As a volunteer, Margo has contributed to several organizations in the community including St. Albert Botanic Park Board of Directors (since 2006), Excel Society (vice chair for six years), Habitat for Humanity Women Build Project, and MacEwan's CIBC Run for the Cure Team (team captain for five years).
Margo demonstrates a personal and professional commitment to the philosophy of life-long learning by continually participating in professional development and training opportunities. She graduated in 2006 from Athabasca University with a Bachelor of Administration (with Great Distinction) majoring in Organizational Behaviour. In 2009, Margo completed a Master of Arts in Leadership through Royal Roads University and received the University's Founder's Award for the 2007-3 cohort for exemplifying the qualities of leadership, sustainability, and personal development. For her graduate research study, Margo used action research and knowledge management theory to explore the governance roles of board succession planning and presidential search within the Alberta and British Columbia public post-secondary systems.
