Have you met Janet, the Executive Officer to the President? Spend the next 2 minutes getting to know her a little better.
Janet Walker
Executive Officer to the President
Office of the President
Employed at UAlberta since 1997
Previous roles: Executive Coordinator, Office of the Vice-President (Research)
Where is your favourite place on campus?
The water feature between SUB and the Administration Building because it’s peaceful, relaxing, and so lovely.
Tablet or paper?
Paper.
Name one thing you’ve brought to work from home.
Art. For my husband and I, art is a very emotional purchase. We’re big travellers and we can remember where and when we purchased each piece. But we’ve run out of room at home so now I’ve brought some things into the office.
What is the one thing you can’t live without?
Humour
If you won airfare to anywhere in the world, where would you go?
My first thought is Baffin Island because it’s hard and expensive to get there. But on second thought, I’d go to Easter Island. I’ve been there but I would like to stay longer and see more. Really you should stay there 2 weeks. It’s amazing.
You can invite anyone — alive or dead, real or fictional — to dinner. Who would it be?
I want to invite my grandmother who I’ve never met. Also, I’d like to invite someone who settled on the prairies about 150 years ago and ask him or her: “what the heck were you thinking?”
If you could switch jobs with someone else on campus for a week, what would you do?
That’s a hard question. I think I’d like to go to the Myer Horowitz Theatre and help set up events and see people celebrating. Or maybe I’d be Guba.
What does “uplifting the whole people” mean to you?
It means the whole community. It means lifting everyone up, whether they are in the university or not. And it means lifting up both body and soul.
If you could solve any problem in the world, what would it be?
War, followed by hunger, and then the over-population.
What 3 words best describe your U of A experience?
Enjoyable. Involving. Fun.
About Janet Walker
A working member of the U of A community since 1997, Janet works in the Office of the President where she provides management and oversight of the president’s schedule and briefing materials. Janet is also charged with supporting and co-ordinating the President’s Executive Committee (PEC).
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this post had mistakenly added two “b’s” to Guba’s name. Turns out that he would prefer to stick with the single “b” though, so we’ve made the appropriate adjustment.