Executives

Abner is a sixth-year kinesiology student and serves as your 2022-23 University of Alberta Students’ Union President. Before becoming President, Abner served as the UASU Vice President Academic, and President of his Faculty Association: the Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation Students’ Society. He pushed for the creation of the Exploration Credit grading system so you can explore new courses without jeopardizing your GPA, and the implementation of the Zero Textbook Cost Indicator on Beartracks so you can see if your course requires a textbook. Abner’s passion for governance and leadership stems from his involvement in different clubs and groups at the University of Alberta. He believes that student advocacy has the power to improve our university experience significantly. Grateful to serve as this year’s President, Abner is excited to champion the student movement and ensure that the University of Alberta is a welcoming, inclusive, and exciting place for every one of us.

Beyond being the official spokesperson of the Students’ Union, his goals this year focus on academic improvements that will enhance our learning experience, rebuilding student life after COVID, ensuring that our campuses are safe and welcoming places for students to live and travel, equipping student leaders to best fight for you, and preparing students for their futures after University. When Abner is not advocating for students, you can find him on the basketball court, in the kitchen, and exploring new and exciting eats around YEG. To keep updated on the UASU President's portfolio, follow him on Instagram @uasuexecutive and Twitter @UASUPresident.

Gurleen Kaur is your UASU Vice President Academic for the 2022-23 academic year. She is an Arts student and loves student governance. With the passion of upholding student voices, Gurleen has represented you at the Students’ Council and the General Faculties Council (GFC) for the past year. She has a passion for Social Sciences as she thinks it to be a good source of understanding social structures and how they evolved in history. She enjoys Philosophy and is very passionate about human rights. Through student governance, she wants to ensure that students’ voices are empowered and the university takes the steps that are in the best interest of students.

During her term, Gurleen wants to work towards Student Union’s Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Committee (ARRC) recommendations by pushing the university for mandatory Indigenous course content or a mandatory Native Studies course. She also wants to advocate for expanding the zero textbook cost pilot project. She wants to push for improvements and integration of academic advising between faculties and campuses so students can receive more prompt support. She also wants to advocate for re-evaluating our academic accommodations software to develop a more student-centred system. Besides these, she wants to advocate for more support for students doing experiential learning. She wants to ensure better inclusion within student groups across campus among her other main priorities.

Outside of governance, Gurleen loves sports, some of her favorites include track and field, basketball, soccer and horse riding. She also likes painting and writes poetry and articles sometimes. Above all, she is very excited to serve you as your Vice- President Academic and wants to connect with you as much as possible.

Christian is the Vice President External Affairs of the University of Alberta Students' Union. He is in his fifth year of a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Biology, and minoring in Psychology. During this term on the Students' Union, Christian is most excited about continuing to build relationships across all levels of government and fighting for a post-secondary education system that’s both accessible and affordable for UAlberta students. You’ll also see him out and about organizing a Get Out The Vote campaign for the upcoming 2023 provincial election. Christian is always thinking of ways to provide opportunities for student participation in advocacy and is driven to help contribute to creating a post secondary education system that is affordable and accessible for all.

Throughout his time at the U of A, Christian has been a researcher, conducting research in atmospheric chemistry. He has also been involved in multiple student groups such as Science FUNdamentals, Friends of Medecins Sans Frontieres and worked as a line cook at Earl's on Campus. Outside of student governance, Christian is an avid podcast listener, football (soccer) fanatic, and self taught guitarist struggling to learn Norwegian. He loves walks in the rain, learning about an array of topics, sparkling water and spending time with his little sister.

If you would like to talk more about soccer, offer free Norwegian lessons or most importantly have concerns, or even ideas for how we can build on our student advocacy, you can reach out to Christian via email: christian.fotang@su.ualberta.ca, phone: (780)-492-4241, or by social media on Instagram: @uasuexcutive

Julia Villoso is a fourth-year student in the Faculty of Arts with a major in Anthropology and a double minor in Psychology and Womens’ and Gender Studies. She is serving as the 2022-23 University of Alberta Students’ Union (UASU) Vice President Operations and Finance. She was born in the Philippines, moved to Canada at the age of 7, and has spent the majority of her life in Edmonton.

Julia has been involved in all levels of student governance throughout her degree from General Faculties Council Arts Councillor, Social Science Councillor and an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity Director for the Organization for Arts Students and Interdisciplinary Studies (OASIS), the Vice President Finance of the Women’s and Gender Studies Students’ Association, and having served two years as an UASU Arts Councillor.

During her term, Julia hopes to approach the UASU’s businesses and services through a sustainability lens with all three pillars in mind: social, economic, and environmental. She wants to increase accessibility and accountability of the UASU with a focus on governance and support for student groups on campus. Julia wants to further work towards reconciliation with an emphasis on educational programming, and lastly to revitalize the Students’ Union Building to make it the “living room of campus” and welcoming to students once again.

Outside of governance, you can find Julia reading a book, playing video games, or listening to a true crime podcast!

Born in Cameroon and raised in Calgary, AB, Joannie Fogue is a fourth-year Political Science and French literature student at Campus Saint-Jean (CSJ). As the UASU VP Student Life, Joannie is working to shift the dialogue around campus sexual violence to sexual health education, and diversifying our resources and services to meet the needs of our student body. Joannie is also working to initiate more conversations around antiracism initiatives within our campus community. As a CSJ student herself, supporting all campuses will be a top priority when focusing on bringing back the campus community as we return to a “normal year”.

Before she became VPSL, Joannie occupied various governance positions: she was the 21/22 AUFSJ President as well as the 20/21 ARFSJ President. She also was the VP Finance for the CSJ World University Service of Canada local committee, where she started her leadership journey.

Outside of governance, Joannie has been a UofA cheerleader and a very active member of the francophone community. Her love for philanthropic initiatives doesn’t end on campus. Joannie is the co-founder of Sekapa Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes the well-being of children and orphans from her home country. Joannie is also a huge fine arts enthusiast, and will always be open to talking or watching poetry, theater and dance. Joannie is looking forward to her year as VPSL and making sure her work and advocacy start with Student Life.

You can reach out to Joannie via joannie.fogue@su.ulaberta.ca, for any concerns, questions or interest in the work she does for students.

Alex Dorscheid is a fourth year Bachelor of Commerce student with a major in Finance and a minor in Accounting. He serves as your Undergraduate Representative on the Board of Governors for the 2022-2023 school year. Alex was born and raised in Grande Prairie, Alberta and prior to attending the University of Alberta he attended the University of Northern British Columbia for his first year of university. Alex is very involved around the university being a goalkeeper on the U of A Golden Bears Men’s Soccer team as well as being a member of the Alberta School of Business JDC West Debate Team.

During his term Alex intends to work towards three main goals to make the university and the Students’ Union a better place than when he started. One of Alex’s goals this year is to further advocate for hybrid learning in the long-term strategic vision of the university which will help increase accessibility for students. He also wants to increase transparency around the Board of Governors so that students are aware of the decisions being made at the highest level of university governance. Overall Alex would like to make University life easier for students and make it easier for them to live their university lives the way they want.