ASPA Welcomes New Executive Members

The newest members to the ASPA Executive are Karen Onishenko and Lisa Bagonluri. Karen and Lisa were elected to the Executive at the ASPA AGM in April and are welcome additions to the team.

Not only is Karen new to the executive team, she is also fairly new to campus. Karen started working in the Disability Services for Students office in December, 2015. Karen is loving her position and feels fortunate to work with such intelligent, interesting, creative, wise, genuine companionate and REALLY fun people. 

Karen has always been interested in union work and feels it is important for employers to look after the well-being of their employees, so when the opportunity presented itself to join the Executive, it only made sense for her to step up. She believes that employers have an obligation to provide a safe and healthy work environment, one without discrimination, one that includes diversity and opportunities for growth and one that promotes respect for all.

Before coming to the University, she worked for the Saskatchewan Abilities Council, where she learned a great deal of humility and understanding of the complex nature of poverty and racism and the toll it takes on the individual and society; the sadness and desperation it can create, the incredible perseverance and strength it can generate. We are very lucky to have someone with such a positive attitude and strong values on our side.

Lisa has been on campus since May of 2002, starting in the College of Medicine, then moving to FMD before landing in an ASPA position in the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition. She has a genuine interest in labour-management relations and so when the call came from the Nominations Committee, she decided to put her name forward. Lisa thinks the ASPA Executive and staff have done a fabulous job managing our union activities in what she considers to be some trying times on campus and is very happy to be part of the ASPA team. We are happy to have her perspective and knowledge on our team.

“Karen and Lisa bring a tremendous amount of experience and great new perspectives to the work of the ASPA Executive. We are very pleased to welcome them to our team and look forward to seeing all the amazing work they will do for our members across campus,” ASPA Vice President, Jay Shanahan