Chris Ashdown

Chris Ashdown, ’78 BSc, ’82 MHSA

Board of Governors Representative

A native of Toronto, Chris came to the University of Alberta in 1973 to study chemistry and then health services administration. While a student, he was President of the Pembina Hall Students’ Association and sang with the UofA Mixed Chorus, including one year as president. In 1994, he was the charter president of the Mixed Chorus Alumni Association and served on Alumni Council for one term.

He began his career in health care administration at the Misericordia Hospital and the Canadian Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service. He spent eleven years with Alberta Health as a Hospital Administration Consultant for major acute care hospitals in Edmonton and Calgary and a project manager with ambulatory care funding, mental health services and physician services. He moved to the Financial Services at the UofA to oversee the administration of the university’s endowments, then to Research Services Office as the Research Facilitator for the Faculties of Engineering and Science. Following retirement, he did project work with Development Services and Financial Services. He was Board Chair of St. Joseph’s Auxiliary Hospital in Edmonton and served on several committees of Covenant Health and the Covenant Foundation.

Since 2020, he has been the representative of the School of Public Health on Alumni Council and chaired the Career Services Committee in 2021/22. He is President of the Edmonton Radial Railway Society and was ordained as a Permanent Deacon for the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton in 2018. He met his wife Jean (’80 BSc (MLS), ’87 BSc (Home EC)) at St. Joseph’s College. They have two children including their daughter who recently graduated from the UofA with a BMus.