Have You Met… Andrea Graham?

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Have you met Andrea, Project Manager of the Graduate Student Professional Development Program? Spend the next 2 minutes getting to know her a little better.

Where is your favorite place on campus?

I call it the “Bunny Walk” — it’s between Triffo Hall and HUB. You go through the tree growth, and there’s a babbling brook… and often I spot the bunnies there.

Tablet or paper?

Paper. You can tell by my desk, and the piles of paper.

Name one thing you’ve brought to work from home.

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I have this tin my son made me when he was 5 or 6 — it says “cell,” and then he tried to draw mountains on it. I think it was his way, as a young kid, to remind me that when I come home, I should put away work. So when I came home, I used to put my phone in here.

What is the one thing you can’t live without?

Wine.

If you won airfare to anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Peru. It looks amazing in photos, and there’s a kayak trip that goes through the fjords that I dream about.

You can invite anyone — alive or dead, real or fictional — to dinner. Who would it be?

Albert Einstein. He had this amazing brain and intellect, but also his humbleness — his willingness to admit he couldn’t remember his own phone number. I agree that with his approach that you learn from making mistakes. And then later in his life, he became so much more of a humanitarian — he cared about people. It’s something to aspire to.

If you could switch jobs with someone else on campus for a week, what would you do?

The president.

What does “uplifting the whole people” mean to you?

It’s about supporting all aspects of a person — supporting them in their intellectual pursuits, their mental health, their physical health… sort of mind, heart and body. And not just in our community, but in all communities.

If you could solve any problem in the world, what would it be?

I would try to solve our ability to forget. We always say that history repeats itself. I think as a society, as a world, we make the same mistakes. So I would solve that: memory — how do we remember and do things differently?

What 3 words best describe your U of A experience?

Amazing. Energizing. Forward looking.

About Andrea Graham

Andrea Graham

Andrea is the Project Manager of the Graduate Student Professional Development Program. She combines her two passions — storytelling and organizational effectiveness — to develop and support a culture of change and continuous improvement. She holds a Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching (CEC) from Royal Roads University.