The River of Death and Discovery Dinosaur Museum Society

A not-for-profit society formed in 2010, the River of Death and Discovery Dinosaur Museum Society (RDDDMS) operates the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum under a tenancy lease agreement with the County of Grande Prairie No.1 and extends an endowed professorship in palaeontology with the University of Alberta.Membership with the society is open based on an annual membership fee. Join the society today, or find out more about memberships.

Board of Directors

The society’s board of directors is a decision-making body formed from the general membership. Its current members are:

• Linda Side, Chair
• Peter Meyerhoffer, Vice Chair
• Loretta Lieverse, Treasurer
• Kevin O’Toole, Secretary
• Brian Bildson

• Vashti Dunham
• Tyler Olsen
• Marilyn Grubb
• Janina Carlstad
• Greg Wald

• Karen McGriskin
• Rob Neil
• Ross Sutherland
• Linda Waddy
• James Leppan

Contact the members of the board by emailing board@dinomuseum.ca.

Board Member Biographies

Linda Side Chair

Linda grew up in the business and has experienced virtually every role inside of the organization and from every corner of the operations. Today she sits at the helm and is responsible for revenues that exceed ½ billion dollars, several hundred families, and a diverse group of companies poised for growth. Like most women of her vintage her life is bursting with people and activity.Linda views community involvement and volunteerism as an integral part of the job description. “Our parents worked very hard to provide for us and have laid the foundation for even greater things for our children. To simply carry on without giving something back or paying forward would be wrong.” Currently, she sits on the Board of the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, is a member of the GPRC Cabinet, and Co-Founder of the Grade Three Reading University.Linda would comment that these are still rather interesting times for women in business. She can attest as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, and a proud member of her community that victory is a multi-faceted concept given the expectations we impose on our ourselves. “Striving for excellence is a tough gig! But, the challenges are arguably what make our work fascinating.”

Vashti Dunham

Vashti received her B.Sc. in Forest Business Management in 1999 and after graduation, she worked for the Alberta Forest Service, primarily in forest health, forest fire operations, and community timber programs. In 2005, she started with Weyerhaeuser Grande Prairie, and has worked in silviculture, planning and harvest supervision, roles with a strong component of GIS work and data management. She and her husband Doug spend their weekends snowboarding, cross-country skiing and camping. Hiking through the marine fossil deposits in the Tumbler Ridge back country sparked her interest in paleontology, and she’s excited to work with the Currie Museum as they display our local fossil discoveries to the public.

Marilyn Grubb

Marilyn joined the River of Death and Discovery Dinosaur Museum Society, October 2016.During her decades long career with Canada Post, serving in various capacities, with her final role being Local Area Manager for the Peace Region, AB & NE BC; Marilyn is very familiar with the communities and geography of the beautiful Peace Country. Now retired she spends her time as photographer/digital artist, volunteering for several local causes and teaching beginner photography and digital processing.Her education beyond high school includes Athabasca University and Queen’s University.Marilyn has discovered that volunteering is a great way to remain connected, involved and active, in the community and area and has served in various capacities over the years. Some of her board experience includes: Beaverlodge Victims Services Unit; founding member Amisk Lodge Toastmasters; Councillor (former), Town of Wembley; Mentoring Dreams, GPRC; Beaverlodge Cultural Centre Board; and, Wembley Arts & Historical Society.Living locally and realizing the natural treasures held in the area along with husband, Randy; Marilyn became involved with the museum, as a volunteer, back when it was just a dream: creating geocache events and capturing the tractor parade. During, and now after the building’s completion, the award winning architecture remains a source of inspiration for Marilyn’s lens; an easy capture for her as the Grubb’s reside in Wembley.Awards include a recent Senate of Canada Contribution Award recognizing her volunteer service.Marilyn is also on the Peace Parkland Naturalist Board.

Karen McGriskin

Karen’s been with local government since 1988, and currently is the Manager of Culture and Heritage with the City of Grande Prairie. Her current role is responsible for vision and leadership in the area of cultural heritage, and the alignment of systems and processes to achieve operational objectives for the City of Grande Prairie, and city owned cultural and heritage facilities (Grande Prairie Museum, Heritage Discovery Centre, Montrose Cultural Centre, and two Provincial Historic Sites). Karen’s work is supported by her academic background which includes two Masters Degrees, one in Business Administration, the other in Geographic Information Systems.

Linda Waddy

Linda Waddy joined the Museum board in November of 2017 as a representative for the County of Grande Prairie. She is a long-time entrepreneur, having bought her first farm at the age of 21. She was born on a dairy farm turned beef operation in Manitoba, then subsequently moved to Calgary in 1985. While in Calgary, Councillor Waddy was involved in the operation of over a million square feet of commercial office space at various levels in the finance and management areas for 15 years.At the present time, Councillor Waddy and her partner operate a 250 cow/calf farm near Hythe, Alberta. For thirteen years, from 2001 to 2014, she was the sole operator of the farm, as her partner worked off-farm. Community involvement has been always important to Councillor Waddy and she has volunteered as Secretary/Treasurer for Goodfare Hall for the past three years, recently becoming President of the Hall.Serving the residents of the County and the various boards to which she will be appointed is her primary goal.Councillor Waddy has 5 grown children and 7 grandchildren.

Janina Carlstad

Janina is an educator, naturalist, musician, photographer, and writer who is genuinely interested in becoming a member of the River of Death and Discovery Dinosaur Museum Society. She offers the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum enthusiasm, energy, expertise and inspiration to assist in many areas of the museum and in particular, educational programming, environmental education and stewardship, community involvement and as a cultural and tourism ambassador. As a longtime resident of the Peace Country and current member of the museum, she is excited about taking a more active role in its operation, programming, and community presence.

Brian Bildson

Journeyman Carpenter (Red Seal) since 1981. Brian has been involved in construction and development since 1979. He lives in Grande Prairie and has built several multi-family buildings and commercial space. He has experience in developing one year – 5 year & 10 year work plans, annual operating plans, bylaw reviews, drafting terms of reference for board and committee positions.In addition, he was one of the members who formed a new group called the Rocky Mountain Wilderness Society. He drafted the bylaws, mission statement, and terms of references that are still be used by the group today. He served on their Board for several years.

Greg Wald

For the past twenty years, Greg has been an owner in a family business involved in water and sewer construction, and roadway and parking lot paving. His company paved the parking lot around the Dinosaur Museum. Recently he established a small 3D Printing Company called Imhotep Industries.He was taught science by Mr. Al Lakusta while in Junior High School, and Engineering by Dr. Bert Hunt, and have had many enjoyable and interesting conversations with Mr. Lakusta, Dr. Hunt, and Dr. Currie. He has also attended lectures by Dr. Currie. He has a strong background in electronics, Computer Aided Design, and computers.

James Leppan

James believes The Philip J Currie Dinosaur Museum is an anchor attraction for our region. He has advocated for it across a plethora of platforms, including tying it in with a very successful content development piece shot in early 2019, #SkiNorthAB, along with supporting a candidate from the Museum attending the annual SHIFT conference to learn experience development first hand. Recently, James was able to provide additional funds to assist with the “Paleo for a Day” advertising campaigns. Every year, the local DMF proudly sponsors a corporate table for the annual fundraising “Night for the Museum” event.

Tyler Olsen

Tyler was born and raised in southern Alberta until moving north to Grande Cache in 2003. He lived in Grande Cache for 5 years, working in the oilfield. After a brief year in Kelowna, he left to Grande Prairie for four years before returning to Grande Cache for the past 6 years. In those six years he managed two oilfield trucking companies.Two years ago he successfully ran for town council and upon the dissolution of Grande Cache was transferred to the MD of Greenview council. When joining the town council he changed jobs in the oilfield to allow time for his council duties.Tyler has also been serving on volunteer fire departments for over 16 years between two departments. He enjoys being a part of his small community and living in northern Alberta.

Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum

The Society