Dr. Karen Aberle is the Executive Director and Chief Curator at the Wetaskiwin District Heritage Museum Centre and Star Store. When she first moved to Wetaskiwin in 2013, she had no intention of staying past five years. Karen came here on another adventure, saw it as an opportunity to learn some new skills and meet some different people. But this amazing community had different plans for her, and at times even she cannot believe how much she loves her community and the people in it. Karen and her husband Anthony purchased a house for the first time in 2018, making a commitment that they had never done before. Wetaskiwin is Karen’s home. It has provided her with many opportunities, and she is excited to continue giving back as a member of City of Wetaskiwin Council by using her experiences to help make it stronger and a place we are all proud to call home.
When not at work or out in the community, Karen spends her time at home with her cats Doon and Cosimo, dogs Nelli and Pompey, and a lot of fish. Karen continues to try to convince Anthony that they need another dog, cat, bearded dragon, Highland Coo, or gorilla, but has yet been able to persuade him. During the summer you will most likely find her in the yard, tending to her raised vegetable gardens, flowerpots, and perennial beds. She loves projects, and her most recent one is creating hedgerows along the side of her house and native flower garden in the front so that she may provide an urban habitat for local wildlife. In the winter you are most likely to find her watching hockey or lacrosse. Karen cheers for the Flames, Anthony for the Canucks, though neither of them has been doing too much cheering lately and so they settle their differences by coming together to support the Calgary Roughnecks.
Karen was excited to take on her role at the Heritage Museum where she simultaneously runs a not-for-profit charity and a small retail business. Her ability to not only sustain these ventures, but also to have all three aspects continue to grow under her direction speaks to her innovative, progressive, and successful approach to leadership. Almost immediately, Karen set forth to position the museum as an inclusive gathering space that grows with and for the community it serves. She has built lasting relationships and partnerships with all levels of government as well as local businessess and organizations in Wetaskiwin City, County, and Maskwacis. This demonstrates a deep engagement with our community and an understanding of the importance of collaboration to make limited resources stretch further. Examples of this include: Canada’s Agriculture Day, Canada Day, Orange Shirt Day, Welcoming Week, and Taste of Wetaskiwin.
Through her work at the museum, Dr. Aberle has also had the opportunity to respond to the changing needs of our community. This was perhaps most evident during the Covid-19 pandemic. Under Karen’s leadership, her team, which includes a small staff, Board of Directors, youth-network, and volunteers worked to find new ways to stay connected with the community during these unprecedented times. In many ways they simply offered the community an escape with simple things such as finding a Sloth Mascot called Mylo. One of the most meaningful things for Karen, however, was when she worked with her community contacts, and a little self-determination, to ensure the Class of 2020 had an opportunity to walk across that stage in the prescence of their family. Each student was given a personal commencement speech by Dr. Aberle to never let anyone tell you you cannot do something, but instead show them how you can do it on your own terms. Later in the year, Karen and her team again used their contacts and resources to raise almost $9,000 so that our seniors could be given a care package from the community. In 2019, the work of the Heritage Museum was recognized by its peers with the Alberta Museums Association’s Leadership award for Organizational Resiliency, and the very prestigous Robert R. Janes Award for Social Responsibilty as a community change maker.
Dr. Aberle began volunteering in the community as soon as she arrived in Wetaskiwin, helping FCSS with a variety of projects including Secret Santa and the Women’s Conference, and assisting other non-profit groups with their events and fundraising. She loves being a chip runner for Casinos because it allows her to volunteer and work at the same time, so don’t be afraid to ask! Karen was a member of the Community Engagement Committee during its first three years and part of the team that made Wetaskiwin Winter Warm-up a reality. More recently, she has the Canada Day and Orange Shirt Day Committees and been a member of the Welcoming Week Organizing Committee. Helping where she can is important to Karen, especially when it comes to events and festivals, which contribute to our quality of life, strengthen our sense of community pride, and build awareness of diverse cultures and identities. They can also make a significant economical contribution, especially to rural communities such as ours.
Karen has served as a member of different local boards and groups including the Library Board, Transit Society, Wetaskiwin Legion Executive and Wetaskiwin Arts and Music Festival. Dr. Aberle is also active in the Alberta Museum Community having served on the Board of Directors for the Alberta Museums Association and the Central Alberta Regional Museum Network. All of this has given her first-hand experience with policy governance and an understanding of the relationship between City Council and City Administration.
In addition to her museum experience, Karen spent almost 20 years in the food and beverage industry primarily as a server, two years as a barista for a small coffee shop, and four years in retail. She knows this time has set her up with skills she could not have gained anywhere else. When she reflects on her time in food and beverage especially, she can come up with no words that better summarize her opinion than this quote by the late Anthony Bourdain:
“You can always tell when a person has worked in a restaurant. There’s an empathy that can only be cultivated by those who’ve stood between a hungry mouth and a $28 pork chop, a special understanding of the way a bunch of motley misfits can be a family. Service industry work develops the “soft skills” recruiters talk about on LinkedIn — discipline, promptness, the ability to absorb criticism, and most important, how to read people like a book. The work is thankless and fun and messy, and the world would be a kinder place if more people tried it. With all due respect to my former professors, I’ve long believed I gained more knowledge in kitchens, bars, and dining rooms than any college could even hold.”
Born and raised in Calgary, Karen is a quintisential Albertan. Her mom worked in oil and gas and her dad for the Calgary Stampede. One of Karen’s first jobs was an usher at the Stampede Grandstand, and she still has a love for Chuckwagon races and agriculture in general. She was raised in the community of Forest Lawn, an area that has long been characterized as low income and having the highest crime rate in the Alberta’s Largest City. Karen is personally familiar with many of the struggles that people living in Wetaskiwin face. She also has first-hand knowledge of how social responsibility and support benefits a community and its families. Karen loves that she had the opportunity to grow up in a very multi-cultural community and this is one of the reasons she is so passionate about inclusion and diversity.
After graduating from Forest Lawn High School, Karen attended the University of Calgary where she earned a BSc with a double major in Anthropology and Archaeology. Her focus was on plains archaeology, and it was during this time that she first began to appreciate the richness of indigenous culture and learn the truth about our shared history. The last residential school in Canada closed the year before she graduated with her BSc. Karen’s passion for volunteering also began in earnest during this time. She coordinated the UofC’s Students for Literacy program, helped out with the campus food bank, and began working with Calgary’s street population. She has been an advocate for these and other social responsibility issues for over 30 years.
Karen returned to the UofC to complete a BA in Greek and Roman Studies with a minor in Museum and Heritage Studies. She then continued her studies at the University of British Columbia, graduating with a MA in Classical Archaeology and a PhD in Classics with a specialization in Archaeology. Karen has earned a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD). This is something that less than 1% of all Canadians can say. It is the highest academic achievement that can be reached, and while 44% of PhD students in the humanities never complete their degrees, Karen did. She has a unique skill set and it shows she simply will not give up on something that matters to her.
Dr. Aberle is trained to think critically about existing knowledge and then advance that knowledge with new ideas. She is literally an expert at learning and deciphering vast amounts of information, understanding this information, coming up with innovative conclusions, then successfully arguing her position. Karen is also trained to identify problems and find balanced solutions to those problems. With Dr. Aberle at the council table, all of these skills help our community succeed.
As a PhD student, Karen also became proficient at conflict resolution. Imagine that you are in an episode of the Dragons Den or Shark Tank, where your project, your logic, your career, your hopes, and your dreams are mercilessly picked apart every few months in thesis committee meetings, at conferences, and during the ultimate battle at the thesis defense. Now imagine that your two thesis supervisors hate one another and are constantly challenging not only your work, but each other’s opinions of your work. Karen quickly learned to respond professionally to hostile attacks on and around her. On Dr. Aberle’s convocation day, her department head told her she also earned a doctorate in navigating difficult relationships and building bridges.
Karen’s studies provided her the opportunity to travel and study in Greece and Italy, particularly Sicily where her heart lingers. For four years she worked in Glasgow Scotland while her husband was attending University there. These were priviledges she is grateful for, as well as opportunities to challenge herself. Moving abroad and finding work clearly demonstrates her motivation, initiative, independence, maturity and adaptability. It is Karen’s desire to continue to bring these skills to the council table.
“Community leadership is the courage, creativity, and capacity to inspire participation, development, and sustainability for strong communities”
Gustav Nossal
Dr. Karen Aberle for City of Wetaskiwin Councillor 