Stephanie Felesky

Stephanie Felesky’s advocacy work has earned her national recognition as one of Canada’s most respected volunteers and philanthropists. She has helped found numerous organizations aimed at building stronger communities, strengthening resilience in children, creating affordable housing and also increasing facilities for hospitalized infants.

Stephanie Louise Felesky was born in Toronto on January 28, 1947. Her father, Roy Baker, was studying to become an engineer when World War II broke out, whereupon he enlisted and was stationed in Alberta and Saskatchewan as part of the Commonwealth Air Training Command. Among Stephanie’s prized possessions is a box filled with her father’s flight logs.

Roy returned to Toronto after his discharge, and in quick succession he married Stephanie’s mother Joyce, finished his engineering degree and started a family. In 1950, recognizing the opportunities that existed in postwar Alberta for petroleum engineers, Roy moved the family to what was then, the small, but up and coming, City of Calgary.

“We lived in St. Andrews Heights,” Stephanie says. “They were building the university and the Foothills Hospital at the time. My brother and I used to skate on the slough where the Foothills Hospital is now.”

Growing up, news of political issues in the wider world kept appearing in Stephanie’s field of vision. Her parents were community volunteers who engaged in vigorous dinner table discussions on current events. She also had a social studies teacher who encouraged her growing interest in history and human rights. She had been reading about the civil rights movement in the American South and groups such as the Freedom Riders, so when she heard the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews would be holding a big civil rights meeting at the local YMCA, she was eager to put her name forward as a potential delegate. Unfortunately, she was too young to enroll, but her teacher spoke to the organizers and kindly wangled a job for her at their lemonade stand.

“So, I was able to attend and listen to everything,” Stephanie says. “I thought that whole cause of diversity and people being treated equally, was very compelling. I guess I've been making lemonade ever since.”

She met her future husband, Brian Felesky, at a summer party. The 2 hit it off and were happily married less than a year later. She earned a degree in education (with distinction) at the University of Calgary.

It was the beginning of not just a marriage but also 2 mutually inspiring careers in community service and philanthropy. “I’ve always believed that being a citizen comes with responsibility – the ‘ask not what your country can do for you’ kind of thing,” Stephanie says. “The great spirit in Calgary is not if you are going to be a volunteer, but when you are going to be a volunteer.”

She worked for a long list of organizations over the next decades: the Citizenship Matters Society, the advisory board of the Calgary Herald, the Grace Hospital Community Advisory Committee, the Board of Governors of the University of Calgary, as well as organizations aimed at everything, from researching breast cancer, to helping sick and marginalized children. She also volunteered at the Calgary Olympics and was, along with Brian, one of the founders of the Family Christmas Ball in 1983.

Much of Stephanie’s time was spent with the United Way, heading up countless committees and fundraising campaigns. She also served as the Board Chair. Then she was the founding chair of the United Way Children’s Initiative (now “Upstart”). The United Way was also a big area of overlap between her volunteer work and that of her husband. In 2001, they became the first couple ever invited to be co-chairs of the United Way’s Annual Campaign. “We both felt, that through the United Way, we got a bird's-eye view of the community’s needs.” Stephanie says. “The United Way also has a watchful, thoughtful, very collaborative approach that appeals to us.”

Her time with the United Way also exposed her to the hardships faced by Calgary’s homeless population, and she frequently found herself sitting on committees studying the problem, alongside Art Smith (AOE 1997). They felt that the city would benefit from an organization that could bring together non-profit groups, churches, government officials and police services under one umbrella, to coordinate their disparate efforts for the benefit of the homeless.

And so, in 1997, Stephanie and Art helped found the Calgary Homeless Foundation. Getting all those disparate groups to agree on a set of priorities presented a challenge to Stephanie’s negotiation skills, but they pressed on, and they got it done. In 2012, Stephanie helped to spearhead the ambitious RESOLVE campaign, which raised millions for low-cost housing, over the next 6 years. Further, in 2018, she was a founding member of the Calgary Affordable Housing Foundation, which she describes as a “permanent RESOLVE,” an organization to provide capital dollars for affordable housing projects in Calgary.

About this time, Stephanie co-chaired a successful capital campaign to expand Foothills Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which provides intensive care for critically ill newborns. It raised several millions of dollars.

In 2006, Stephanie was asked to submit her name for the Calgary Police Commission. She saw the police commission as a further way to help the City’s marginalized people. She stayed on the commission for 10 years as a commissioner. In 2014, she also helped found the Calgary Police Youth Foundation. “It’s the only police foundation in the country that has such an intense focus on kids,” Stephanie says, very proudly.

In 2011, she became a founding member and Vice Chair of the volunteer board of the “University of Calgary Properties Group”. It has the giant task of developing the lands adjacent to the University of Calgary campus for residential, commercial, and recreational use. It has become an award-winning project, with a neighbourhood that is a hub of life, including an array of amenities for residents, students and university staff alike.

Beyond her non-profit work, Stephanie has served on the corporate boards of Canexus Limited, Star Choice Communications and the Canada Lands Company Limited.

In 2005, she earned an ICD.D from the Institute of Corporate Directors, where she served on their national board as chair of their Human Resources and Governance Committee and as a member of their National Executive Committee.

In 1999, she received the National Chair’s Award from the United Way. She received an honorary degree from the University of Calgary in 2009. She became a member of the Order of Canada in 2004, and has received the Alberta Centennial Medal (2005), the Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee Medal (2002), the Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012), the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal (Alberta) (2022) and the King Charles III Coronation Medal (2025).

She is the proud mother of 3 and grandmother of 6.

“Too often,” Stephanie says, “people think they have to be a big financial philanthropist to help out. In fact, time and passion is just as good as a cash donation. Every charity needs time, talent and treasure. And you only need to contribute one of those to make a real difference – big or small.”