Interview with Corie Houldsworth, CRPA’s President-Elect

Regular readers of the CRPA Bulletin have come to expect Dave Niven, chief editor, to interview incoming CRPA presidents. In this issue, Dave continues his interview series by talking with Corie Houldsworth, CRPA’s president-elect.

 

Tell us a little bit about yourself—work life, family life.

I’ve lived near Calgary, Alberta, since 2001. I grew up in the greater Vancouver area and worked as a nuclear medicine technologist early in my career before moving to Calgary to work for the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) as an inspector.

After my son was born, I worked as a consultant and regulatory affairs manager in oil and gas before returning to CNSC in 2019. My son finished high school last year and is now off having post-secondary adventures, which is incredibly exciting to watch.

I’m currently the acting director of the Human and Organizational Performance Division (HOPD) at CNSC, after working as an inspector in the Calgary office, then as a senior management systems specialist.

 

When did you join CRPA?

I joined CRPA in 2002 and participated as a member of the local organizing committee for the Kananaskis conference. It was a great experience, and I was involved with CRPA off and on from then until 2018, when I joined the board as secretary. 

Running for CRPA president felt like a natural extension of the work I had been doing as secretary, and I thought it would be a way to serve my community even more. An added bonus was being more involved with the board members, who represent some of my favourite professional relationships. The recent board composition has been one of the strongest and most interesting volunteer groups I’ve ever been involved with, and we are a very good team. 

 

What do you plan to focus on during your presidency? 

One of the things I’ve wanted to do for many years is to connect more industrial radiation users to CRPA. This would help connect industrial users with health physics experts to improve their radiation protection expertise. 

 

Were you able to start on any of your goals as president-elect over the past year? 

My goals are continuity and consistency, and, with the continuation of the majority of our board members into this term, I’m well positioned to realize that. After the chaos of the past four years, it is time to settle into a more normal-feeling time where we can focus on developing relationships with other professional organizations (e.g., Canadian Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists [CARST]) and continuing the momentum we’ve started with our professional development program. 

 

If you could pick only one goal to accomplish by the end of your term as president, what would it be?

I would like to see a return to vital, energetic conferences where we are able to connect and share cutting edge information on the exciting things that are happening in Canada in our industry.

As of the date of this interview, the Edmonton conference is looking really good. We have a full slate of interesting presentations that show how much we’ve done to build relationships and integrate industrial users, as well as highlight the huge variety of emerging work being done in Canada on both ends of the radiation spectrum: development to decommissioning. I’m also really looking forward to the Hamilton conference, as the updates we’ve been receiving are very promising. 

 

Where would you like to see the association five years from now?

I’d love to see an expanded membership that includes more members from more industries, which reflects the theme of this year’s conference.

 

Is there anything else you’d like to say to our readers, both members and non-members? 

Only that I’m looking forward to catching up in Edmonton this year!

 

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See related stories:

Interview with Jeff Fleming, CRPA’s President-Elect, May 2023

New Board Member Interview: Meet Tara Hargreaves, October 2022

Interview with Leah Shuparski-Miller, CRPA’s President-Elect, July 2022

Interview with Diana Moscu, CRPA’s Incoming President, August 2021

Interview with Ali Shoushtarian, CRPA President-Elect, June 2020.

Interview with Karen Owen-Whitred, the new director general of the Directorate of Nuclear Substances Regulation (DNSR) at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC), December 2020.

Successful Conference Networking – Not Just a Fairy Tale. Dave talks with Liane Koll, a recent graduate of the Loyalist College Radiation Safety program, and Valerie Phelan, who hired Liane after meeting her at the 2019 CRPA conference. January 2020.