Leadership Team

Andrea Robertson believes in a very important motto: the more informed you are, the more you realize how little you know.

She’s had a life-long commitment to learning ever since she was a young nurse, and that drive carried her through many academic achievements, from a Bachelor’s in Nursing, to a Master’s in Health-Care Administration, to an executive fellowship from Wharton University and Ivey School of Business, to an executive leadership program at Harvard.

Her drive is a selfless one. These accolades, as well as her many past leadership roles at Alberta Health Services, Foothills Medical Centre and Alberta Children’s Hospital, were all intended to be in service to her community. For Andrea, there is no greater service than helping someone survive a critical illness or injury. Which is why, as president and CEO of STARS, she is right where she belongs. In this role she is responsible for the overall direction of our operations and works to build upon our external relationships with donors, governments and key partners. Strengthening these relationships is vital to our ability to provide the best-possible service our communities.

Andrea’s commitment to continuing education and dedication to providing the best care possible has also led her to be an invaluable mentor to many entering the health care field. Formally, she is part of a mentorship program through the University of Calgary. Informally, she works with as many as five young, energetic leaders at any given time. For the students, the reward is Andrea’s wealth of experience and unyielding empathy for others.  For Andrea, mentorship is just another opportunity to learn more about the world, through the eyes of her students. It’s through these relationships that Andrea sees education come to life.

Andrea’s leadership and contributions to business and her community have been widely recognized, both as a member of the board of directors of Bow Valley College, Calgary Airport Authority and Canadian Pacific Railway, and as one of WXN’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada in 2015.

Teamwork, clinical excellence and performance under pressure have been paramount to Dr. John Froh’s decades-long career in emergency and transport medicine.

Whether calmly leading teams through mass-casualty incidents or helping lead the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s COVID-19 pandemic response, Dr. Froh knows that it takes the skilled hands of many to save a life.

After obtaining a Bachelor of Science at the University of Regina, he completed his medical degree followed by residencies in family and emergency medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, where he continues to teach. John enjoys his clinical practice of emergency and trauma care as Attending Emergency Physician and Attending Trauma Service Physician in the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Surgery with the Saskatchewan Health Authority in Saskatoon.

Dr. Froh joined the STARS team in 2012 as a transport physician and medical director of the then newly opened Saskatoon base, helping to ensure the clinical care and movement of critically ill and injured patients throughout the province.

In his new role as Chief Medical Officer for STARS, Dr. Froh is responsible for care delivered by the organization to the sickest and most injured patients across Western Canada from our six bases of operation.

John has enjoyed contributing to leadership teams throughout his career, most recently as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer–Pandemic with the Saskatchewan Health Authority and previously as Area Chief of Staff in Saskatoon. In 2021 he received the prestigious Dr. Dennis A. Kendel Distinguished Service Award for outstanding contributions to physician leadership and to physician engagement in quality improvements in health care in Saskatchewan.

When not helping to save lives, Dr. Froh loves spending time his wife and three children on his acreage. He enjoys basketball, outdoor cooking and is a car enthusiast.

There is nothing more important to Mike than spending quality time with family.

In fact, his career has been driven by a desire to give families as much time together as possible. It has guided him through 20 years of service with STARS, flying over 500 missions as a flight paramedic and making a difference in the lives of his patients and their loved ones.

Mike has worked in Emergency Medical Services for nearly 30 years, graduating from paramedic school in 1990, and honing his skills as paramedic in Cochrane and Calgary before finding his way to STARS.

But Mike wasn’t satisfied with saving lives one patient at a time. His passion for life-saving care led him to manage and launch North America’s first mobile human patient simulation program, which takes STARS’ world-class skills training to EMS professionals all over Western Canada. Because of his many accomplishments, Mike had the privilege of joining the Health Canada team at the G8 summit in 2002. In his current role, Mike is responsible for the operation of our bases across the provinces we operate in, as well as the STARS Emergency Link Centre.

When Mike and his family are not participating in initiatives that support their local community, church, and schools, they enjoy watching live sports and going on adventures in Europe. Mike is also an avid skier, and describes his perfect day as starting on the slopes and ending with a good meal and a glass of red wine.

Before Dave Harding joined STARS to care for the critically ill and injured in his community, he enjoyed a long career serving his country in the Canadian Forces.

Dave has more than 30 years’ experience in aviation and over 6,500 flight hours, as a helicopter and airplane pilot, both as a civilian and with the Canadian Forces. His love of aviation began early in life while growing up mostly in Newfoundland and Labrador. He was just 16 years old when he earned his first pilot’s license for a glider. He earned his private pilot’s license the following year.

As a child Dave was enthralled by the work of the crews flying search and rescue helicopters, which led to him joining the military where he eventually flew those same helicopters on his first tour. After many years in various flying and supervisory positions, it was this initial inspiration that led to him joining STARS in order to continue to serve the public as part of a mission dedicated to saving lives.

Dave joined STARS in 2011 as one of the first pilots hired at our Manitoba base. He quickly excelled at several different roles, including a captain pilot, aviation base manager and base director. His contribution as aviation lead on STARS’ fleet renewal project has been invaluable. Dave has flown nearly 800 missions to date and will continue to fly STARS helicopters during his leadership tenure.

Not surprisingly, his number one hobby is aviation. But when Dave is not flying, or reading about flying, or making decisions about flying, he is spending as much time as possible on the ground with his family in Winnipeg, MB.

Terri Strunk is a Saskatchewanian, born and raised. Her strong rural roots influenced her concern when emergency medical services began to decline in the rural parts of the province, where the distance to a tertiary care hospital was measured in hours.

Recognizing the important role STARS could play in assisting those living in these areas, she and her colleagues in government helped bring the organization to Saskatchewan in 2011.

In her prior role as senior advisor and Chief of Operations to former Premier of Saskatchewan Brad Wall, Terri oversaw management of the Executive Council and Ministerial Offices for the Government of Saskatchewan and provided strategic issue management and communications counsel.

Terri began her career in the media in 1985 working with several major networks and stations over the course of a decade. She established her own communications firm in 2014, capitalizing on years of expertise in developing high-level, multi-faceted strategic public relations campaigns, as well as government relations and crisis communications.

Lauded as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women by the Women’s Executive Network twice, Terri is a highly skilled public affairs strategist that cares deeply about the community. She feels blessed to have the opportunity to contribute to STARS, having championed the organization as a long-time supporter.

When she is not brainstorming with the STARS Foundation team across the prairies, Terri and her husband enjoy fishing, ice-fishing and snowmobiling on Lac La Ronge in northern Saskatchewan. She also loves spending time with her children and five granddaughters. An avid football enthusiast, Terri serves as a volunteer Director on the Board of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. She also is a fundraising volunteer with Empty Arms, an organization that helps families deal with pre and peri-natal infant loss.

If you are ever lucky enough to meet Cindy Seidl, one of the first things you will likely notice is the compassion in her eyes. You know instantly that she cares. It’s that caring and compassionate nature that is at the core of who she is and which led her down the path of health care.

At the beginning of her nursing career, Cindy attended a two-year nursing program before pursuing her Bachelor of Nursing and Master of Nursing degrees from the University of Saskatchewan.

Her career with STARS began in 2012 when the first Saskatchewan base opened in Regina, and she was tasked with setting up operations and preparing for launch. Prior to her chief clinical officer role, Cindy was STARS’ lead clinical officer and the provincial director of operations in Saskatchewan. Some of her projects included integrating the STARS program into Saskatchewan’s pre-hospital system, setting up the Saskatoon base and working with local communities to develop heliports across the province. None of which were small accomplishments.

In addition to her role as the provincial director, Cindy continued to work as a flight nurse on missions to be there for the next patient who needed critical care. Today, as chief clinical officer, Cindy is part of a multi-disciplinary team that works on STARS health-care delivery and influences patient care across the organization.

In her downtime, Cindy enjoys being close to her family, spending time at the cabin and almost every activity the involves the outdoors.

Kenny Doleac is no stranger to the aviation world; he spent seven years as a pilot and officer in the US Army flying Black Hawk helicopters. He served as an aviation officer leading units at Ft. Hood, Texas and deployed abroad, culminating in the command of an assault helicopter company which included a year long deployment to Iraq. In 2011, he decided to leave the military and change career paths; pursuing a joint program and earning a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University.  

Kenny then moved into the tech sector, joining Apple in their new product operations group. He led teams in both Cupertino and China with a focus on operations, supply chain and factory management. During his five years at Apple, Kenny led the introduction of several MacBooks to market and worked to rapidly expand operational capabilities in the new Airpods product line. 

After the arrival of their first child in 2018, Kenny and wife, Ashleigh, decided to move from California to Alberta to be closer to family (and the mountains). Upon moving, he made the jump into smaller organizations in the start-up ecosystem. Pairing his product development experience from Apple and leadership skills from the Army, Kenny took on the role of VP of product commercialization at a Calgary based robotics start-up. He loved having the opportunity to lead multi-disciplinary teams and set the strategic direction of an organization; all this while learning and thriving in the hectic, unpredictable tech start-up environment. 

In 2021 when Kenny became STARS’ chief strategy and development officer, he was able to combine his commitment to public service, desire to operate at the intersection of business and government and draw on his aviator roots. These experiences and passions are what will carry Kenny to maintain and extend STARS’ goal of innovating pre-hospital patient care. 

When not leading at STARS, Kenny spends his free time as an engaged mentor and coach to the Calgary start-up community and enjoys family outings in the Rocky Mountains with his wife and two daughters. 

Linda Dalgetty creates her life balance through a focus on family, work, and service. Her life-long commitment to giving back and her passion for helping others began at a young age and are what ultimately led her to STARS.

Linda is a seasoned financial professional with more than 30 years of North American and international financial and business leadership experience in the public and private sectors. Prior to joining STARS, Linda served as the Vice President, Finance and Services at the University of Calgary where she was responsible for an extensive portfolio including Finance, Information Technologies, Human Resources and Facilities. Over the course of her career, Linda has held a number of leadership roles including Vice President Finance and Chief Information Officer at Agrium and General Manager of an Argentinean agricultural company. A highly skilled finance professional that cares tremendously about community, Linda feels grateful to have the opportunity to contribute to STARS and its life-saving mission.

Linda holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School Business and is a Fellow of the Chartered Accountants of Alberta. Linda currently serves as a director on two external Boards. She is also a volunteer mentor, working with undergraduate students and early-stage professionals and an active community volunteer with organizations with local and international reach.

When she is not leading the STARS Finance team, Linda enjoys spending time with her four children and four grandchildren.