Graham Evan MacDonell is seeking election as a trustee with the Abbotsford board of education on Nov. 15.
MacDonell is a professional genealogist with a dual-track career in education and communications in Ontario, B.C., Japan and Scotland.
He has extensive communications and consulting experience, working in fields such as education, community newspapers, energy, multi-national corporate, political, and policing.
MacDonell also has a comprehensive knowledge of the history of B.C. education, in teaching, in school district operations, and in communicating with teachers, parents and the general public.
He has provided services to six Fraser Valley school districts, including Abbotsford, as a communications specialist.
MacDonell's educational experience began as a teacher in Ontario and B.C., while completing his degree in broadcasting/journalism at Western Washington University, before moving into the communications component of his 46-year-long career.
As a journalist, MacDonell covered school board meetings and school activities and created, produced and hosted 50 TV programs on education.
He also spent five years teaching English as a Second Language in Hiroshima, Japan.
MacDonell has lived in Abbotsford since 1994, except for a period studying genealogy while providing communications services to the Scottish Police Service.
He is a member of the Abbotsford Genealogical Society and is on the board of directors of the MSA Museum Society.
MacDonell said the Abbotsford board of education needs new trustees "who can contribute their expertise in governing our excellent school system, particularly during these times of chronic underfunding."
“Boards have been hamstrung by underfunding for far too long and it is time to persuade the provincial government to allocate more money to our schools.”