Patricia Ross has been a councillor in the City of Abbotsford for 25 years and is also Vice-Chair of the Fraser Valley Regional District. In her career, she has served on a wide variety of committees, providing her with a good knowledge base representing all sectors. Patricia’s philosophy toward government is to fully embrace sustainability principles, considering the environmental, social and economic impacts equally in all decision making. For 14 years, she ran one of the first Recycle pick up services for business and multi family in the lower mainland.
In 1996, Patricia was chosen to represent Canada in the 5th cohort of Leadership for Environment and Development International, a research and training institute committed to fostering leadership in sustainability worldwide. She graduated from the program in 1998 and has gone on to help train subsequent cohorts. Patricia is a motivational keynote speaker and guest lecturer at events and conferences locally and internationally, including the 2004 International Climate Change conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on the rewards and challenges of environmental work in local government.
Patricia has consistently been named one of the Abbotsford New’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Abbotsford and has been voted “Favourite Politician” by their readers two years in a row. She has won many awards for her community work including Abbotsford’s 2009 “Woman of the Year,” “Newsmaker of the Year” from the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce, “Green Leader” from the Abbotsford-Matsqui Rotary Club, “Paul Harris” Rotary club Fellowship and Queens Diamond Jubilee award.
Patricia is excited about using her expertise and experience to help mentor women achieve success in business and politics through GroYourBiz.