Age: 30
Job Title: Communications Advisor and Spokesperson, Edmonton Police Service
Why She’s Top 40: For spearheading the Edmonton Police Service’s public awareness campaigns.
Guilty Pleasure: “My daily 2 p.m. chocolate fix. And movie popcorn with Reese’s Pieces mixed in – such a sweet surprise in a salty snack.”
Noreen Remtulla sells Girl Guide cookies from her desk at the Edmonton Police Service’s corporate communications branch. “Everyone asks me how many kids I have and I answer, ’30 girls,'” she says.
Remtulla joined Girl Guides when she was four and then made her way through Sparks, Brownies, Guides and Pathfinders. After going through the program, she went to Waterloo, Ontario’s Wilfrid Laurier University where she got an Honours BA in Communications Studies, then a post-grad certificate in both Broadcast Journalism and Corporate Communications at Seneca College.
In 2008, she moved from Toronto to Edmonton. That year, she helped to start and lead the city’s first Ismaili Girl Guide group. “I made the Guiding Promise, ‘To take action for a better world,'” Remtulla says. It’s a promise that’s influenced her career path.
By developing creative public awareness campaigns with Alberta Health Services (AHS) and EPS, she’s creating safer, healthier communities.
While spearheading AHS’s H1N1 communications campaign, she thrived on the adrenalin. “I work the best in crisis,” says Remtulla. “I like it because it makes you think – but think smart.”
Her broadcasting skills have also come in handy for more creative campaigns. She spearheaded the “This is Who I Am” video series, profiling parts of policing not often in the limelight, including the story of a detective who doubles as a sketch artist. The series won a Ragan 2013 Employee Communications Award.
Almost as intense as her job are her workouts with the kettlebells. But, they prepared her for a trip of a lifetime. In September, she visited Tanzania, her parents’ birthplace. Five days before her 30th birthday, she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.
Even then, “her girls” were not far from her heart. “Guiding is part of me, and goes with me everywhere I go.”
