Over the next few decades, Trimbee served as the deputy minister of Advanced Education and Technology, Treasury Board and Finance and Service Alberta. She eventually returned to Manitoba in 2014 to serve as president at the University of Winnipeg.
Although her professional journey gradually moved her away from the laboratory and further into administration, Trimbee views her unconventional career trajectory as one of her strengths.
“I don’t think it was a disadvantage,” she says. “I think it was an advantage because I was always seen as a person that was coming to the table with fresh ideas and a different way of looking at things.”
Trimbee also mentions how her ability to engage in systems thinking has helped her respond to perturbations, whether they’re algal blooms on a freshwater lake or a global pandemic at her university’s doorstep.
Trimbee’s first nine months as MacEwan University president haven’t been without some positives though. When asked to give an example, she catches me off guard with a quaint metaphor involving a classic video game and trails of digital candy.
“You might be too young to remember the game Pac-Man, [but] the candy for me is being exposed to lectures, workshops, student research projects, convocations in-person, the celebrations, the ceremonies. So I’ve had to find ways to try and find that candy through Zoom.
“And so yes, it’s much harder to lead a university when you are not regularly bumping into faculty, staff and students. But I have very much been in the mix, and it’s amazing what you can do with technology.”
And the ghosts?
“The need to avoid pressure to quickly offer up positions on the ‘topics of time’ on behalf of the university, as if the entire community was of one mind,” Trimbee says.
Mediating between those dissenting opinions has been particularly vital as MacEwan simultaneously navigates the pandemic, as well as funding cuts from the provincial government.
As of Budget 2021, provincial post-secondary funding is projected to drop from $5.47 billion in 2019-20 to $5.04 billion in 2021-22. The provincial government’s stated aim is to reduce post-secondary institutions’ reliance on provincial dollars, but concerns have been raised about the cuts pushing students away from Alberta and serving as a catalyst for a “brain drain.”