Helping shape the residential housing and development landscape in Alberta and B.C.
Age: 34
Job Title: Owner and Principal at Chalkmark Residential
Growing up, Alessandra Bruni-Smith looked like someone headed for a career in professional sports media. Though she was offered a soccer scholarship from the University of Texas, she chose instead to stay close to home, studying broadcasting at NAIT. But a fateful end-of-school internship at a local marketing firm sent her on a new path — into the world of residential housing and development.
Bruni-Smith worked at development and home building companies like Beaverbrook Group (now Cantiro) and Carrington Group as she built her career. Then in 2019, she stepped out on her own to launch Chalkmark Residential, a consulting firm that helps shape residential communities by working on marketing, sales strategies, zoning, design and more with land developers and home builders.
Bruni-Smith has worked on more than 20 residential projects in Alberta and B.C., including notable projects like Leduc’s Woodbend community, where she and Carrington Land successfully got zoning for a new housing option (narrower townhomes) approved for the community. She also worked on market research, price banding and more with Bedrock Homes for the project.
Bruni-Smith’s work is driven by a desire for improvement. Still exhibiting an athlete’s drive for improvement, she says that if you can do something 10 per cent better, you should.
“I feel like as community builders and community developers, we have such a big responsibility to provide housing, shelter and communities that support people’s lifestyles and goals. And so why wouldn’t we want to make that better if we had the opportunity to do so?”
Giving back is also important to Bruni-Smith, whose community work includes being the committee chair of NorQuest College’s 1000 Women campaign, which reduces barriers for women returning to school, and a chair on Bild Edmonton Metro’s education committee. “I feel like it’s important to get involved,” says Bruni-Smith. “We can’t be in the community and not help the community.”
This article appears in the November/December 2025 issue of Edify
