Russell Sawchuk

Steppingstones Partnership, Inc. was founded and is operated by Russell Sawchuk. Mr. Sawchuk is the President, CEO and owner of Steppingstones.

Mr. Sawchuk is the primary consultant for Steppingstones. Other consultants are brought in on a project by project basis.

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Mr. Sawchuk was born and raised on a small farm in northeastern Saskatchewan near the village of Arran. For the first five years he attended Pasieka School - a one room school that had 12 students in grades 1 to 8. When this school was closed, he attended Arran School where he was the only one to graduate from the class of 1964.

After graduating from high school, Mr. Sawchuk attended the University of Saskatchewan at Saskatoon, where he received his Bachelor's degree in 1969. He got married, packed all his worldly belongings into a trailer and drove to Philadelphia for some graduate work at Temple University. After one year in Temple, he transferred to the School of Public Communications at Boston University where he received his Master's in Communication Research Degree.

In 1971, he returned to Canada, and took a job with Ontario Hydro in Toronto as a Personnel Research Officer. He spent six years in Toronto focusing on human resource research and specializing in the areas of recruitment and placement, training needs assessments, attitude surveys and manpower planning. While at Ontario Hydro, he had time to attend the Faculty of Management at the University of Toronto where he received his Diploma in Business Administration. He bought and operated a part-time photography business where he learned that MBA courses have almost no relevance to running a small business.

In 1976, he and his wife moved to Edmonton Alberta. Alberta was in the midst of a boom and opportunities were plentiful. Also, both sets of parents as well as brothers and sisters were in the Alberta capital city. In Edmonton, Mr. Sawchuk got a job with Grant MacEwan Community College where he was program head and instructor for the Applied Research Program. At Grant MacEwan, he was responsible for setting up the Applied Research Centre, that gave students practical research experience. He also introduced children's computer camps and was behind the establishment of the Microcomputer Program at the College. He also spent a year as Coordinator of Research and Planning reporting to the President.

From 1981 to 1985, Mr. Sawchuk worked with the ACCESS Network, a provincially run educational media television and radio network. He was the Associate Director of Instruction Technology, responsible for producing multimedia educational materials and resources. His team developed some of the first educational videodiscs in Canada.

After ACCESS, Mr. Sawchuk spent three years with the Alberta Department of Education as a Planning Consultant and Technology Coordinator. He was responsible for managing technology projects funded by the Department. He was also responsible for various initiatives, projects and research studies focusing on the management and planning of basic education for the province.

In 1989, Mr. Sawchuk founded Steppingstones Partnership, Inc, and its training division - Steppingstones Seminars. His first major work was with the Alberta Justice College where he was responsible for executive and management development and assessment for the Department.

Another major assignment was with Alberta Education, where he provided services as an Educational Telecommunications consultant. He was responsible for a number of projects and assignments designed to enhance the use of electronic networks to assist students, parents and teachers in the area of special education. He developed and produced various teachers resource materials to integrate the use of telecommunications with the approved curriculum.

Other projects included the development and running of financial simulations systems to assess the impact of proposed taxation and funding changes on the provincial educational system. Two major contracts were undertaken for the Government of the Northwest Territories to develop competency profiles and training courses for Corrections Officers and Child Care Workers.

Mr. Sawchuk has been a project manager and business consultant with the Alberta Educational Technology and Research Foundation. Here he was responsible for general business consulting services, writing of business plans and proposals, and managing projects. His project involved use of desktop video to provide teacher training and support services to teachers in projects schools who needed assistance with special education students.

Mr. Sawchuk and designed and delivered a number of public and contract seminars and workshops. These include Team Building, Time Management and Service Quality in the Public Sector. In the mid 1990s he completed over 100 seminars across Alberta on How to Do Business on the Information Highway, A Farmer's Guide to the Information Highway and A Community's Guide to the Information Highway.

In the last few years, he has been heavily involved in developing competency profiles for the various regulated health professions in Alberta.

His other major interest is promoting the deer and elk farming industry. Mr. Sawchuk writes and publishes the Deer & Elk Farmers’ Digest newsletter. He also operates Deerfarmer.com / Elkfarmer.com, the world’s leading web site for this agricultural sector.

As time permits, Mr. Sawchuk enjoys spending time in the great outdoors of western Canada. He enjoys reading, keeping up with technological developments, bicycle riding and spending time with his family.