Carolyn Baldridge, new manager of communications and grants at the City of Vernon (submitted photo)

By Liam Verster

'thrilled to be here'

Vernon’s new communications/grants manager brings wealth of experience to position

Jan 26, 2024 | 5:00 AM

Vernon’s new communications and grants manager says she has always had a drive to work in municipal communications.

Carolyn Baldridge was introduced as the new member of the city’s staff at the regular meeting Monday, Jan. 22.

Speaking with Vernon Matters Tuesday, Baldridge explained she had spent a long time working in a number of fields, including broadcasting, marketing, and communications.

Born and raised in Grand Forks, Baldridge worked at her father’s radio station as a teenager.

After high school, Baldridge worked overseas in an internal communications role for a large insurance company.

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Upon her return to Canada, Baldridge was employed as client-relations lead at an advertising agency in Trail B.C., and then at the newspaper in Rossland where she earned the position of production manager, and finally started her own graphic design business.

She then decided to go back to school, and while attending a business program at Selkirk College in Castlegar, she got a job with the B.C. Forest Service, where her career in communications really took off.

“I did five seasons doing public relations for the Forest Service,” Baldridge told Vernon Matters.

“That was a ton of media relations and that sort of thing, talking about forest fires and suppression levels and fire prevention activities and what not. That was a tremendously great experience, certainly for crisis communication, and the whole field of public relations.

“When I entered into that field of public relations, I came to the realization that I was in the wrong field of study.”

From there, Baldridge moved to Port Coquitlam to finish her undergrad at Simon Fraser University.

She then worked in public relations for Fraser Health, then the Provincial Health Authority, Transit Police and Geoscience B.C., but said she had a drive to work in municipalities communications.

“It impacts every day life. Whether it’s garbage removal or recreation services or managing different parks or what not, I really do think that [municipal affairs] has the most impact on everybody’s day-to-day lives, so I really do enjoy the municipal sector,” Baldridge said.

In 2017, she began working for the City of Pitt Meadows as the manager of communications and community engagement, where she oversaw lots of work.

“I delivered numerous different projects that are relevant to this role. Recently, in the last two years, an Official Community Plan for the City of Pitt Meadows, lots of communications related to the proposed Harris Road [railway] underpass,” Baldridge said, noting she will bring that experience to her new role in Vernon.

“I have a good understanding of an Official Community Plan and certainly of community engagement, I think that is something that is very relatable. Also, emergency activations, in the City of Pitt Meadows there are 66 kilometres of dykes so freshet and flooding was definitely a thing, usually in May or June, so being able to respond to emergencies with making sure that people understand what to do and where to go and how to report and that sort of thing is definitely something that is very relatable for me,” Baldridge told Vernon Matters.

“I think too, just clarity of messaging for residents, being able to support the senior leadership team and clearly communicating issues that are important to the residents. Collaborative relationships, I guess that sort of transcends different organizations, being able to be collaborative and lead a team and being able to be community-minded is something that I am, especially growing up in a place like Grand Forks that is very community minded.”

Looking ahead, Baldridge said she is ready to bring her experience to her new role, including in the revision of bylaws and the OCP to meet the provincial housing legislation, but also has plans to evolve the City of Vernon’s brand.

“I think there’s some tremendous opportunities to further the great work that has already taken place here, just a new modern look and feel potentially. Having a graphic design background and also a public relations background is incredibly helpful,” Baldridge explained, though said she was still in the “gathering information” stage of that work.

“I see there’s some opportunities just to make some small enhancements and certainly shape how we message the Official Community Plan (OCP) and the Transportation Master Plan because that’s a very meaty, meaty topic and trying to make that topic relatable and to look modern. I like to take a little bit of an advertorial when I oversee marketing related type things because people are busy, and to engage people and to capture the broadest amount of feedback.

“I think you have to be able to stand apart from other advertising, because there’s so much on social media, so I try to employ new tactics and new ways of doing things, but in a very budget conscious type of way. So how can we optimize what we have and continue to modernize the brand?”

Baldridge officially started work with the City of Vernon on Monday, Jan. 15, but knows the area quite well.

She told Vernon Matters her in-laws moved to Vernon two years ago, and spent a lot of time vacationing here in the past.

“We would often go glamping at Swan Lake, and we’d come usually for a week every single year [over the last 15 years] and tour the wineries and enjoy Kal Lake and the beach and the beautiful sunshine,” Baldridge said.

“I think my movement around Vernon was kind of limited, if you will, just to those different places so I was surprised to learn just how large Vernon is just in terms of the geography, so that was a very interesting realization. But it’s just so beautiful. So I’m really really happy to be here and to be able to play outside and live that Interior lifestyle that I grew up with which was the four seasons, skiing, playing in the water, not having to book a reservation to go a paddleboarding. I’m very much looking forward to that.”

Baldridge moved to Vernon with her husband and their dog. She has two children, both of whom are grown. Her daughter is living and working in England, and her son is attending university on the coast.

“This has kind of been in our long-range plans, my husband and I, to move to Vernon for quite a long time, and then the opportunity presented itself and we just jumped,” Baldridge added.

“We’re just so thrilled to be here.”

Baldridge takes over the role from Christy Poirier who left the city for Alberta last September.

Josh Winquist remains as the communications officer in the department.