Co-Chairs

Mary Lou Babineau

Mary Lou Babineau was born in Minto, New Brunswick. She is an Assistant Professor at St. Thomas University and has always been a very active volunteer in the community.

Mary Lou received the Lester B. Pearson scholarship from the Province of New Brunswick in 1990 and she completed the International Baccalaureate at Pearson College in Victoria, B.C. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Queen´s University in Kingston, Ontario, and then completed a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Spanish and Latin American Literature at Arizona State University.

After returning to New Brunswick in 2003, Mary Lou became a full-time faculty member at St. Thomas University where she currently teaches courses in Spanish language and Latin American Literature. Her research interests include women´s literature in the Spanish and French-speaking Caribbean, as well as Latino literature and culture in the United States.

Mary Lou has also served on many committees and with many volunteer organizations both on campus and in the greater community. She has chaired the St. Thomas United Way Campaign and has been a member of the Fredericton Homeless Shelters Board of Directors for several years. She is committed to environmental activism and she ran as the Green Party Candidate for Fredericton in the 2008 federal election where, for the first time in the Fredericton Electoral District, the Green Party won more than 10% of the votes cast. Mary Lou is currently serving on the Executive of the Faculty Association at STU, and she is also the President of the Board of Directors of the Fredericton Homeless Shelters.

Mary Lou lives in Fredericton with her spouse, their daughter and their two dogs.

Mac MacFarlane

Mac has been a long-time resident of Fredericton. He has been a consultant at Investors Group Financial Services for twenty-three years, including fifteen years in senior management roles. A Certified Financial Planner, Mac currently provides comprehensive financial planning for his clients, specializing in retirement planning.

For the past sixteen years Mac has been an active and passionate supporter of the Fredericton community. He was a member of the Board of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce from 1997 to 2004, including serving as President in 2001-02. Mac was also a long-term member of the Business Advisory Board to UNB’s faculty of Business Administration.

Mac was involved with the implementation of Team Fredericton, the economic development arm of the City of Fredericton, serving as the Chair of Team Fredericton’s Advisory Board from its inception in 2002 until 2006. During that time he was very involved with the community’s ongoing efforts to expand the New Brunswick Community College presence in Fredericton to a full service campus. He was recognized as an Enterprise Fredericton “Economic Development Champion” in 2006.

Mac is currently the President of York Foundation Inc., formed in 2006 to raise funds in support of the residents of York Care Center, He is presently overseeing the Transforming Care capital campaign for that organization, which aims to radically improve the way that we care for our aging population through research and innovation.