Ken Puls and Tania Dick are two of the newest winners of the Kwantlen Polytechnic University Alumni Association (KPUAA) Distinguished Alumni Awards. They were recognized during the university’s annual spring convocation for enhancing the university’s reputation through their outstanding achievements in their careers, public and community service. The winners were selected from a pool of nearly 45,000 graduates and their success and notable contribution to society is something that all alumni can be proud of for years to come.
Ken Puls graduated from KPU in 1998 with a diploma in accounting and general studies, and is president and chief training officer at Excelguru Consulting Inc. Puls started his career in public practice accounting and spent five years working with small businesses before moving into private industry accounting where he also became an expert in Microsoft Excel. He created a website that hosts a large knowledgebase of Excel help articles, a blog, and an active forum dedicated to helping users with their Excel issues. The website has almost 400,000 unique visitors annually, and has even been referenced by NASA in a project for reporting power levels on the International Space Station. For the past several years, Puls has been teaching courses for companies and associations around the globe, showing Excel users how to get the most out of the program. His public contributions have earned him the Microsoft MVP award every year since 2006; an award given annually to "the best and brightest from technology communities around the world.” He was recognized as one of Vancouver Island's "Top 20 under 40" business and community leaders in 2013 and as a fellow of the Certified Management Accountants of Canada (FCMA).
Tania Dick graduated from KPU’s bachelor of nursing program in 2003. She is a nurse at Cormorant Island Health Centre and president-elect of the Association of Registered Nurses of B.C. She has served tirelessly as an advocate for quality nursing care, with a focus on aboriginal populations and rural communities. She holds a master's eegree in nursing from the University of British Columbia and was recognized by that institution as the first aboriginal graduate of the Nurse Practitioner program. Dick is a dedicated advocate and role model for aboriginal people interested in pursuing health care-related education and serves as a nurse mentor to students KPU’s nursing post-baccalaureate program. She recently served as a Consultant for Aboriginal Health Policy with the BC Nurses’ Union, where she worked directly to foster quality health care for aboriginals as well as provide support for other Aboriginal nurses. Dick is from the Dzawada'enuxw First Nations Band of Kingcome Inlet, B.C., and has applied her expertise and own personal understanding of the challenges faced by aboriginal communities to her practice in places such as Bella Bella, Alert Bay, Masset on Haida Gwaii, and Kingcome Inlet. Her devotion to vulnerable and disadvantaged aboriginal populations serves as an inspiration to health care professionals and community members alike. She is also determined to improve the very limited primary health care available in remote regions of British Columbia.
To view past winners of this award, please visit www.kpu.ca/alumni/distinguished-awards.