Nichole Neubauer (right) stands with Lt. Gov. Salma Lakhani and Prairie Rose superintendent Reagan Weeks during a September 2023 visit to Neubauer Farms. Lakhani's office on Tuesday announced that Neubauer has been named to the Alberta Order of Excellence, the highest honour the province can bestow a citizen.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
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Nichole Neubauer says a call this week asking her to be listed among Alberta’s most prominent residents was unexpected.
The local advocate for agricultural education has been named to the Alberta Order of Excellence, the office of Lt.- Gov. Salma Lakhani announced Tuesday, alongside the province’s political, business and artist elites.
It’s the highest civilian honour the province can bestow and includes former prime ministers, titans of industry and philanthropists , as well as artists known around the world.
“In so many ways I feel like I’m just getting started,” Neubauer told the News on Tuesday, honoured for her work to promote agricultural curriculum for youth. “I have a long to-do list and many dreams I still hope to achieve.
“It’s really affirmed the importance of education and agriculture and empowering our youth. It indicates I’m on the right track. This is my purpose and I have a passion to truly earn this recognition.”
Neubauer is the first Medicine Hat honouree since I-XL executive Malcolm Sissons (2019) and Monarch Corp. president Bill Yuill (2016) were named to the order.
Other Medicine Hat and area recipients of the award since it was created in 1980 include MLA Jim Horsman, area MP Bert Hargrave and Senator and Lt. Gov. Bud Olsen.
Among the other 229 members of the order, Grant McEwan and Ian Tyson are listed alongside prime ministers Joe Clark and Stephen Harper and premiers Peter Lougheed and Ernest Manning, among others.
Neubauer, 52, trained for a career in early childhood assessment and branched out to hosting more than 20,000 students over the years on field trips to her home farm located southwest of the city. She and her husband Mark have a working farm in near Irvine.
That hamlet is the site of the Irvine Ag Discovery, created through Neubauer in partnership with the Prairie Rose School Division, which nominated her for the order.
There, acres are carved out of the school’s playground to provide operational and farm management teaching to students and, more recently, summer camps for young teens in the area.
The effort and ability to promote and advocate for issues facing agricultural producers and communities earned her the 2023 Medicine Hat News Newsmaker of the Year award, as well as an honorary degree from Medicine Hat College and several business related honours.
“Any kind of recognition to this degree is never expected,” Neubauer said of the provincial award. “It’s an incredible surprise. It was really shocking and I’m quite humbled.
“(These) are absolutely incredible Albertans who have done groundbreaking work to create positive change,” she said. “To even share a spotlight with the profound work they’ve done is very humbling and an incredible honour.”
A ceremony and reception will be held in the fall where the honour will officially be bestowed.
Joining Neubauer in the 2025 investiture are Sine Chadi, John Day and Doug Stollery, of Edmonton, Brian and Stephanie Felesky, of Calgary, and Geoff Cumming, of Calgary, who donated $100 million to the University of Calgary’s School of Medicine,
Red Deer’s Lyn Radford helped stage the 2019 Canada Games in that city and has chaired several task forces over a long volunteer career.
John Scott, of Longview, is cited for his work to bring TV and movie production to the province.
