From working at a small family inn in Ontario where she did everything from bake bread and cleaned rooms, to training food and beverage workers at one of the premiere hotels in the Rocky Mountains — the Banff Springs — Rhonda Frazee has built a wealth of expertise in the hospitality industry.
Today, she shares her knowledge and passion with students at SAIT, preparing them for careers at a time when tourism is about to get a massive uplift.
Frazee went to the University of Guelph because of the women’s rugby team, initially taking geography before realizing she could attend hospitality school instead. After graduation, she took a position at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise where she worked in family dining, fine dining and then as chief steward and eventually the director of banquets for the hotel’s then-new convention centre.
She traded the mountains for the wild west coast, helping open the Black Rock Ocean Resort in Uclulet, B.C. as the director of food and beverage before returning to the mountains to work at the Delta Lodge at Kananaskis and then the Banff Springs where she developed training programs and mentored those on the food and beverage team.
Going from training staff to teaching students was a natural progression for Frazee, who joined SAIT as an instructor in 2015. Along with teaching students about food and beverage, entrepreneurship and leadership, Frazee is involved in building the events curriculum for the new Hotel and Tourism Management program.
Along with completing financial management courses, Frazee is a Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) level III graduate and has earned levels 1 and 2 from the International Sommelier Guild.
Awards and achievements:
- 2006 Leader of the Year at the Chateau Lake Louise
- Leader of the Quarter at Banff Springs Hotel
- multiple SAIT Students’ Association award nominations
- SAIT president’s award winner
If I wasn’t doing this: I would be outside, camping and cooking over an open fire.
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Oki, Âba wathtech, Danit'ada, Tawnshi, Hello.
SAIT is located on the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and the people of Treaty 7 which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuut’ina and the Îyârhe Nakoda of Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney.
We are situated in an area the Blackfoot tribes traditionally called Moh’kinsstis, where the Bow River meets the Elbow River. We now call it the city of Calgary, which is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta.