Helen (Nell) Arzab was born in Melville, Saskatchewan in 1955, she was a student at the University of Regina from 1973 to 1980 studying art and political science. Arzab was a founding member of the Regina Group for a Non-Nuclear Society in the early 1980's, and along with other Regina citizens, was concerned with the on-going nuclear arms race and the complicity of Saskatchewan’s uranium mining industry in supplying high grade uranium for nuclear warheads.

This public awareness group arranged marches and demonstrations, and leaflet campaigns. On the steps of the Saskatchewan Legislative building a staged public performance skit was held to help get their message out and to further protest uranium dust being transported on Saskatchewan highways, a sign was placed near the north end of Albert Street declaring the city of Regina a Nuclear Free Zone.

In 1997, Nell took part in the first international labour studies debate, held online through Solinet, a computer conferencing system designed for trade unions. She has co-taught courses at the University of Regina and was an online copy editor for an American labour e-zine called Disgruntled; later the e-zine evolved into a book (by Daniel Levine). For five years Nell was an online arts columnist for a women’s creative arts journal called Moondance.

Today Nell is a Special-Education Educational Assistant in the Regina Public School system and an encaustic artist who paints abstract organic designs with hot wax. She remains politically active making the world a better place by recycling and gardening, choosing public transportation over owning a car and has planted hundreds of trees.

Evelyn (Ching) Jonescu was born on a farm in Alameda, Saskatchewan and recalls her father teaching her to read at a young age. Evelyn later attended the University of Saskatchewan with an entrance scholarship in 1948 and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1954, and a Bachelor of Education degree in 1962.

Jonescu taught in high schools for the Qu’Appelle Diocesan School for Girls in Regina, Markinch and in Cupar, Saskatchewan. In 1963 she began to pursue graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and obtained a Master’s degree in Botany there in 1966. She returned to Saskatchewan and began teaching at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus (fore-runner to the University of Regina) as an Assistant Professor while working on a Ph.D. from the University of Saskatchewan, which she obtained in 1974.

In 1975 Evelyn was appointed Director of the Canadian Plains Research Center and reappointed in 1981 for a 5-year term. She was chairperson of the Environmental Advisory Council for Saskatchewan and in 1976 was appointed to the Social Science Research Council’s Committee on the Human Environment.

Throughout a very long career with the University of Regina, Jonescu presented papers, led seminars and served on committees while working in areas involving the land’s natural resources and other environmental issues. She was recognized with meritorious certificates in 1978, 1981, and 1983. In 1985 she left the Canadian Plains Research Centre to work in the Faculty of Education as part of the Saskatchewan Instructional Development and Research Unit. Jonescu retired from University life in June 1989, becoming Professor Emeritus in 1991. In 1995 Evelyn was awarded a certificate of appreciation from the Community Health Division of the Regina Health District and in 2000 retired from the Board of Governors of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, where she had been a Fellow of the Society for many years. Still giving back to her community and to the University of Regina, Evelyn supports the University’s College Avenue Renewal Project and is a lifetime-member of the University of ReginaAcademic and Administrative PensionersAssociation (URAAPA).