Cheryl Spencer-Morley brings more than 25 years of senior-level communications experience across federal, provincial, and municipal government in Canada. She leads the crisis communications practice at Spencer Morley Consulting, and is the primary client contact for all crisis, media relations, and communications counsel engagements.
Until 2023, including her years with Edmonton and Area Child and Family Services, Edmonton Public Schools, the City of Edmonton, the Office of Mayor Don Iveson and Strathcona County, Cheryl worked and was quoted in the media as Cheryl Oxford.
She has guided organizations through some of the highest-stakes communications challenges in the public sector — budget controversies, housing disputes, wildfire responses, public health emergencies, policing incidents, and the kind of scrutiny that defines reputations for years. Her approach is direct: the next 24 hours define your organization’s legacy. She plans for that before the crisis arrives. She has led public response to fatal incidents involving municipal operations.
Her crisis management practice is built on frontline experience, not theory. Cheryl has been in the room when decisions had to be made under pressure — advising councils, executives, and senior officials who could not afford to be wrong. That experience shapes every engagement, from crisis plan development to real-time response support.
Her media relations training is equally grounded in practice. She coaches spokespeople — elected officials, executives, administrators — to face cameras, microphones, and hostile questions with confidence and clarity. The training is built around realistic scenarios specific to each client’s actual risk profile.
Cheryl is certified in emergency management and traumatic event systems. She serves governments, school boards, municipalities, and organizations across Alberta that cannot afford to be unprepared.
- Traumatic Event Systems (TES) Training
Center for Trauma Informed Practices, 2021. View program - ICS 300 — Intermediate Incident Command System
Incident Command System Canada, 2015. View course - 25+ Years Senior Public Sector Communications
Federal, provincial, and municipal government — Alberta and Canada