Doria looking to represent diverse community on council

By Lethbridge Herald on November 14, 2025.

Councillor Rufa Doria takes the Oath of Office administered by Returning Officer Bonnie Hilford last month during the Swearing-in Ceremony at City Hall.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of features on the three new members of city council elected in the Oct. 20 municipal election.

Newcomer Rufa Doria enters her new role on Lethbridge city council with a variety of skills and backgrounds, and says she’s honoured to represent the voices of multiple groups that until now have felt under-represented in municipal government.

Doria moved to Lethbridge in 2010 because the city is situated in an agricultural area and it was ideal for her background. She holds a masters degree in agricultural engineering from Colorado State University where she was a Fulbright Scholar, and a doctorate in bioresource engineering from McGill.

“After that, I received a fellowship to work with my post-doctoral at the research centre and that is why I moved to Lethbridge,” she says. 

After a while, her research was not renewed, and it was then that she moved into academia and began teaching at Lethbridge Polytechnic and the University of Lethbridge. 

“When I moved here, I felt like Lethbridge was home and I was suited for the area with my background in agriculture,” says Doria. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Doria decided to make make some changes and stopped teaching. She opened Doria and Doria, an immigration consulting business with her husband, after receiving her licence from the College of Immigrant Consultants of Canada to become a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant. Doria herself is an immigrant, having arrived in Canada in 2004, and is the first Filipino-Canadian elected to Lethbridge city council.

Doria has also taken roles within the community as president of the Filipino-Canadian Association of Lethbridge and as vice-president of the Southern Alberta Ethnic Association. 

“Over the course of those responsibilities and service to the community, I feel like they helped me to prepare to my role in city council,” she says. “I was also sitting as a council member in the Alberta Irrigation Council for two terms.” 

During her orientation in her new role, she realized her fellow councillors are very helpful and by sharing their experiences, it has been helpful for her to prepare for the next four years. 

Doria ran in the 2021 municipal election, inspired by various groups with diverse backgrounds looking for representation in city council. But it was a rushed campaign as her family had made plans to travel to Europe as soon as travel was possible during the pandemic. 

She decided to run for again in 2025. This time around, she had enough time to prepare and be fully engaged in her campaign. By earning a spot on council, she hoped to fulfill the wishes of many in the community who have asked her to represent them. 

“Different groups have come to me and say they feel like their voices are not heard and that they are not represented, and they want somebody to be a voice for them,” says Doria. 

It was people from those diverse groups who helped her with her campaign, along with her family, including her daughter who lives in Montreal. Many helped make signs and deliver them to people’s homes. Because so many helped, her campaign signs didn’t all look the same, as each group made them separately. 

Speaking about what she heard from members of the community during her campaign, Doria says some members of various cultural communities had expressed their desire for activities to keep their youth entertained and active, so they can keep them away from their electronic devices. 

“I have organizations inviting me to their events, I have one organization inviting me to their board meeting so I can learn about their activities, and while being at church, I had two groups come to me asking if I need anything they will help.”

She says the continued support from the community is inspiring her to do what is needed in her new role as a councillor. 

Councillor Doria sits on the Assets and Infrastructure and Governance Standing Policy Committees, as well as the Council representative for the Green Acres Foundation and Inter-municipal Committee in the City of Lethbridge and Lethbridge County.