SpeciaLink’s Board of Directors June 2010-2011
New Board Members
Shirley Chernin has been a fulltime community volunteer almost
since her graduation from the University of Toronto. Among
her many volunteer positions she helped found the Town Daycare
Centre in Glace Bay and served as its first Chairperson. She
also served as the first Chairperson of SpeciaLink from 1992-2006.
Shirley was the recipient of the first Order of Nova Scotia
award. With SpeciaLink’s administrative return to Cape
Breton, Shirley has agreed to provide the organization with
her skills and dedication once again.
Anne Marie Singler has been a consumer of child care, with
three children who attended child care (Sydney Day Care Centre)
and a long time history of providing bookkeeping services to
that Centre. She has worked as office manager at the Sydney
and Area Chamber of Commerce for many years. In addition, Anne
Marie provided bookkeeping services to SpeciaLink for 15 years
and also served as its treasurer. With SpeciaLink’s administrative
return to Cape Breton, Anne Marie has agreed to provide the
organization with her skills and dedication once again.
Brenda Frison has been a consumer of child care, with three
children (one of whom has a special need) who attended child
care (Sydney Day Care Centre). An ECE from St. Joseph’s
Training Program, Brenda has worked at Sydney Day Care Centre
for most of her professional life. She brings her triple perspectives – consumer,
parent of a child with special needs, ECE — to the Board
of Directors.
Ronald Caplan has been editor and publisher of Breton Books,
which has published SpeciaLink publications since 1992. He
has also been a visible community advocate for inclusive services
for children with disabilities. With an honorary degree in
recognition of his lifelong work, Ron has agreed to provide
the organization with his skills and dedication once again.
Wilma Hutchison served on the SpeciaLink
Executive when it was located in Sydney, Nova Scotia and looks
forward to returning to this role. She is director of Sydney
Daycare and her leadership brought children with disabilities
into this large child care centre in a very positive manner.
Trained at the Nova Scotia Institute of Technology, Wilma has
worked at Sydney Daycare for 33 years.
Returning board members
Vic Stone has been a relentless advocate for his 13-year old
son who has ADHD, Tourette’s, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
and Autism Spectrum Disorder, successfully advocating government,
school boards, the child care system and provincial agencies
for fundamentally necessary supports, that will provide him
with equal opportunities that most other children can take
for granted. Vic has been involved in the Autism community
and brought Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) to
Manitoba by organizing two successful training events attended
by over 600 parents and professionals headlined by Dr. Gutstein.
Vic is a board member for the Independent Living Resource Centre
of Winnipeg and embraces the Independent Living philosophy
which asserts that everyone is entitled to live as independently
as possible and that even the most severe and profoundly disabled
individuals should be enabled to exercise maximum control over
their lives. Vic has done graduate work in Spanish/English
translation and volunteered for new Canadian programs with
the International Centre and the University of Manitoba. As
a parent of a child with disabilities and as a past consumer
of inclusive childcare services, Vic is a passionate believer
in SpeciaLink’s goal to expand the quality and quantity
of opportunities for inclusion in child care, as fundamental
right to which all Canadian families are entitled. He served
as Chair of SpeciaLink from 2007-2010 and will remain on the
board as a member at large.
Ruth Bancroft has worked in child care for over 30 years.
Since 1978, she has been the Director of the Langara Child
Development Centre, which is an inclusive campus child care
program serving 62 children from 18 months to 5 years of age
and their families. Ruth has been involved in the development
of Supported Child Care in Vancouver from its inception and
is a member of the Vancouver Local Advisory Committee to the
Supported Child Development Program. She is also on the Board
of the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC. Ruth has been
on the SpeciaLink Board since 2007 and adds her West Coast
voice to those who advocate for a quality inclusive child care
system.
Margaret Burke has worked in child care for over twenty-five
years. Since 1994, she has been the Director of the Town Daycare
Centre in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, which is an inclusive child
care program serving 94 children from 18 months to 12 years
of age and their families. Margaret has been involved in the
development of the Cape Breton Non-Profit Directors group,
and has recently been part of the federal consultation on the
child care spaces initiative. Margaret has been a member of
the Board of Directors of SpeciaLink for thirteen years.
Donna S. Lero is an Associate Professor in
the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition at
the University of Guelph and holds the Jarislowsky Chair in
Families and Work. She directs a program of research on public
policy, workplace practice and community supports in the University’s
Centre for Families, Work and Well-Being, which she co-founded.
The Centre is an interdisciplinary research centre that provides
an important focus for faculty and students with shared interests
in various aspects of work-life. The Centre’s mission
is to use research and teaching expertise to promote individual
and family well-being, responsive and productive work environments,
and strong, sustainable communities. Dr. Lero teaches undergraduate
and graduate courses in Social Policy. She has been involved
in Canadian research and policy analysis on work and family
issues in a variety of areas, including child care, support
for parents of children with disabilities, parental leave,
self-employment for women, and work and elder care. She is
the author of over 50 book chapters, articles and government
reports. Donna’s research helped to validate
the SpeciaLink Inclusion Principles and Practices scales. She
has been on the board of SpeciaLink since 2008 but has been
our long time research partner.
Dixie Lee Mitchell is from Fredericton, NB and has worked
in early learning and childcare since 1986 when she was the
Director of an inclusive child care centre. She is the early
childhood consultant for NB Association for Community Living and
for the last 8 years has coordinated the Opening the Door to
Quality Child care and Development project. The staff of
this project works with early learning and child care staff
throughout the province of NB to increase their global quality
and to enhance their capacity to include all children. Opening
the Door staff also implement SpeciaLink’s Early Childhood
Inclusion Quality Scale in all regions of the province and
consider it one of their important tools to enhance inclusion
capacity within centres. Dixie operates her own business, Solution
Path, through which she conducts her early childhood work in
First Nation Communities and other professional development
ventures. Dixie has been the co-author of two bilingual inclusion
training guides including Each Child Matters, which was produced
by NBACL 1.5 years ago. She also co-developed for NBACL and
Mawiw Council, a Social Inclusion Tool Kit for Families, which
was funded by the federal government and is being used in many
First Nation communities across Canada. Dixie has been on the
board of SpeciaLink since 2008.
Sharon Hope Irwin (Ex Officio) is the founding
director of SpeciaLink, the National Centre for Child Care
Inclusion. She has been actively involved in the frontline
development of inclusive child care and early intervention
programs for over thirty years. When SpeciaLink’s management
moved to Winnipeg under the outstanding direction of Debra
Mayer, Sharon took on the position of Senior Researcher. Now
that SpeciaLink’s
management is back in Cape Breton, Sharon has resumed the post
of executive director. Earlier, as founding director of the
Town Daycare Centre in Glace Bay, Cape Breton, Sharon initiated
and expanded the concept of inclusive child care in that centre,
throughout Nova Scotia and, eventually, across Canada. She
is an advocate for young children with special needs and their
families, locally, regionally, and nationally, serving on numerous
commissions, working groups, task forces, and committees. SpeciaLink
takes her work across Canada and the United States, identifying,
analyzing and disseminating successful inclusive practices
and policies in child care. Her work for the special needs
project of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers helped to add
a labour partner to the growing movement for equitable treatment
of children with special needs and their families, and resulted
in the publication, In Our Way: Child Care Barriers to
Full Workforce Participation Experienced by Parents of Children
with Special Needs — and Potential Remedies (1997), co-authored
with Dr. Lero. In 2009, the SpeciaLink Early Childhood
Inclusion Quality Scale was published, following four years of community
consultations with over 3000 participants. Sharon received
her M.A. and Ed.D. from Nova University and an honorary Doctorate
of Laws from the University of Winnipeg.
SpeciaLink: The National Centre for Child Care Inclusion
76 Cottage Road,
Sydney, NS B1P 2C7
Phone (902) 562-1662
FAX (902) 539-9117
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