Carrie Froese
President

Carrie is currently a Vice-Principal at Garibaldi Elementary School in Vancouver.  She is a long time International Reading Association member and has served as president of the Lower Mainland Council (LOMCIRA) twice and presented at LOMCIRA, CINCIRA and IRA Meetings.  She has experience teaching at the elementary, middle school and university level.  She is the President of BCLCIRA.

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Bev DeMonyé
Past President

Bev DeMonyé has wide experience as a preschool, primary and intermediate classroom teacher, and in teaching children requiring support. Bev has recently retired from her career teaching in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia.  She has a Master’s Degree in Literacy and a Diploma in Special Education.  Bev currently works with Gloria Gustafson in publishing a set of newsletters designed to help parents support their children as they learn to read and write.   

 

Trish Weaver
President-Elect

Trish is in her tenth year of teaching in the Department of Language and Literacy at UBC.  She works in the Teacher Education Program and it is her goal to share with her Teacher Candidates her passion for children’s literature and best practices in literacy instruction.  Prior to teaching at UBC, Trish was an intermediate Language Arts specialist and a teacher librarian in the Catholic Independent Schools Vancouver Archdiocese for ten years, and a Physical Education/Social Studies teacher at Fraser Academy.  IRA has been a formative part of  Trish’s professional development over the span of her career and she hopes many new teachers will also find it to be an essential resource!

Kate Spence
Vice President

Kate Spence currently teaches learning assistance and French in the Surrey School District. She is working on her M.Ed in Early Literacy at UBC.  With an Honours B.A. in Psychology (UVic), Kate spent four years as a special education assistant for the Vancouver School Board, working in classrooms from K-12.  In 2007, she took time to volunteer and work in Tanzania, promoting health education and empowerment for girls and women.  Kate believes in the right to education for all, and hopes to be a lifelong advocate for global literacy.

Jennifer Yager
Secretary

Jennifer is currently a new teacher in the Richmond School District. After earning her B.S. in Communications from Southern Oregon University, she moved to Vancouver and helped organize an adult literacy group for Sudanese refugees. Jennifer is passionate about literacy and is presently pursuing a Diploma in Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia. 

Shirley Choo
Treasurer

Shirley Choo taught in North Vancouver School District, in B.C. for 32 years before she retired. She has been a Learning Assistance, ESL and district resource teacher. In addition, she is an experienced classroom teacher of grades 3-7. She is also a trained Reading Recovery teacher.

While she was a university student, she joined the International Reading Association and attended workshops sponsored by the local IRA council, because she felt it was the best way to keep in touch with best practice. Since she was a regular attendee at the meetings, the Lower Mainland Council of IRA invited her to be the membership chair on the executive. She served in many positions on the council and eventually became the Provincial Coordinator for three terms. In that position, she successfully lobbied for members to form the provincial council, the British Columbia Literacy Council of IRA. A strong supporter of IRA, she has served on many committees and chaired two regional conferences: the Seventh Transmountain and the Canadian IRA Regional. These two regionals are the most successful Canadian IRA regional conferences both in attendees and profit. Among her accomplishments as a leader in the IRA, she is a founding member of the Canadian Special Interest Group in Literacy and the Canadian Network of IRA Councils which celebrated their 20th and 10th anniversaries in 2009. Shirley is a recipient of the IRA Maryann Manning Service Award.

Shirley encourages all teachers who are interested in literacy instruction and development to get involved with their local councils and know the joy and rewards volunteerism in professional development brings. It will greatly enhance a teacher's job satisfaction and personal life through the knowledge you gain and friendships you make.

Dianna Mezzarobba
Provincial Coordinator

Dianna Mezzarobba is currently teaching Grade 7 in Vancouver at Sir Wilfred Grenfell School.  She was the Aboriginal Literacy Mentor for the VSB and offers workshops for teachers and schools interested in this area.  Her work as an editor and writer for publishing companies has strengthened her own passion for literacy.

April Chan
Website Manager

April is a recent graduate from the Bachelor of Education program at UBC.  As a new teacher, April is excited to work as a teacher-on-call at various independent schools in Vancouver and Richmond.  Through the values of love, labour, learning, and loyalty, she hopes to inspire her students to become life-long learners and responsible global citizens. During her undergraduate studies, April was elected Education VP and President of Gamma Phi Beta Sorority, and she helped raise money to send underprivileged girls to leadership camps.  April looks forward to working with the executive members of the BC Literacy Council, and she hopes to gain insight into further developing early childhood literacy in the classroom. 

Kat Thomson
Canadian Children's Book Reviewer

Kat Thomson is a high school English teacher in North Vancouver. She has recently completed her Masters of Arts with a thesis on picturebooks for young adult readers. She is a member of the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable and she writes the book reviews for Cat’s Meow, Canadian Children’s Literature Book Reviews. To see Kat’s recent reviews and archives, go to: http://readingbc.ca/book-of-the-month/

Honey Halpern
Member at Large

Dr. Honey Halpern is a sessional lecturer in Language and Literacy Education at UBC as well as works as  a literacy consultant in the Vancouver area. She is on the editorial board of The Reading Teacher  and the author of Manual for Teaching Adolescent Non-Readers. Honey is a member-at-large on the Executive of the British Columbia Literacy Council of the International Reading Association and chairs the BC Exemplary Reading Award Program.

Melanie Jackson
Member at Large

Melanie Jackson is a children's author whose books include novels for intermediate-grade reluctant readers, e.g., The Big Dip (Orca, 2009). Melanie is also an educational writer/editor with the BC School Trustees Association. Through the Vancouver School Board, she is a volunteer mentor for gifted young writers. She also tutors ESL students in creative writing.

Nancy Sinclair
Member at Large

Nancy is a primary teacher in the Burnaby School District.  She has extensive experience in both preschool and primary education.    Currently Nancy has a grade two/three class.  She also has the wonderful opportunity to work in a kindergarten classroom once a week.  Nancy is married and lives with her husband and three children.  When not at work, Nancy can usually be found helping out at one of her children's schools, walking or reading.  Nancy's involvement with the International Reading Association started over twenty years ago.