ABOUT us
Manitoba Reggio Inspired Coalition of Educators was founded in 2009.
​
Our Executive is a dedicated group of Early Years teachers, Early Childhood educators and parents who work together to plan networking events for Manitoba educators interested in growing in a Reggio-Inspired way.
​
​
OUR MISSION STATEMENT
We believe that the learning environment is co-constructed through the insights, wonderings, reflections, questions, experiences and understandings of both children and adults in community.The Manitoba Reggio Inspired Coalition of Educators' mission is to extend invitations and design opportunities to further explore the philosophy and supporting practices of the Reggio Emilia experience within a Manitoba context.
our committee
Pat is the Executive Director of Inspired by Wonder Inc. formerly known as Robertson Early Enrichment Program. She has been a committee member for MB RICE over the last six years. She was a recipient of the 2016-2017 Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Early Childhood Education as well as a recipient of the Winnipeg Centre MP 150th Anniversary Medal for Volunteerism. She has worked in the early childhood field for over 20 years and as a Child Development Counsellor for ten years. Recently she attended an in-depth study tour in Reggio Emilia, Italy and in 2018 she attended NAREA summer conference in Boston, Massachusetts. She has her Bachelor of Arts degree and her Advanced Diploma in Early Childhood Management. Her passion has always been working with children with additional support needs and having a high image of children.
Co-Chair
PAT FURMAN
Alana is a former school teacher and university instructor, and now consults for school boards, child care organizations and homeschooling families. Alana earned her Masters of Education in Arts Education and has led workshops at both the local and national level. She has helped write curriculum for the province of Manitoba in Dance, Visual Art and Literacy with ICT, and most recently, launched an Early Years curriculum with roots in a Reggio-inspired and arts-based pedagogy, based on her work and research with children in her own Kindergarten enrichment program, Brillante Beginnings. Alana advocates passionately for arts education and believes all children are brilliant and creative humans. Her work is dedicated to artful teaching and joyful learning for all.
Co-Chair
ALANA CHERNECKI
.png)
Bio coming soon.
Secretary
BRIGITTE INSULL
Gerrie is the Child Care Coordinator (Director) of River Road Child Care at St.Amant Centre. Gerrie has been involved with Manitoba Reggio Inspired Coalition of Educators since 2009 when the first conference was held in Winnipeg. This experience started her journey in a reflective pedagogical practice. Gerrie has a Bachelors of Arts Degree and an Advance Diploma in the Studies of Special Rights. With the inspiration of the Reggio Emilia approach Gerrie’s work over the past 10 years has been developing, facilitating and implementing the Early Returns: Manitoba’s Early Learning Curriculum Frameworks. Gerrie continues her own reflective Reggio journey while saving up to one day be a part of a Reggio study tour in Italy.
Member-At-Large
GERRIE STOLZ
Jen is a kindergarten teacher in Seven Oaks School Division. She has been teaching for over 20 years, and has made Kindergarten her home for the last 15 years. She has taught in a variety of grade levels and in several school divisions. Jen has presented for the Seven Oaks School Division, CAYC, and has hosted classroom visitations many times to share her passions and beliefs with other teachers. Jen is a strong advocate of play-based learning, student voice, inquiry, fostering empathy and belonging and using the environment as the third teacher. She values collaboration and is a lifelong learner. Jen is a wife and hockey/basketball mom to two boys aged 10 and 15. She values their time together at their family cabin and enjoy cycling and playing board games.
Member-At-Large
JEN WILSON
Sue is a founding member and served for 10 years as Chair and Co-Chair of the Manitoba Reggio Inspired Coalition of Educators. Sue was the first Manitoban to study at the Loris Malaguzzi Centre in Reggio Emilia, Italy and completed training in both the International Study Tour and The Role of the Teacher, Pedagogista and Atelierista. Sue has attended Reggio-based conferences in Ontario, B.C. and the U.S.A. and has been deeply involved in supporting Professional Development of Reggio-inspired work within Manitoba. Sue is the Program Coordinator for the Full Time Early Childhood Education Program at Red River College and can be found working on various yoga challenges when not spending time with her husband and teen-aged daughter.​
Past Chair
SUE NAROZNIAK
Michelle Vesey is an Early Childhood Educator III. She has been working in the childcare field since the mid-90s during which time she has held a variety of front line ECE positions as well as administrative roles. She has worked in infant, preschool, nursery school and school-age program settings. In 2013, Michelle was the recipient of the Prix de reconnaissance en direction for her work as a French childcare centre director. Always interested in learning, Michelle has
attended conferences about the Reggio Emilia approach across Canada. She looks forward to one day attending a study tour in Italy. Currently, Michelle is an instructor in Early Childhood
Education program at Université de Saint-Boniface and has been a member of the Manitoba Reggio Inspired Coalition of Educators since 2014.
Treasurer
MICHELLE VESEY
Veronica Green is an Early Childhood Educator and Consultant with 7 years of experience in the early years sector working with children from infancy to school age. Veronica earned a Bachelor of Physical Education and Diploma in Early Childhood Education and connects these two educational backgrounds in her practice by valuing the need for movement and play for children’s development. As an Assistant Director for a YMCA early years program she supported her fellow Educators through planning, curating a learning environment and building relationships with the children & parents. While operating an accredited dayhome in Alberta, Ronnie’s Preschool, she embraced the Reggio Emilia Approach and developed a strong reflective practice that is founded on connecting theory to practice. During this time Veronica learned about her son’s sensory needs and developed an inclusive practice and passion for advocating for differently wired children. Now Veronica consults with Educators through online resources including her newsletter, All Things Early Years, that is read by Educators from all over the world. Her knowledge on theory, loose parts and sensory processing has lead to many opportunities to share her practice with Educators through professional development training online and here locally in Winnipeg at daycares, schools. When Veronica is not collecting loose parts she is playing with her son getting messy and soaking up as much family time as possible.
Member-At-Large
VERONICA GREEN
Olha Zablotski is a pedagogical leader at the Inspired by Wonder Inc. formerly known as Robertson Early Enrichment Program. Her twenty years journey in the field of Early Childhood Education started with her own Licensed Reggio Inspired Family Child Care Center. She has achieved Early Childhood Education diploma, Aboriginal Studies- Red River College,
ECE-III. Received nominations- from MCCA-Best Family Child Care Provider 2015, Prime Minister Award-for Excellence in Early Childhood Education -2015. Red River College
Billboard Campaign 2017. Member of the Pedagogical Institute in Manitoba. Participated in the International Study Group, Reggio Emilia, Italy. Annually attending conferences since 2016 in
Macdonald Montessori School in St. Paul Minnesota with Amelia Gambetti an educator who worked with Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the Reggio Philosophy. Currently Olha is passionately striving to implement this unique and amazing philosophy into the center’s program, inspiring her co-workers, students, families and the community. Outside work, she takes every opportunity to spend time outdoors enjoying nature with her
husband and two children. She loves to travel, and finds it extremely fulfilling to learn about different cultures and explore amazing places on earth.
Member-At-Large
OLHA ZABLOTSKI
.jpeg)
Shannon Zentner is an ECE III and has worked in the field of Early Childhood Education as an educator and director for 20 years. She has Montessori teaching diplomas in both Infant/Toddler and Preschool/Kindergarten, and is President of the Manitoba Montessori Teachers Association. She facilitates workshops for ECEs and parents, has presented at conferences, and is completing a Certificate in Adult Education at Red River College. Shannon became interested in Reggio-Inspired practices in 2008, where she then became the Manitoba NAREA Membership Coordinator. She taught in a Reggio-Inspired program in Winnipeg before moving on to a director position at a Montessori school, where she incorporated Reggio-Inspired principles, visual arts and documentation panels into the Montessori program. Shannon just completed a province-wide project with Career Trek, Healthy Child Manitoba, and North Forge Technology Exchange, in which she designed and developed an early years literacy and numeracy program to support parents as their child’s first teacher towards kindergarten readiness. This also included writing and illustrating a series of children’s books with a spotlight on Manitoba and Indigenous culture. Shannon’s newest venture is as Director of River Heights Child Care, a new Reggio-Inspired Montessori program opening soon.
Member-At-Large