Our Team

Adelee Penner

Professional Learning Lead

adelee.penner@erlc.ca

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Adelee Penner comes to ERLC having most recently served as an Assistant Superintendent of Schools. Adelee started her career in Manitoba and moved to Alberta in 2005. Her career has evolved over the years through working in several school jurisdictions, in both the private and public system, and from working for Alberta Education supporting school systems in Field Services. Adelee is a passionate lifelong learner. Using the provocation from Seth Godin, “When was the last time you did something for the first time?”, Adelee works with others to create a culture for learning that is comfortable taking risk, trying new things and considers alternate perspectives.

Candace Ketsa

Professional Learning Lead

cketsa@gsacrd.ab.ca

With 30 years of experience, Candace Ketsa has taught from Kindergarten to Adult Education with the majority of her years with high school and junior high school aged students.

Although she has taught physical education, coding and sciences, her passion and education is in mathematics. She started her career in H. A. Kostash, then Radway, Alexis Elementary, Jr. & Sr. High School, Yellowhead Tribal College, Storefront School, Vincent J. Maloney and finally St. Gabriel Education Center.

She has taught high school math with experience in both a traditional setting and online learning, but really embraced building numeracy skills with junior high math students.

Within these years of teaching, she was also seconded to write resources for ERLC and Alberta Education and last year was the Numeracy Lead teacher for Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools helping Division 1 teachers implement, and the Division 2 teachers pilot the new Mathematics curriculum.

This year she is excited to return to teach high school math and physics with St. Gabriel Education Center half time while working with the ERLC.

Dianne McConnell

Professional Learning Lead

dianne.mcconnell@erlc.ca

Dianne began her career as a teacher with Parkland School Division. She has completed her PhD. in Special Education and is also a registered psychologist. She has worked as a Vision Consultant (Teacher for the Visually Impaired), Director of Student Services at multiple school divisions, led the Alberta Provincial Initiative for Inclusion (Setting the Direction) and has been the Associate Superintendent with Parkland School Division over the past eight years. While her career accomplishments is indeed extensive, perhaps more important has been her role as a parent. She is also the mother of three children, two of which have complex health conditions, including vision loss. She has been involved in advocacy in the field of Blindness and Visual impairment at both the provincial and national levels for over 30 years. Dianne brings a unique perspective to this subject matter. Through her experience as an educator and a parent of children with severe disabilities, she is well-versed on the ongoing challenges families and practitioners face in dealing with complex situations. She has worked as a service provider and has also been the benefactor of service provision. She has been a dedicated advocate throughout her career and is passionate about making a difference for children and their families.

Gwendolyn Shone

Professional Learning Lead

gwendolyn.shone@erlc.ca

Gwendolyn Shone is an Albertan educator who values plurality: having raised three daughters in a Francophone minority context, an immigrant father, and two Indigenous sisters adopted during the Sixties Scoop. She holds a Graduate certificate in Administration et leadeurship scolaire and a M.Éd. from Campus Saint-Jean, University of Alberta. Her experience includes Francophone and French immersion teacher, Alberta Education curriculum consultant, Francophonie newcomer services, French education researcher, new French teacher consultant, and Assistant Professor of pre-service Francophone and French immersion teachers.

Irene Heffel

Professional Learning Lead

irene.heffel@erlc.ca

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Irene Heffel is a literacy consultant and educator with over 35 years of experience at all levels. She has worked with both elementary and secondary teachers to implement best practices in curriculum, assessment and Backward Design.

Janet Bell

Professional Learning Lead

janet.bell@erlc.ca

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An English teacher originally, Janet’s career evolved over the years from classroom teacher to consultant, co-leading edtech integration across the province as a member of the award-winning 2Learn.ca and ARPDC provincial teams, to school and district leadership as a Department Head at Lillian Osborne High School and a TIPS (Technology Integration & Planning Supports) Consultant with Edmonton Public Schools. A Google Certified Trainer and SMART Certified Trainer and Innovator, these days Janet brings over 25 years of vision, practical strategies and all round edtech experience to help support system and school-based integration of Google Workspace for Education, Lumio and other reputable applications, makerspaces, digital citizenship and more, within today’s shifting learning spaces. In her spare time, she enjoys the four generations of her family.

Kelly Gibbs

Professional Learning Lead

kelly.gibbs@erlc.ca

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Kelly has spent her educational career supporting students with a variety of needs and supporting staff building instructional strategies. She wanted to know more about how students learn and why they had difficulty learning…so back to school she went! As a teacher and a Reading Specialist, Kelly holds a Masters degree from the University of Alberta in the area of language and literacy development and specialized assessment. She built her knowledge of UDL through her work at the University of Manitoba. Her work as a Consultant supported teachers in building inclusive practice in all divisions. She has in-depth experience doing professional development, with a focus on instructional strategies and implementation of such strategies. She has taught pre-service teachers at the University of Alberta for the past year.

Kelly’s joy has been found in supporting staff in the use of research-based strategies that make teaching and learning intentional and meaningful.

Marylou Gammans

Professional Learning Lead

marylou.gammans@erlc.ca

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Initially working as an artist in residence for various schools and industries, Marylou later brought her passion for building relationships to the classroom, becoming a teacher, and later a consultant. She facilitates professional learning and works with many school districts in French and English. Areas of focus are Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction (CBCI), Intensive French (ANL) and her own Embodied Cognition Programme using drama strategies to explore ways to create lasting meaning through authentic links with the curriculum and daily
life.

Marylou has always used a combination of innovative strategies to help people build significant relationships in our interconnected world.

Stephanie Dodyk

Professional Learning Lead

stephanie.dodyk@erlc.ca

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Stephanie Dodyk is a Language Consultant with over 15 years experience in teaching and resource roles. After completing a Bachelor of Education degree in Secondary Mathematics and a Bachelor of Arts degree in German Literature, Stephanie later went on to finish a Master of Education specializing in Teaching English as an Additional Language.   In her work, Stephanie continually reflects on her journey of identity development and language learning while growing up as a second-generation Canadian and how it relates to students who are now adding English and Canada to their linguistic and cultural repertoires.

She is passionate about the empowering impact language and story have on building community. Her practice focuses on embracing the rich stories students bring with them as they add English to their learning journey and empowering educational professionals to hear them.

Tammy Leslie

Professional Learning Lead

tammy.leslie@erlc.ca

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Tammy is a Designer of Professional Learning in the area of Math and Numeracy, with a focus in elementary math. She has been in education for over 30 years in a variety of roles. Her goal is to support educators in their continued efforts to build positive mathematical mindsets and incorporate impactful strategies into the classroom.

Tammy aims to co-construct meaningful professional learning to guide instruction and maximize student learning.

Tannis Niziol

Professional Learning Lead

tannis.niziol@erlc.ca

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Tannis is currently supporting Alberta teachers as a Professional Learning Facilitator with the Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium. She recently served as a curriculum consultant for the Edmonton Catholic School Division. Throughout her 30-year career as an educator, in both Edmonton and Winnipeg, Tannis remains passionate about teaching and learning, and the need for explicit literacy apprenticeship at all levels in all subject areas.

Tannis is a voracious reader who believes all students deserve access to rich, diverse reading experiences and to a safe equitable space to talk about what they see, hear, think and feel. She is on a journey to disrupt and bring clarity to the conversations that drive our planning and assessment practice.

Ted Zarowny

Professional Learning Lead

ted.zarowny@erlc.ca

View Available Sessions 15  

Ted’s educational journey took him through three provinces. He began his career as classroom teacher in Saskatchewan, and spent many years in British Columbia on the North Coast and interior as a teacher and principal. He returned to the prairies and a principalship in the Capital region where he currently remains.

Ted’s passions include instructional pedagogy such as learning for transfer, conceptual learning and the instruction of thinking skills. Trained in Control Theory and Restitution-Self Discipline, a restorative justice approach, Ted has extensive experience with approaches and techniques that address classroom management and student behaviour. He also has extensive experience working with gifted students while being the principal of a school for gifted learners for fifteen years. Ted is excited to share his skillset with others to help them refine practices and mindsets that enrich the learning experiences of students.

Tim Coates

Professional Learning Lead

tim.coates@erlc.ca

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Tim began his career as a high school social studies teacher, receiving an Excellence in Teaching Award in 1993. In 1994 he was seconded to Alberta Education, serving first as a Diploma Examination Manager, and later as the Director of the Diploma Examination Programs Branch. Tim has also worked in the ministry as the Curriculum Developer for high school social studies. Tim has offered professional development presentations throughout Alberta, the United States, and most recently in Hong Kong and Macau.

Currently, Tim is a Sessional Instructor at the University of Alberta, and since 2009 has taught a course in classroom assessment to students preparing for their first round of student teaching. In his spare time, Tim is completing the construction and landscaping of a home he and his spouse have built on an acreage south of Edmonton.

Ulana Soletsky

Professional Learning Lead

ulana.soletsky@erlc.ca

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Ulana Soletsky has been an educator for 37 years, and is passionate about all things that are math from Kindergarten to Grade 9. She spent 26 years in a classroom and for the past 11 years has held the position of AISI Coordinator, and most recently Math/Numeracy Consultant for Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools. During the past 13 years she has also been seconded to the ERLC as a Consultant offering Professional Development in the area of Math and Numeracy, providing sessions primarily in the area of how we can get the best results in our math classrooms.

A key component of her work at the school division level involves collaboration with school administration teams and at-elbow support to K-9 teachers. Her focus is primarily around curriculum support as well as planning for staff development and school improvement. She is a certified facilitator in the First Steps in Math and has provided PD in the Number, Number Operations, Measurement strands of First Steps in Math.