Board of Directors

Colin Mallet

Chair of Board of Directors and the Financial Audit Committee

Retired CEO, Sandoz Canada

Colin is a Director of TC². He is a corporate director who sits on the boards and board committees of a number of public and private companies, as an independent director. His areas of focus are corporate governance, strategic and financial planning, and staff development. He is interested in education, and is convinced that systematic guidance in critical thinking, early in children’s education, can change their lives, and their ability to play a constructive role in society.

Valerie Overgaard, Ph.D

Vice Chair of the Board of Directors

Associate Superintendent, Vancouver School District No. 39

Valerie has program responsibilities with the school district including curriculum K-12, special education and a variety of related program areas. She has long had an interest in critical thinking that goes back to practical roots in curriculum development and philosophical studies at both UBC and SFU. Valerie states, thinking critically, in every aspect of our interactions ”intellectual and social” is necessary for a truly just and democratic society.”

Brian Storey

Chair of Digital Migration Committee

Sport Science Department, Faculty of Science and Technology, Douglas College, BC
Brian Storey is the chair in the Sport Science Department in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Douglas College. He worked as an elementary teacher in Burnaby before moving to the post-secondary environment. Brian’s most recent work with TC² is in cross-curricular integration of critical thinking in post-secondary settings and in the migration of content and thinking tools to digital media. Brian holds degrees in Curriculum theory and implementation, Phd(c), Educational Psychololgy, MA, Elementary Education, BEd, and Human Kinetics (BHK). Brian is also a reviewer for PHENEX academic journal with focuses on curriculum, pedagogy, and critical thinking in physical education.

Catherine Edwards

Pacific Educational Press. Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia

Catherine Edwards is the director of Pacific Educational Press, an educational publishing company located within UBC’s Faculty of Education. Pacific Educational Press publishes textbooks for teacher education programs and for classroom use, both core and supplementary. Catherine has worked in Canadian book publishing since 1980 as an editor and publisher. She is experienced in all aspects of book development from idea to finished book and is also experienced in the business aspects of publishing educational resources.

Garnet Ayres, B.Ed, M.Ed

Deputy Superintendent Delta School District

Garnet’s career began in Richmond in 1977 as a grade seven teacher. He taught in several schools in the district and throughout the intermediate grades. Completing his undergraduate work at Simon Fraser, he went on to UBC to a Masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction. Garnet entered administration in 1987 when he became a vice principal. Moving to Delta School District in 1990 as principal, Garnet was recently appointed Assistant Superintendent. Throughout his teaching and administrative practice Garnet maintained a keen interest in the curriculum and what each child brings to the learning experience. Children’s thinking is about building organizing constructs upon which information is sorted, connected and made sense of. Children creatively make sense of their world through these organizers which allow them to connect new information with familiar ideas and knowledge. The heart of critical thinking is an individual’s ability to make sense, to ask important questions and seek answers to them. It is not an easy task. Critical thinkers, whether children or adults, need to be patient and willing to live in the question. Teaching is about encouraging and guiding children in their thinking, but not doing it for them. A child is very capable of building these structures to organize ideas and other information as they strive to answer big questions.

Jocelyn Beaton, B.Ed, M.Ed

BC Social Studies Teachers Association
Department Head, Moscrop Secondary (Burnaby)

Jocelyn has been a teacher for almost 20 years in the Burnaby and Richmond School Districts. She has a broad range of experience in both elementary and secondary schools and is passionate about teaching, especially in her subject area of Social Studies. Currently, Jocelyn is Social Studies Department Head at Moscrop Secondary. Jocelyn believes that critical thinking skills are absolutely vital not only in Social Studies, but in all facets of the curriculum. All students of all abilities enjoy the process of participating in critical thinking challenges and activities because the curriculum becomes relevant and meaningful to them on a personal level. Jocelyn also holds a M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction with a specific focus on Education and Technology.

Phil McRae

Executive Staff Officer, Alberta Teachers’ Association

Dr. Philip McRae is currently an Executive Staff Officer with the Alberta Teachers’ Association (A.T.A.) and Adjunct Professor within the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta where he earned his Ph.D. He was the Director of the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) at the University of Alberta from 2005-2009, and taught several graduate courses in the Master of Education in Educational Studies program. Phil has worked in many secondary and post-secondary educational contexts while living and teaching in the Middle East (United Arab Emirates), Asia (Japan), Europe (Spain), and on the Blood (Kainai) Reservation in Alberta, Canada. Phil is the past winner of the Alberta Excellence in Teaching Finalist Award, the University of Alberta’s Queen Elizabeth II Doctoral Scholar Award, and the Alberta Teachers’ Association Educational Research Award.

Ray Myrtle, B.Ed, M.A.

Classroom Teacher, School District No. 41 (Burnaby)
President, BC Provincial Intermediate Teachers Association

Ray enjoys teaching grade five and six students at South Slope Elementary School in Burnaby. He found the critical thinking model interesting and worked on a unit on immigration as part of a district team. He is active at the district level as Chair of the Joint Pro Development committee. At the provincial level he has participated in the evolution of the District Review process. He is President of the Provincial Intermediate Teachers Association and supports the development of critical thinking. Ray believes that “critical thinking is going to be one of the major ideas in education in BC in the latter part of this decade in part because of the work of TC².”

Siria Szkurhan

Manager, Professional Development Project, Ontario Teachers’ Federation

Siria is pleased to have undertaken the role of Co-ordinator for TC² in Ontario.  In her 27 years as a classroom Science and Math teacher with the Hamilton Wentworth Catholic District School Board, she consistently engaged and motivated students using an inquiry-based approach.  In 1996, Siria was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence in the area of Science and Technology.  Siria was involved with the development of science resources and the recently revised Ontario chemistry curriculum.  In 2007, Siria took on the role of Secretariat with the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA).  Her work in the Professional Development department included leading OECTA’s Bullying Prevention initiative.  In 2008, Siria began her work with the Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF) Professional Development (PD) Project, supported by funding from the Ontario Ministry of Education.   As Manager of the OTF PD Project, Siria has been responsible for developing and providing high quality PD opportunities to teachers across Ontario, particularly those that encourage self-directed learning and the development of critical thinking skills and strategies.  OTF partnered with TC² in offering numerous conferences, summer workshops and web conferences which introduced the TC² framework to over 2000 teachers.

Siria continues to work for OTF on a part-time basis as Facilitator/Administrator of the OTF Professional Development Project.

 

Todd Wright

Administrator ­ Curriculum & Instructional Services
Information Communication Technology, Literacy@School and Learning Resource Services
York Region District School Board

Todd Wright is Curriculum Administrator for ICT, Literacy@School and Learning Resource Services in the York Region District School Board. He is also an Apple Distinguished Educator, working with educators from around the world on ICT implementation strategies. Following many years in elementary and secondary classrooms in both Alberta and Ontario, Todd has been a Computer Resource Teacher, Curriculum Consultant and Coordinator for information communication technologies. In his varied duties he has been part of a team that has been recognized for leadership in the area of digital literacy implementation. As one of twelve international Microsoft Innovative schools, York Region¹s Literacy@School project is the most recent example of the team approach to leadership that Todd is privileged to be a part of.