Traudi Kelm, Chair

Traudi Kelm was born in a small town just outside of Vienna. She moved to Calgary as a child with her parents where she now lives with her husband.

Traudi has been employed by Marlborough Day Nursery in some capacity for close to 30 years. She currently holds the position of Executive Director. In addition to her responsibilities at Marlborough Day Nursery, Traudi is also president of the Day Care Society of Alberta. This position affords her the privilege of participating on numerous Early Childhood committees, projects and professional Associations. In 2004 she received the Calgary and Area, Life Time Achievement Award.

Traudi has always been a strong advocate for quality early learning and care services. She is well connected to the childcare community and has a good understanding of the challenges the private sector faces. She has a background in Early Childhood Education as well as Management & Business Administration.

As a member of the Development Council it was a natural transition for Traudi to participate on the Governing Council. She felt it was important to maintain continuity. Traudi is a strong believer in the delivery of Quality Early Learning and Care Services and supports Accreditation as a way to recognize centres of excellence.

Neela Ward, Vice Chair

Neela was born and raised in Trail, British Columbia, but has called Calgary home since 1988. She has worked in the child care field for 20 years. Neela has experience in both centre-based and family child care.

When asked why she allowed her name to stand and accept membership on the Governing Council, she comm ented, "I feel that it is an exciting time for child care in Alberta and I am honoured to be a part of the Governing Council. Quality care is finally being recognized and promoted and I feel it is important to support that in every way."

Brad West, Treasurer

Originally from Regina, SK, Brad and his wife Brenda have lived in Edmonton since 2001.  Brad has worked in Early Childhood since 1984 . He held various positions as Assistant Director, Director and Director of Child Care Services and is currently Executive Director with Glengarry Child Care Society.  Brad graduated with Honors with the Early Childhood Development Diploma from Lethbridge Community College in the Spring of 2007.

He is strongly committed to ensuring that children receive the highest possible care and that families are comfortable with the environment that they leave their children in while they pursue educational and employment opportunities. He also enjoys working with staff to help them develop their own strengths and experience growth in their work with young children.

Brad feels that the accreditation process is an amazing step forward for childcare in Alberta. After completing the process for his centre and knowing what other centres and Director's were going through, he put his name forth as an ARCQE Mentor. When the call came out for nominations to the Governing Council, he felt that this would be a great opportunity and would allow him to become more involved in the accreditation program.

Dori Wearmouth, Secretary

Dori Wearmouth is from the Edmonton area. She is a graduate of MacEwan's Early Childhood Development Program and has been a front line caregiver for the past 11 years. Dori has recently left her position in childcare to work with the Family Connections Program in Leduc County.

As a parent herself, she has experienced many of those same challenges faced by the families currently seeking quality care. She is excited to be a part of Canada's first province-wide accreditation system.

Joanne Baxter, Member

Joanne Baxter is from the Calgary region. She teaches at Mount Royal College in the Early Childhood Care and Education Program.

Joanne has taught in the early childhood program for the last ten years. Previous to that, she taught in the Disability Studies program where she focused on children with special needs.

Joanne Baxter represents the provincial Early Childhood Education programs across Alberta.

Noreen Murphy, Member

Noreen Murphy was born in London Ontario. She arrived in Calgary in 1979 and she started working for a non-profit, multi-site, multi-service organization in 1987.

Noreen has been an activist since high school. She has worked for social justice and responsible change for decades in the peace, the environmental and the women's movement. She has also worked for many human rights initiatives; and fought against systemic poverty. She is a respected advocate for families and children and their right to substantiated high quality child care.

Noreen has been the Executive Director of a non-profit, multi-site, multi -service organization for 19 years. In this position she has worked tirelessly to improve the Alberta child care standards and to ensure that high quality child care is accessible to all families. Noreen is the mother of three grown daughters and has two grandchildren.

Noreen was instrumental in the establishment of an unprecedented consultative process involving all the major child care organizations in the Province of Alberta with the Minister of Social Services. The Alberta Child Care Network has since become a Society and was a partner in establishing The Alberta Association for the Accreditation of Early Learning and Care Services.

Appointed to one of 5 national seats to work with Child Care Human Resources Sector Council of Canada, Noreen has helped improve the wages and working conditions of child care staff in Canada. She co-founded The Family Resource Facilitation Project which provides on-site family support services to a variety of preschool child care centres in Calgary.

Noreen was also instrumental in enabling The Family Resource Facilitation Project to deliver a Bully Prevention Program called ‘It's Alright not to Fight' to a variety of School Age Programs.

Eighty percent of child care services in Alberta are privately owned and Noreen's hard work has established a bridge between the non-profit and private child care community. She has spent the past decades establishing a dialogue between the two that promotes high quality child care.

Working with the philanthropic and corporate sectors, Noreen has developed several sustaining funding relationships. Many of these groups had never funded child care prior to considering Churchill Park. Under her guidance, the multi-service organization has expanded services from two sites to seven in response to community requests for child care services. She is also a member of Public Interest Alberta Child Care task force.

Noreen accepted membership on the AELCS Governing Council to continue her commitment to promoting quality child care. She believed it was essential that she finish with the foundational piece that she believes accreditation is.

Robyn Smith, Member

Robyn Smith is originally from Vancouver, BC. but has been in Calgary for approximately 30 years.

She has worked in the early childhood field for 24 years in a variety of positions including: an early childhood educator, a school age child care worker, a child development facilitator, an Assistant Director, a Program Director, a Director, and most recently as an Executive Director of two child care facilities on campus at the University.

Robyn is a strong believer in Professional Development so she prides herself on keeping up-to-date with current best practices. She is an advocate for staff, children and families. Robyn chairs both the MRC Early Childhood Advisory Committee and the MRC Child Studies Advisory Committee. She also serves on the Family Resource and Facilitation Project. In the past Robyn has mentored with ARCQE. Robyn and her staff went through the Accreditation process at the Main campus location, in a very team-oriented way, and successfully achieved accredited status in March of 2006.

Robyn is very honoured to be a new member of AELCS Governing Council. She feels very strongly that the Accreditation process is an extremely important one that needs to be delivered to and accepted by the child care community in a positive way. Accreditation ensures that children in licensed and accredited child care facilities will receive higher standards of care. Accreditation recognizes and values Early Childhood Education's contributions to children and families. Increasing standards can only make our delivery of child care systems better, our early childhood field stronger, and therefore have better opportunities and outcomes for children and families.

Vivian Turner, Member

Vivian is a third generation Albertan who lives and works in Edmonton. She has also lived throughout Alberta, in the Crowsnest Pass, in southern Alberta; High Level, in the north; Wainwright, in the east and Drayton Valley, in the west of the province.

Vivian is an Early Childhood Educator (B.Ed. Early Childhood) with twenty-four years of experience working in both non-profit and for profit child care centres, in parent run cooperative playschools and kindergarten programs in both rural and urban areas. She has served as a Director on Boards representing those programs, as well as the E.C.E. responsible for implementing the early childhood program. She is an active advocate of quality early learning programs, having served six years as a Director (two years as Chair) of the Greater Edmonton Child and Family Resource Centre (CAFRA). Vivian has six years experience as the Director of a non-profit child care centre.

As an Early Childhood professional, Vivian brings knowledge of best practice and experience in the field of early learning programs and in its accreditation process and purpose (CAFRA implemented an accreditation process for its member child care programs in 1999). She is strongly committed to providing Alberta children with the best start in life and will clearly articulate how this can be achieved. She has both an urban and rural perspective in delivering early learning programs and she has experience in working as a team on various community Boards and organizations and in administrating an early learning program within a child care setting.

"I feel that I can make a contribution to the process of accreditation which will be of benefit to our community, our families who use the Early Childhood programs, our children and to the caregivers who work within these programs."