Lois Jardine - Region 1 - jaj2005@telus.net
Nikki Grunwald - Region 2 - mikeniki@telus.net
Jessica Popp - Region 3 - jessicap.arcqe@telus.net
Heather Howard - Regions 3 and 4 - heatherh.arcqe@telus.net
Dorothy Commandeur - Regions 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 - dorothyc.arcqe@telus.net
Laura Mihailides - Region 6 - lauram.arcqe@telus.net
Nikki graduated with her Diploma in Early Childhood Development from Grant MacEwan Community College in 1994. She has owned and operated her own child care centre in Redcliff, AB since March 1995.
Nikki has volunteered her time for the Medicine Hat and District Child Care Association for many years, serving as the Chair and Vice-Chair. She also was the Chair for the Early Childhood Educators Gala in Region 2 in October 2008.
Nikki grew up in Medicine Hat and enjoys raising her family in the same city. Nikki has two young boys and keeps busy at the hockey rink with them. In the summer she enjoys spending golfing and relaxing time at her families cabin.
Nikki started working with ARCQE as a mentor in October 2009 and then in May of 2010 she was able to move into working as a Coach with Region 2. She enjoys being able to work alongside other professionals.
Jessica joined the ARCQE team 5 years ago as a Mentor and is now a Child Care Coach. Jessica is inspired by what ARCQE stands for and looks forward to building relationships by providing assistance and supports to early learning and care centres/agencies.
Jessica has been in the childcare industry for over 13 years. Completing her level 1 when she was still in High School. Over the years she has taken on many different roles from front line caregiver to Director in both the private and for profit sector. She has experience working with infants to school age. Jessica has also had experience working with special needs children coordinating IPP programs.
Jessica grew up in Lethbridge and attended the Lethbridge Community College before heading to Calgary to complete her education at Mount Royal College. Jessica completed her Bachelor of Applied Child Studies Degree and received a Certificate in Children’s Mental Health.
Jessica and her husband have two children - a four-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl. Jessica and her husband take every opportunity to spend time with the family and enjoy the local hot spots- Heritage Park, and the Zoo. We also enjoy camping.
Jessica lives by the quote of “Life is about the journey not the destination.”
Heather was born in Edmonton, grew up in Calgary and moved to Cochrane in 1990 which is where she currently resides. She has 26 yrs of Early Childhood experience. She received her Early Childhood Certificate through Mount Royal College in 1988. It was her move to Cochrane that opened a few more doors for her. For 12 years, she operated Three Bears Child Care in Cochrane. During this time, she obtained her Diploma in Early Childhood from Mount Royal College. Heather wanted to branch out and expand her knowledge of the early childhood field and decided to leave her Director’s position.
In 2003, Heather was offered the Child Care Support Program Manager position at Davar Child Care Society working on an ECD funded project called Supports to Early Childhood. The program is intended to support young children in child care settings who may be at risk or exhibiting difficulties in social-emotional development or behaviour. The program also offers support to child care providers and families to understand and more appropriately address these children’s special needs and that of their families within child care settings. Complementing this new role, Heather obtained her Children’s Mental Health Certificate through Mount Royal College in 2005.
In addition to working full time, Heather completed her training as a Peer Validator for the Alberta Association for the Accreditation of Early Learning and Care Services (AELCS) and has since completed numerous Accreditation site visits within Alberta. Coupled with recent training and the many years of experience has effectively positioned Heather to embark on this exciting position as Child Care Coach. Heather is very eager to be a part of ARCQE and is looking forward to supporting and working with the child care programs in the Calgary area. Heather believes this is a very important time for the Child Care sector and is very proud to be able to provide assistance while programs are working towards Accreditation.
Dorothy has been with the ARCQE team since September 2006, first as a Parent Link Coach, the following year as a half-time Childcare Coach and Mentor. Since April 2008 Dorothy has been a full time Childcare Coach working in Regions 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. Having grown up in rural Alberta, Dorothy enjoys traveling across the province working with programs on their accreditation journey. She is proud to be a part of the accreditation process and excited to see the quality of care for children advancing throughout Alberta!
Dorothy’s career includes several years of work with children with autism, hearing impairments and developmental delays providing inclusive programming to facilitate the children’s development and to support families and staff in various child care settings. She has extensive experience in management which she gained in her 16 years managing a childcare program that grew under her direction from a small two-room school-age program to large multiple site day care and school-age program.
Dorothy holds an Early Childhood Development Diploma and a Level II American Sign Language Certificate from MacEwan College and an Essential Skills for Supervisors certificate from Northern Lakes College. She also completed some courses towards the Human Resource Administration Degree Program at MacEwan. Dorothy has worked passionately for excellence in child care for more more than 25 years. As well as serving on various boards and advisory committees for programs her children and grandchildren were involved in, she served on the MacEwan College Early Childhood Development Program Advisory Committee for six years and she was a school age representative on the Alberta Child Care Association.
Dorothy has four grown daughters, three grandsons and one granddaughter. She loves to spend time by the water, boating, soaking up the sun and catching frogs and minnows and playing in the sand with her grandkids. In the summer, Dorothy’s passion is gardening. She says, “It’s my artistic expression - my living canvas!” She loves to travel and wants to see the world - not just rural Alberta! “Life has so much to offer!”
Laura Mihailides has joined the Alberta Resource Centre for Quality Enhancement as a part time childcare coach for region six. Laura is excited about her new position and has an extensive background in working with families and children. She graduated from the Early Childhood Development Program in 1992 and then worked as a frontline staff at the Fulton Child Care Centre for seven years.
In 1998, Laura became a mother and chose to go part time to help balance her work and family life. For the next four years Laura worked part time with the University of Alberta, doing research for the Faculty of Nursing. She was then hired as a research coordinator which involved heading up a low birth study and a subsequent study on “Keys to care giving” for first time mothers.
Her next venture was working as a day home provider which enabled her to stay home with her three children. In 2006 Laura became a mentor for ARCQE and supported centres through a variety of services. Laura is excited about her new position and is looking forward to connecting with centres and assisting them more formally now as a Child Care Coach in their journey towards Accreditation.