Enid Elliot
(Ph.D. Early Childhood Education)

Enid is a post-doctoral research scholar on a HELP funded project to develop a usable tools for measuring changes in social support for parents when their children attend early childhood programs. She completed her doctorate in ECE at UVic in 2001. Her particular interest is in babies, their families, other caregivers, and attachments.

Enid has written about the work of infant/toddler caregivers and the continuum from theory to practice. She has also written curriculum for the First Nations Partnership Programs (www.fnpp.org).

Ron George
(B.S.W.; M.A. Cand., Ed. Leadership, UVic)

Ron (Tsaskiy) is an Indigenous Advisor on the first research study of Indigenous Fathers in Canada, and he has served as a member of the Steering Committee for the first national study of Father Involvement in Canada, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, CURA Program. Ron is an Aboriginal Advisor on the Indigenous Fathers project. He was born in Smithers, B.C. and is a Hereditary Chief of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. After working in the logging industry, where he became a shop steward in his union, and in the building trades, where he was a glazier, Ron became involved in Native politics. In 1970, he was a Board member of the B.C. Association of Non-Status Indians, and then he was founding Vice-President of its successor, the United Native Nations, from 1976 to 1978. He was President of UNN from 1985 to 1991. In 1991, he was elected National President of the Native Council of Canada, which represents the majority of Aboriginal peoples in Canada – those who do not live on reserves. Ron has been involved in every aspect of the struggle for justice by Aboriginal peoples in Canada. He has been instrumental in the development of Aboriginal-run community services in B.C. in areas of housing, child welfare, youth employment, economic development, and justice. A central theme of Ron’s work has been the need for healing at both the individual and political level in Canadian society. Ron completed his B.S.W. at the University of Victoria in 2007 and is currently nearing completion of a Masters degree is Educational Leadership at the University of Victoria.

Denise Hodgins
(M.Ed. Early Childhood Education;
Ph.D. Cand., Child and Youth Care, UVic)

Denise is a doctoral student in Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria. Since 1989, she has worked with children, youth, parents and educators in a variety of capacities: school age child care provider; preschool teacher; workshop facilitator; and director of a non-profit organization providing prevention and support programs to children, youth and families. Her M.Ed. thesis project examined the content of two dozen parenting education programs to see how fathers roles were portrayed and the extent to which fathers needs, goals, roles, or responses to parenting were specifically addressed in the program curricula. The focus of her doctoral studies is on supporting positive father involvement in parenting young children. She is particularly interested in children’s perspectives of father involvement and the role that gender plays in the (re)construction of parenting practices. As a co-parent of two young children, she describes herself as engaging daily in the evolving, changing, joyful and challenging dance of parenting.

Visit the Reports page to access some of Denise's publications and presentations.

Pauline Janyst
(M.A. Leadership)

Pauline recently completed her Master of Arts in Leadership & training at Royal Roads University. She lives in Victoria and comes from the Da'naxda'xw First Nation. Pauline comes from a business background having owned and operated a retail clothing store. Pauline has been involved locally, provincially and nationally with healing & funding initiatives since 1991. She held contracts with the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and the National Native Addictions Partnership Foundation. She co-developed a non-profit society which addressed healing initiatives for First Nations in Campbell River. Pauline is an adult child of Indian Residential Schools and is very aware of the issues faced in our communities.

Marlene Lewis
(B.A. Psychology; M.A. Communication Disorders)

Marlene is Co-Investigator on the project: Supporting Language Development of First Nations children. Marlene is of German Mennonite ancestry. She is a registered and certified speech-language therapist. She has worked in schools, hospitals, and public health settings. She has experience in a provincial leadership role developing policies and other tools for provincial program support in the areas of speech and language, early intervention, and children and youth with special needs. Her interest is in supporting Indigenous communities, through collaborative research, policy, and practice, in their development of models of comprehensive community-based early childhood development systems.

Candice Manahan
(B.Sc. Psychology, UNBC;
M.A. Community Health Sciences, UNBC)

Candice Manahan, a Michael Smith Foundation of Health Research Junior Research Trainee, completed her Masters degree in Community Health Science at UNBC in August 2008. Candice is a Métis from northern BC. Candice has been part of the ECDIP team since 2004, focusing on the Indigenous Fathers Project. She was the field coordinator for data collection and she has done a number of local and national conference presentations and has co-published on the Indigenous Fathers research project. Candice currently works at UNBC within the Rural and Northern Practice Research Program as a Research Associate, focusing on nursing and health services research in rural and northern areas, and as the BC Rural and Remote Health Research Network Manager. Her research interests extend across a range of topics pertaining to rural and Aboriginal health, and especially the integration of Indigenous knowledge in health education. She has instructed an Aboriginal Health and Chronic Disease course at UNBC in partnership with a local Elder.

Onowa McIvor
(M.A., UVic; Ph.D. Cand., UBC)

Onowa is Swampy Cree and Scottish-Canadian. She currently resides in Victoria and is a grateful visitor on Lekwungen and WSANEC territories. Onowa is a current doctoral student at the University of British Columbia in the Faculty of Education, Department of Language and Literacy Education and is also the Director of Indigenous Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria. Onowa holds a B.A.(Psyc/Women Studies) and a M.A. in Child and Youth Care from the University of Victoria, with her thesis research focusing on Indigenous Early Childhood Immersion language programs. She has worked for the past ten years in various capacities with Indigenous communities - most recently in the areas of Indigenous Early Childhood education, care and development and Indigenous language revitalization. Her areas of scholarly interest are early childhood education, care and development; second language learning/acquisition; early childhood bilingualism; cultural identity development; Indigenous education (K to post-sec) and Indigenous language revitalization. Most importantly, she is raising two young daughters with the help of her partner and their extended families.

Sharla Peltier
(B.Sc. Speech and Audiology, U Alberta;
M.Ed. in progress, Nipissing U)

Sharla works with Jessica and other team members on projects aimed at developing and disseminating knowledge about First Nations children’s mother tongue and bilingual language acquisition, as well as First Nations English dialects. Her work focuses on identifying the needs of First Nations communities in her Territory and advocating for the development of community-based services. Her over-riding concern is with ensuring supports for First Nations children in public school, especially since many First Nations children demonstrate characteristics of their Indigenous language in their manner of speech, use of language, pronunciation, and writing styles. She is keenly interested in story-telling as a way of promoting Indigenous language preservation, remediating language difficulties, and accessing language samples in research. Sharla completed a B.Sc. in Speech Pathology and Audiology from the University of Alberta in 1986. She is currently completing an M.Ed. at Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario. She has worked professionally with clients of all ages for eighteen years on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, as a clinician, consultant and trainer in the health, social service and education sectors. Sharla started a private practice—Giigdo-win Speech/Language Services— 14 years ago, providing services to the Anishnabek population. Sharla is a member of the Chippewas of M’njikaning First Nations (Rama) Ontario. She resides in North Bay, Ontario, with her husband and two sons.

Rose Sones
(B.A. Psychology)

Rose is an Aboriginal Programs Advisor to the Indigenous CHILD project on Indigenous child development environments and cultural perspectives on developmental goals for children. Rose is Tlingit from Northern British Columbia. Rose works in the Health Canada National office for Aboriginal Head Start in Urban and Northern Communities Program. Her major interests are in the areas of community and leadership development and participant empowerment. Rose is the author of "Parent Involvement in Aboriginal Head Start: Building Community" (2002). She has given workshops on this topic at regional and international conferences. Rose’s other interests include comparative government in Pacific Rim Indigenous communities and culture in education. Rose is currently the Assistant Director, Health and Social Strategic Policy, for the Assembly of First Nations in Ottawa.

Lori Speck

Lori is a transcriber on the project exploring implications of First Nations English Dialects for supporting young First Nations children’s language development and school readiness. Lori is a member of the ‘Namgis First Nation, one of the many bands of the Kwakwaka’wakw. She previously worked as Cultural Coordinator for the First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation in Victoria. Lori strongly believes in the revitalization of Aboriginal languages and cultures.

Jaime Apolonio
(B.A., M.P.A., University of Victoria)

Jaime is the webmaster for Early Childhood Development Intercultural Partnerships (www.ecdip.org). He holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Victoria, completing an advanced policy report on how to forge strong relationships among local and First Nation governments in British Columbia. He previously served as Program Assistant with the First Nations Partnership Programs (www.fnpp.org).