Our Staff

Lisa

Lisa grew up in Vermont, close to the Canadian border. After receiving her Bachelor Degree in Early Childhood Special Education from the University of Maine at Farmington, she gained seven years experience in Wisconsin as a lead toddler teacher at an Early Head Start program and as an one-on-one aid for a child with autism.

In 2008, Lisa and her husband moved to Ottawa, where they plan to settle permanently and start a family. Lisa enjoys camping and the outdoors; scapbooking; reading and traveling. She admires toddlers for their endless curiosity and their sense of wonderment. She is excited to spend her first year as an Assistant Toddler Teacher at RPNS!

Tina

Tina Zandri is a Registered Early Childhood Educator with 18 years experience in the field. She also holds a B.A in Psychology from Ottawa U, but quickly discovered that working with children, and their families, was much more fulfilling......and fun!

Prior to becoming a Mom of two children, Tina worked with Global Child Care Services at Heritage Child Care Centre. During her 9 years there, She worked with infants as well as both junior and senior preschoolers as both a Teacher and a Head Teacher. She has also had the opportunity to provide home child care and has a lot of personal experience related to speech and language delays and food allergies.

After all of these experiences, Tina has found great enjoyment working in the Nursery School environment and is excited to return to RPNS for a third year! This year as Assistant Director and Preschool Teacher in the English Program. She is looking forward to a great year!


Paulette

Paulette originally started out studying Biochemistry but soon realized that children were much more interesting than test tubes! She switched her studies to the Early Childhood Education program, working in a day care centre during the day and go to school at night. Graduation day finally came in 1987 and she continued working full time until the birth of her first child.

Paulette is a qualified Early Childhood Educator with 26 years of experience. She has worn many hats as a day care teacher, play group facilitator, home day care provider , child care centre administrator and the proud mother of two grown ups.

The past four years has seen Paulette in the role of Director and Preschool Teacher at Riverside Park Nursery School which she truly enjoys! She stays active in the child care community as Chair of the Nursery School Network; member of Ottawa�s Accreditation Benefits Children committee; and as a part-time teacher in the Early Childhood Education Program at Algonquin College.

Children�s education and advocacy for quality programs for families are Paulette�s passions. In her down time, you will find her reading, crafting and researching curriculum activities for the nursery school.

Janet

Janet was born and educated in Ottawa. She received her Diploma in Early Childhood Education from Algonquin College. She also received her Certification from the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Ontario and is registered with the College of ECE.

She lived for ten years in Halifax, Nova Scotia working in the field of Day Care. She lived for 13 years on the island of Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands and ran an integrated home based children�s program until her own children went to school full time. Janet then worked at a community based children�s program on the island until moving back to Ottawa in 1994. She worked at Manor Park Nursery School in Ottawa until it closed. This is her 10th year at RPNS.

Janet enjoys the cooperative aspect of the program at RPNS. She feels that it is a privilege to have been able to make her life�s career working with young children.

She enjoys music and movement and incorporates these into her programming. Janet is our Resource person allowing her to create �hands on� materials for our learning areas here at RPNS.

Dulce

Dulce was born in Mexico and moved to Montreal with her husband after just finishing her Bachelor in Commerce. She started a family right away and decided to go back to school obtaining a Bachelor of Arts with a Major in Child Studies. She has over 15 years of experience working with children in a home based daycare and she is registered with the College of Early childhood Educators. Dulce feels very lucky to have had the opportunity to join the team at RPNS to work towards the common goal of providing a positive and fun environment for children to develop. She is also very excited about taking over the French Introduction class this year. One of her hobbies involves making educational materials and felt stories, which have become part of her daily routine with the children.

In her free time Dulce enjoys spending time with her family; she has 2 teenage daughters. She also loves paddling, hiking, cross-country skiing and ice-skating.

Julia

My name is Julia Anderson, and I am a first year student in the online Early Childhood Education program at Algonquin College. I recently completed a General Bachelor of Arts degree with a Minor in English at the University of Ottawa. I am currently working in an office environment, but have decided to fulfill my dream of a more rewarding career working with children. I have always loved being around children and take pleasure in seeing them develop and learn new things in their own unique way. I feel this placement at the Riverside Park Nursery School will allow me to learn many things alongside the children, and I aspire to share my love of reading with them. I hope to develop a close relationship with the parents, children and staff in order to build a sense of community and to ensure a better learning experience for everyone. I look forward to meeting all of you!

Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors for 2011/2012

President: Donna Bueckert
Vice-president: Pam MacPhee
Treasurer: Sheila MacDonnel
Assistant Treasurer: Shannon Leo
Registrar: Marianne Ferguson
Secretary: Andrea Levesque
PR Chair: Lisa Belanger
Fundraising Chair: Madeleine Thompson
Operations Chair: Alicia Donihee