Pat Hoffman is an adult educator who has played a role in Saskatchewan literacy action for many years. She has provided developmental steps for family literacy and work place learning, as well as basic skills and ESL up-grading. Currently, Pat is the Basic Education Manager for Saskatchewan Post Secondary Education and Skills Training.

Celia Lottridge is one of the founders of the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program and has been Director since 1991. She received her M.L.S.degree from Columbia University, and her B.Ed. from the University of Toronto. She has been a children’s librarian, a teacher librarian, a book-store manager and a professional storyteller. She is the author of many children’s books, including The Name of the Tree, Ten Small Tales, Ticked to Curlew, and Wings to Fly.

Laureen MacKenzie, B.A., B.Ed., M.A. has served as a teacher, administrator, facilitator, counselor, volunteer, program manager. She brings 29 years of experience in the education field to her current position, as co-project manager of the Literacy and Parenting Skills program at Alberta Vocational College in Calgary, Alberta. Her areas of expertise include: parent education, English as a Second Language, literacy, and gifted children.

Shannon Palmer attended McGill University, and the University of Colorado, and graduated with a degree in Honors History in 1970. She has been actively involved in the Canadian Home and School Parent Teacher Federation for the past 20 years and has served as the Provincial Director for its national literacy project. Since 1990, she has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Alberta Science Foundation. Currently, she is a coordinator for the Books for Babies program in Calgary, Alberta. She is a mother of three daughters, and participates in the family business at Hill Spring and at Calgary, Alberta.

Mary Ellen Peterson, is a mother of six children, and holds a B.Ed. in Early Childhood Education from the University of Alberta. Previously she has served as President of Hill Spring Home and School Association, and was a member of the Minister’s Committee on Human Sexuality Education. She also served as President of the Cardston and District Homeand School Association. Currently, she is a coordinator for the Books for Babies program in Calgary, Alberta.

Maureen Sanders has been Executive Director of Prospects LiteracyAssociation for the past six years. She has directed a variety of projects in adult literacy including curriculum development and development of student-authored materials, program evaluation, database software development, programming for adults with developmental disabilities, and family litracy. Maureen is currently involved in developing a Centre of Family Literacy in Edmonton, Alberta.

Catherine Sieben is a mother of three children and a part-time student at the University of Saskatchewan. Family literacy has always been a tangible presence in her home. Since 1995, she has facilitated Come Read With Me at the St. John’s Parent Support Centre, and in 1997 she was appointed as the Family Literacy Coordinator in Saskatoon.

Sharon Skage has worked in the field of literacy since 1989. She founded the Family Reading Program in Red Deer, Alberta, and worked for the Family Literacy Action Group of Alberta during its three years of activities. She is currently involved in establishing a provincial family literacy centre in Alberta, and is coordinating the development of standards and evaluation methods for volunteer literacy programs for the Association of Literacy Coordinators of Alberta.

Jan Smith is currently Special Assistant to the Minister of Northern and Native Affairs for Manitoba. In addition to being the Community Liason Worker for Victor Mager School for ten years, Jan worked for the Department of Child and Family Services and served on the Board of Literacy Partners of Manitoba. She is married with two children.

Adele Thomas is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education of Brock University, where she teaches preservice teacher education courses. In addition to her interests in family literacy and early childhood teacher education, she has helped to develop the Family Learning Program of the Niagara District School Board. The Family Learning Program offers parents adult education upgrading and early childhood education for their toddlers in a unique family literacy curriculum that focuses on parent-child interaction.

Beverly Zakaluk, Ph.D., is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba. She is a recipient of the Lieutenant-Governor’s medal for Literacy and was nominated in 1977 for the University of Manitoba Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching. Her most recent research is a report on “the Excel Project: The effectiveness of a wireless, laptop computer-based intervention on the biography writing of grade 4 students.” She is internationally known for her work on readability.