Holly Bilton
Holly Bilton is dedicated to supporting young individuals in exploring career development opportunities. Her journey with CAREERS began in 2002 as a Program Coordinator. Over the years, she progressed through various positions on her way to her current role as Provincial Manager of School Engagement. In this capacity, she engages with representatives at all levels of the education system to find ways to empower youth on their career journeys.
Additionally, since 2013, Holly has served as a trustee with Chinook's Edge School Division, offering valuable insights as she works to enhance educational pathways for students. With a rich background in education and community involvement, Holly is actively engaged in various committees to forge partnerships that enrich the learning experiences of young Albertans.
Driven by her passion for community service and a belief in the transformative power of quality education, Holly is motivated to make a positive impact on her community and empower youth to succeed. Living alongside her husband, three Labrador retrievers, and too many horses on their historic family farm east of Innisfail, Holly actively participates in fostering agricultural education by hosting interns from local schools through CAREERS each year.
SESSION: Trustee Panel Discussion
Dr. Alec Couros
Dr. Alec Couros, a Professor of Educational Technology and Media,
currently serves as the Director of the Centre for Teaching and
Learning at the University of Regina. Internationally acclaimed for
his groundbreaking work in open education, networked learning, digital
citizenship, artificial intelligence, and critical media literacy, Dr.
Couros has inspired audiences worldwide through his prolific workshops
and presentations.
SESSION: Generative AI and the Changing Landscape of Education
Generative AI is set to redefine education, creating shifts in how
students learn, how teachers teach, and how schools operate. This
session will introduce trustees and administrators to the broader
impact of AI on education, highlighting key changes such as the
evolution of curricula, new models of learning, and the implications
for student preparation in an AI-driven society. Attendees will gain a
clear understanding of AI’s potential and how to guide their schools
through this transformative time.
Dr. Donna Feledichuk
Donna Feledichuk, PhD, currently serves as the Vice President of Academic and Research at Portage College. With over three decades of experience living on a farm in Lac La Biche, Donna brings a unique perspective to rural education. Her career began in health care, transitioned to the natural resources industry, and ultimately found her calling in education.
Donna's extensive background includes roles as a high school science teacher and assistant principal in Northern Lights Public Schools, before advancing to post-secondary education. She is a passionate advocate for rural education and has dedicated her career to enhancing access to post-secondary opportunities in rural communities. Donna has worked tirelessly expanding program offerings from certificates to degrees in Northeastern Alberta, creating diverse pathways for rural learners.
SESSION: Forging Career Pathways
Dr. Carla Johnson
Carla Johnson, PhD, is an executive leader in the Government of Alberta; leading the development of curriculum, learning and teaching resources, and programs- including career education- that enable potential in the education system.
Carla’s early career as an educator gave her the opportunity to teach K-12 in both rural and urban school districts as well as the post-secondary system. Since moving into the public service, she has developed and led programs in provincial and municipal governments across a range of fields including settlement and Immigration, social services and community development, human resources and education.
SESSION: Forging Career Pathways
Dr. Debbie Pushor
Debbie Pushor, PhD, was born in Grande Prairie and raised on a farm in Sturgeon Heights, Alberta. She attended, and graduated from, Ridgevalley School which was, at that time, part of the East Smoky School Division. Debbie then obtained her degrees from the University of Alberta.
Currently, Debbie is a mother of three adult sons, Cohen, Quinn, and Teague; a grandmother of one; and a former public school teacher, consultant, principal and central services administrator. Becoming a mother to school-aged children caused Debbie to return to graduate school. She completed her PhD at the University of Alberta, researching and writing a doctoral dissertation entitled, A Storied Photo Album of Parents’ Positioning and the Landscape of Schools. She is currently Professor Emerita at the University of Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
In her 28 year program of research, Debbie has engaged in narrative inquiries into parent engagement and leadership, a curriculum of parents, parent knowledge, and systematic parent engagement. In her undergraduate and graduate teaching, Debbie’s life work has been to make central an often absent or underrepresented conversation about the place and voice of parents and families in their children’s schooling.
SESSION: Transformational Family and Community Engagement: A Means to Equitable Outcomes
For decades, educators have worked to enhance equitable outcomes for students. Typically, these approaches, programs, and/or initiatives have been “schoolcentric” (Lawson, 2003), focused on things that happen within the walls of the school such as curricular changes, innovative instructional strategies, or authentic forms of assessment. Yet, as Dr. Steven Constantino (2015) stated, “If we as educators could successfully teach all children by ourselves, then it seems to me we would have already done so.” The fact is that we haven’t done so. It is time to turn our attention outward - to recognizing that engaging families and communities in the educational life of their children and youth is essential to attaining the outcomes we desire. In this interactive session, Debbie will explore with us what authentic and meaningful engagement looks like, practical ways to develop it, opportunities we have to engage families and communities, and approaches to family and community engagement that are “familycentric” (Pushor, 2015) and transformative.
Stefan Rutkowski
Stefan is the President and CEO of CAREERS: the Next Generation. Before joining CAREERS, Stefan was a global director with an international engineering and consulting firm and lived and worked in several countries. He started his career as an environmental consultant before moving into various operational and international leadership roles.
Stefan recently was a member of the College of Alberta School Superintendents’ led Trades and Vocational Education (TAVE) Committee and was formerly part of Alberta Education’s Career Education Task Force. He also sits on the University of Alberta’s Frank Robinson Youth Academy Advisory Committee. He holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Geography from Philipps-University Marburg, Germany, and a Master’s degree in Responsibility and Business Practice from the School of Management, University of Bath, UK. He lives in Edmonton with his wife, Lydia, and their two dogs, Frasier and Picard. Their two adult sons, Etienne and Zayd, are pursuing a degree in International Relations and are working as an elementary school teacher, respectively.
SESSION: Forging Career Pathways
Daryl Scott
Daryl Scott brings a wealth of diverse experience to our Conference. After a 28-year career with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police he owned and operated the Choice Career and Employment centre in Drayton Valley, Alberta. Daryl is currently in his 12th year as a school board trustee and for the last four years has been the chair of WildRose School Division. He has also had the pleasure of sitting on the Board of directors at ASBA, as well as a director on the TEBA board for two rounds of negotiations. Daryl currently sits as the board chair at ASEPB..
SESSION: Trustee Panel Discussion
Dr. Pieter de Vos
Over past 18 years, I have facilitated over 450 projects with public sector organizations and non-profits of varying sizes and complexities across the province and abroad. My projects have ranged from leading strategic planning and change management sessions with executive teams throughout the provincial government; to supporting the Mayor’s Taskforce to Eliminate Poverty in Edmonton; to facilitating action labs to prototype and test social policies; to working with a multi-stakeholder team to redesign the contracting system for Human Services; to leading large-scale public participation processes on topics such as patient engagement, the opioid epidemic, suicide prevention, inclusion for LGBTQ+ communities, and affordable housing and homelessness.
Dr. Joel Westheimer
Joel Westheimer is Professor and University Research Chair in Democracy and Education at the University of Ottawa. He is also an education columnist for CBC Radio. An elected member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, Westheimer is an expert in civic education and the role of schools in democratic societies. His most recent book (2024) is What kind of citizen? Educating our children for the common good, second edition. He has delivered more than 350 keynote speeches, nationally and internationally and is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines including The Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, and the Toronto Star.
SESSION: Education that Matters for the Students We Teach
If schools were for nothing more than to transmit facts and formulas to the next generation, then teachers’ and school leaders’ work would be relatively easy. But schools in democratic and diverse societies should be places where students learn about multiple perspectives, critical thinking, courage, and civic engagement. Schools can be all that, and more. Public schools in Canada are not just schools for the public but places where we learn what it means to be a public. What does an ideal school look like in your mind? What lessons are being conveyed? How are children and teachers interacting? In what ways do issues of equity and diversity affect school practices? What vision of the “good” society are students asked to imagine? In this presentation, I will explore with participants what teachers, school leaders, parents, students and school reformers can do to develop and preserve meaningful education for a democratic society in an era of polarization, diminishing trust, and increasing challenges.