Staff

Ruth Tkachyk joined our team in Sept 2022, taking on the role of Director of Education & Programming. Working in Education for over 30 years, Ruth has extensive experience in collaborating with various stakeholders:  families, teachers, school administrators, educational assistants, specialists and community partners. We are so grateful for her wealth of knowledge and experience! Not only does she bring a deep understanding of early childhood education to the role, she was also a longtime peer and close friend of our founder, Jody Rutherford. Ruth & Jody shared an unmatched passion for education and many of the same core values and beliefs. We are very excited to have Ruth join our team and she is honored to carry on Jody’s amazing legacy at BELA! 

Ruth is very passionate about the role of play in child development.  She believes that: play is the important work that children engage in which allows them to navigate their world – essentially trying on life.  Play that is truly child-directed is the most effective way for children to acquire the prerequisite skills and attitudes that will be essential to their success when they enter formal schooling.  These skills include – but are not limited to – critical thinking, executive functioning, receptive and expressive language, number sense, pre-literacy awareness, social functioning, empathy, curiosity and a sense of control and agency over their own learning journey.  Rather than seeing our role as filling children with knowledge that has been deemed to be important to them, our role is to provide the catalyst that engages a child’s desire to build on their own knowledge and experience, at their own developmental pace in order to nurture a love of learning for life.

Education:

Bachelor of Arts from University of Alberta

Bachelor of Education from University of Lethbridge

Master of Education in Educational Leadership from University of Calgary

Roles in Education 

Classroom teacher Kindergarten – 9 years

Learning support teacher grades K-6 – 15 years

Inclusive Ed classroom teacher Gr. 7-9 for 2 years

Vice Principal at K-12 Bassano School – 2 years

Early Learning Coordinator – 3 years

Experience teaching all grades K-12