Edmonton McMurray district representatives

I’d like to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to all the teachers in Edmonton and Fort McMurray for the opportunity to serve as your district representative for these past three terms. Standing up, defending and fighting for our profession are extremely important to me. It’s the very reason why I became actively involved with our Association for over 16 years. It was important then and especially now.

I would also like to THANK YOU for your love, understanding and support over these past months as I am learning to live without my loving husband, Paul Froese. I used to think I was a strong woman, but now I know, without a doubt, that I am an incredibly strong one. There is still a lot of fight left in me.

I made my dream career come true 21 years ago when I became a teacher. I taught in rural Alberta (St. Paul/Two Hills) for the first half of my career and the rest has been with Edmonton Public. I’ve taught in all four divisions and have considerable experience with students from culturally diverse backgrounds and with students with exceptionalities. I currently teach children who are medically fragile and with special needs. I love it!

Our profession is under attack and there are a lot of issues that need our attention. Together, we will address them and together we will make a difference. There is great power in solidarity.

Thank you again. Hugs!

I have been an English teacher with Edmonton Public Schools for 17 years and have been enthusiastically involved in the work of Edmonton Public Teachers Local No. 37 for a decade, serving on the local’s executive and a wide variety of committees, most recently being elected to the Teacher Welfare committee. I’ve also been proud to serve in numerous positions on the executive of the English Language Arts Council throughout my career, and I am currently serving as past president.

I love the classroom and the work I do with students every day. Over my career, however, I have experienced the constant erosion of our working conditions, professional autonomy and respect. Meanwhile, class sizes, class complexity, developmentally inappropriate testing and curriculum, and demands on teachers have continued to surge. This government has attacked students, our pensions, public education and public sector unions. All the while, funding for our students has been slashed and our wages have stagnated.

I don’t want to simply lament these changes, I want to fight for what teachers, students and our communities deserve. I passionately believe in the power and necessity of public education and am done with being relegated to last place.

As a district representative for Edmonton McMurray, I want to connect with and listen to the experiences of as many members as possible, and be your voice at the provincial table, to help ensure that decisions reflect and respond to the lived realities of teachers in classrooms. I aspire to find ways to engage and empower my fellow members, and to build networks with community members and other unions to fight together, in solidarity, for the common good. I’m excited to learn, and will strive to use whatever tools I have to support teachers and fight for the strong, well-funded system that we deserve.

It has been my honour to serve as your district representative (DR) since 2023. I am working to improve classroom conditions, protect public education and defend our dignity in our profession by transforming the relationship between teachers and the ATA. We will do this by channelling the anger and frustration we feel about the deterioration of our working conditions and the attacks on public education across Alberta; becoming more active and engaged in our collective futures by building up the confidence, determination and conviction of our members to take action; and by building allies across our communities.

During the last round of bargaining, I stood against the Mediator's Recommendation because it did not include classroom conditions and moved us backward instead of forward. Classroom conditions are now being bargained for because WE demanded it.

As your DR, I am currently the chair of the Curriculum Committee, and serving on the Resolutions Committee, Canadian Teachers’ Federation Committee, Inclusive Education Council and Greater Edmonton Teachers’ Convention Association. I have taught in diverse classrooms across Edmonton (K, 1, 2, online and outreach).

I believe in visiting schools to listen to the concerns and voices of teachers and having constructive conversations about how we better advocate for the classrooms we, and our students, deserve. Clearly, the status quo isn’t working and it’s time for us to do things differently. In asking for your support, I am at the same time asking for your increased participation in advocating alongside me as the transformative work we have begun can only be accomplished with sustained pressure from the members.