mRLC Board of Directors
Tammy Ballantyne
Board Member
Tammy Ballantyne has been with the Flin Flon School Division for over 23 years, working as a resource teacher, vice-principal, principal and assistant superintendent prior to her current role as superintendent. She has worked with the Northeast Regional Housing Authority, the Board of Directors for University College of the North (UCN), as well as the Flin Flon Public Library Board. Tammy is passionate about special education.
Lisa Shackleton
Board Member
Lisa is a member of the Senior Leadership Team for the Portage la Prairie School Division. Her portfolio includes English and French Immersion programming, planning for continuous improvement, curriculum, assessment, and instruction, and teacher mentorship. With more than 32 years of experience in education, she has supported the professional development of leaders, teachers, and students in navigating and nurturing divisional structures and systems.
Joe Stouffer
Board Member
Dr. Joe Stouffer is currently an Associate Professor and Chair of the Undergraduate Education Committee in the Faculty of Education at Brandon university. Joe teaches primarily undergraduate and graduate courses in early literacy and English Language Arts in Early and Middle Years. He is the recipient of the 2022 Brandon University Senate Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Dr. Stouffer completed his PhD at University of British Columbia's Department of Language and Literacy Education.
His research interests include children's literacy development, formative literacy assessment, and teacher pre-service training and professional development in literacy education. His most recent publications centering on teachers and schools navigating competing approaches to literacy education have appeared in The Reading Teacher, Journal of Teacher and Learning, Language & Literacy, and The Journal of Classroom Research in Literacy.
Joe draws on a broad base of over 30 years' teaching experience, having also worked as a Resource, French, and Music teacher, university sessional instructor, Reading Recovery teacher and Teacher Leader, Literacy Coach and Literacy Consultant. Dr. Stouffer has and continues to support professional development initiatives in K-8 classroom literacy in urban, rural, and northern school divisions throughout Manitoba and across Canada.
Leanne Peters
Board Chair
Leanne Peters has spent her career working in rural contexts. Trained as a high school English teacher, she has also worked as a principal and vice principal in several rural communities. Including, as assistant superintendent at Sunrise School Division and Assistant Superintendent Learning Support at Lakeshore School Division. Leanne has also served as a principal and teacher in the Rolling River School Division and taught in the Mountain View School Division. She is currently the assistant superintendent at Hanover School Division. Leanne has also done work for the Manitoba Association of School Superintendents (MASS) including serving as the professional learning chair. Leanne earned an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Western University. She continues to focus on leadership to improve literacy outcomes from a systems perspective.
Darlene Willetts
Board Member
Darlene Willetts is a dedicated educator with over 25 years of service in the Lakeshore School Division. Having spent the majority of her career teaching grades 7 and 8, she has also imparted her expertise in mathematics across grades 5 through 12. For the past 5 years, Darlene has served as a Superintendent, focusing on enhancing literacy and numeracy within the division.
Jon Zilkey
Board Member
Jon Zilkey has been an educator in Manitoba for 27 years including teacher, principal and senior administrator for the past seven years. He has had the pleasure of working as assistant superintendent at Park West School Division and superintendent at Swan Valley School Division where we worked with the mRLC and their fantastic programming. As assistant superintendent at Brandon School Division we are very excited to be working for the first time with mRLC as I have seen first hand the strength of this organization. I look forward to working with the board for the next three years.