Four threads that run through everything I do – disability and neurodivergence, child care policy, Indigenous allyship, and 2SLGBTQIA+ rights.
I have known Cayley for many years, most recently I worked with Cayley on a multi-year child care research project. Cayley was initially responsible for conducting and summarizing key informant interviews. She went on to provide a review and suggest edits to the draft of the final project report. I found her to be thorough, conscientious, knowledgeable, and absolutely to deliver what she says she will, when she says she will. I would work with Cayley again anytime.Sharon GregsonSpokesperson, $10aDay child care campaign (BC)14 reviews · 1 photo · 6 months agoRead on Google →
With AutismBC, I led the research team that surveyed 1,500 families across so-called British Columbia, culminating in a published report on the proposed Family Connection Centres (FCC) from participants' perspectives. The findings contributed to the provincial government's reversal of a funding model that families felt would jeopardize hard-won services for their children. I continue to write and advocate for neurodivergence-affirming education in K–12 and ECE settings.
With the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC (CCCABC), my research contributed to a report on flexible, non-standard-hours child care – 30 recommendations for meaningfully supporting the $10aDay program – alongside advocates including Sharon Gregson, Lynell Anderson, Aryanna Chartrand, and Eric Swanson. I continue to push for accessible, public, well-paid early-childhood care across Canada.
I spent two and a half years as an instructor, practicum supervisor, and Program Manager at Native Education College (NEC) in Vancouver, where I taught and co-designed curriculum and courses for pre-service Early Childhood Educators in the Basic and Post-Basic (Infant Toddler and Special Needs) programs. I'm ever grateful for the teachings I received from students, colleagues, mentors, Elders, Knowledge Keepers, fellow ECEs, and partnering Indigenous organizations while I worked in the NEC Longhouse.
Moving between the unceded territories of BC and the Treaty 7 land of Southern Alberta, I try to be vocal – online and in person – about honouring Treaties and Indigenous rights to land, livelihood, and language, and I hold that Indigenous Peoples are the authorities on their own sovereignty and governance.
Op-ed on the invasion of Wet'suwet'en territory: Reconciliation is dead: The educational ramifications of an empty promise (The Georgia Straight).
Queer and trans kids deserve classrooms that don't ask them to wait. So do queer and trans families. My practice and my published work are explicitly affirming – not as a marketing line, but as a baseline of safety.
Briefs, panels, contributing chapters, classroom audits – happy to discuss.
