About Ana

My Story and Journey in Education

I was born during a civil war.

I am an immigrant and child of immigrants.

I grew up low-income and lived in government housing in the Downtown Eastside for most of my childhood and youth.

I grew up with all the adversity and "at-risk" factors that come along with living in a low-income neighbourhood. 

In early childhood I had issues walking and had to wear a brace on my legs. I missed out on lots of "normal" early learning opportunities.

When I got to school I was quickly labelled as "delayed." I was silly, social, easily distracted, and according to my teachers, I was slow academic learner. 

Most of my teachers were only a few years away from retirement, they lacked patience for children like me and it showed. 

Thanks to some super embarrassing moments in elementary, I had created a harmful narrative about myself as being a poor learner. I thought I was dumb.

My saving grace was having parents who kept me safe, showed me love and always championed my social, empathetic, kind and funny character. They encouraged me to just be me.

Unfortunately, not all of the children in my neighbourhood had the same safe home and I knew it because my parents also became foster parents when I was young. 

After graduating high school my parents encouraged me to go into Early Childhood Education so I began working with children and families in my childhood community in 2007.

I quickly realized how much I loved working with young children and that I needed to learn more to properly support them.

I did not believe in myself as a learner so I went into what I thought would be an "easy" career.

I went to Douglas College and earned a diploma in Early Childhood Education in 2010. During my ECE studies a lot of memories were unlocked from my elementary school experience. I remembered ways that teachers contributed to the harmful and deficit narratives I had of myself. 

>>>More importantly, I got a chance to create a new narrative about myself as an educator and learner. 

Early in my ECE career, I gained experience working in various play-based and inquiry-based childcare programs as an ECE. I worked as an infant and toddler teacher, a one-to-one support worker and a supervisor of two programs. 

In 2014, I began working in adult education and I taught ECE, Infant Toddler and Special Needs Education courses. 

Since then I have taught and worked with a diverse group of students (Indigenous-led, Immigrant, International, and local ECEs). 

After having my first baby, I began providing professional development workshops and training to ECEs in my local community in about 2016.

In 2018, I began working in early intervention services (in different roles) providing inclusive and trauma-informed support strategies to parents and caregivers of children with complex needs.

At the same time, I went back to school to earn a Bachelor's in Child and Youth Care (with a specialization in early years) from the University of Victoria (2021). In between these years, I had my second child.

I continued to provide in-person workshops to ECEs and was flown around BC to share my expertise. In 2020, all that changed (thanks to the you-know-what) and I was forced to quickly pivot.

I was one of the first in the Early Years field (in BC) to move all my workshops online. That year, I facilitated over 100 live online workshops and found myself burning out of "live online workshops."

I could see Educators burning out from working through those unprecedented times and I could see parents struggling to manage children, screen time and working from home. As a parent of two young children at the time, I could definitely relate. 

That's when I started collaborating with other ECE workshop facilitators to build a living library of self-paced online workshops and I started providing free learning opportunities to ECEs to inspire a zest for learning. 

An unexpected plot twist...

In 2021, one of our children experienced unexpected trauma. The trauma was felt by all of us.

I won't disclose all of the details here, but let's just say that most of what I thought I knew as an early years professional went out the window.

I had to re-start at the basics and strengthen my knowledge of attachment theory, trauma-informed care and healing through play. 

It took several months and a painful recovery but once we overcame the adversity, the healing began. I knew what I had to do to move forward with a deeper purpose.

Fast forward to now...

I have three children and I am completing a Master of Professional Education in Early Childhood Education.

I have 18+ years of experience in child care. I have experience working with children and families using inclusive and trauma-informed approaches in various capacities.

I have 11+ years of experience working in adult education. I currently work at Douglas College supporting practicum students.

I have 9+ years of experience working as a public speaker. I have presented over 400 workshops and worked with over 100 clients.

I have 5+ years as a purpose-driven business owner. Through Early Years Thriving we've had over 24k enrolments and served over 12k educators. We have a newsletter community with over 8.5k subscribers and 8.5k followers across social media platforms.

Since 2022 I have been consistently providing educators with Online Summits and Workshop Facilitator Training. 

Through Workshop Facilitator Training I have supported over 30 educators to begin and grow their career as Workshop Facilitators. I also now provide Workshop Facilitator Training to organizations with a mandate to educate. 

At heart I am still the silly, social, easily distracted and funny little girl. She comes out on stage and helps me heal in this educational journey. 

So you see, this work that I do is so much more than just about presenting workshops.

How to get in touch with me