Staff

Monica Dinney, Executive Director
Monica has an extensive background working with a variety of non-profit organizations in Winnipeg. Her experience includes program development and management, donor relations, fundraising, community granting, event planning, and working with Boards and volunteers.

She obtained the internationally recognized Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) credential in 2006 and holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Winnipeg.

Monica is an active community volunteer, and has served on various Boards and committees. She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, currently serving on the Professional Advancement committee and is a past Chair of National Philanthropy Day in Manitoba.

An avid reader with a love of languages, Monica is dedicated to the values and principles of literacy, education and lifelong learning opportunities.

Colleen Cawood, Program and Outreach Facilitator
Colleen has worked with family literacy and learning programs for the past six years. She coordinates Bookmates’ Family Learning Olympics program, and enjoys using her creative talents to develop hands-on activities used in all of our programs. Colleen is the contact person for organizations to inquire about scheduling trainings or programs in their communities. She also co-authored and illustrated Bookmates most recent self-published work "A First Counting Book". Books and reading have always been an important part of Colleen's life.

Maryanne Sproule, Program Trainer
Maryanne is an experienced facilitator of parent-child programs in Winnipeg. She has a degree in Nutrition from the University of Guelph and has spent much time encouraging a love of learning with her four children. She shares her passion for supporting healthy families by mentoring other facilitators to run family literacy programs in their community.

Valerie Gendron, Program Trainer
Valerie has an educational and practical background in early childhood education. She holds a Bachelor of Education degree, as well as a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Early Childhood Education from the University of Manitoba. The majority of her work experience was at the Anne Ross Day Nursery at Mount Carmel Clinic in a unique position as a teacher in community setting. This involved working with high needs families in this inner city agency and supporting them through collaboration and outreach with other community agencies and professionals.

Rhonda McLennan, Program Trainer
Rhonda McLennan is an Early Childhood Educator 3 with over two decades of experience in the field. Rhonda has worked in unique social service settings such as Villa Rosa and The Behavioural Health Foundation where she taught parenting classes and ran programs for children and their families.

Rhonda is a strong advocate of early childhood education and of parents being children’s first teachers. Supporting facilitators to run family learning literacy programs is a natural position for Rhonda as she hopes to inspire others to take advantage of vital early learning opportunities.

Rhea dela Cruz, Office and Program Administrative Assistant
Rhea holds a degree in Business Management, and has more than eight years experience in office administration including payroll, accounts, database management and publishing programs. Previously she worked for an international private pre-school, supporting teachers and administrators.