Our Team
The Child Care Now team is made up of an Executive Director, two full-time staff working nationally, and several part-time coordinators who support Child Care Now’s local advocacy chapters across the country.
Morna Ballantyne
Executive Director
For more than forty years I have been privileged to hold paid jobs in the trade union and social justice movements. I’ve worked as an organizer, worker representative, policy researcher and popular educator. In the last twenty years I held senior positions in several major national organizations contributing to the development and implementation of strategic initiatives to improve the quality of public services and ensure that all who live in Canada have equitable access. Today, a grandmother of three children under the age of 6, I continue my work as the Executive Director of Child Care Now. When I became a mother in my late twenties, I experienced first-hand all the problems that come with the failure of governments to take responsibility for making child care affordable, inclusive, and available. I made it my life’s mission to work with others to build a publicly funded universal system of quality child care that is focused on the well-being of children, and that supports parents while properly recognizing and compensating all those who work in the sector.
Amy Tian
Advocacy Organizer
My name is Amy Tian. I am the advocacy organizer of Child Care Now and I also work as an assistant in the Inclusive Child Care For All Project. This project will engage underrepresented women living in the Atlantic, Ontario, Prairies, and Pacific regions to
inform policy recommendations that address intersectional barriers to ELCC accessibility, affordability, quality, and inclusiveness. Child Care Now, Oxfam Canada and Child Care Resource and Research Unit are working together for this project and helping connect equality-seeking organizations and other stakeholders to collaborate across sectors to advance underrepresented women’s engagement in ELCC advocacy
networks. Child Care matters to everyone. As a child care educator, I am thrilled that I can be involved in child care advocacy work and work with other dedicated team members to provide a voice for children, families and child care educators.
Rachel Vickerson
Project and Policy Manager
My name is Rachel Vickerson. I’m the Policy and Project Manager at Child Care Now and manage the “Quality ECE through Policy Change” project, which is focused on advancing workforce policy research and advocacy across Canada. I hold a Masters in Public Policy degree from the University of Toronto, and have previously worked with the Association for Early Childhood Educators Ontario, the Childcare Resource and Research Unit and the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care. I’m so honoured to be part of Child Care Now at such a pivotal and exciting time in Canadian child care, and love meeting child care advocates from across the country. When not working, you can find me biking around Toronto, rock climbing, curling badly and putting too many books on hold at the library.
I’m a child care advocate because I care about building communities where people of all ages can participate, learn and be cared for! Also because I want to be able to afford to raise kids in Toronto, where I grew up.
Allison Alberto
Administrative Supporter
My name is Allison Alberto, and I’m the Administrative Supporter for Child Care Now Alberta. I am from Edmonton, born and raised, and still living here! I currently also work at the University of Alberta in the Department of Family Medicine. I hope to help create a system where every parent/guardian has access to quality, affordable, accessible child care for their children. One that gives them the comfort of knowing they are giving their child/children the best chance for their own future happiness and success and that they are always in a safe environment. My hobbies include backcountry camping and hiking in the mountains, playing ringette, and spending time with my family.
My passion for childcare came from my own experiences looking for care for my two children! I had no idea what a literal wild west the Alberta child care landscape was. When looking I realized how privileged I was to be able to choose where I wanted my kids to go. The freedom of speaking English, having a car, having the money to pay, having children with no extra needs, etc. My advocacy continued through my involvement with child care work in my past employment with the Alberta Federation of
Labour and my union work.
Kenya Thompson
Coordinator, Nova Scotia Chapter
Hello! I’m Kenya (she/her) and I’m the Coordinator of Child Care Now’s Nova Scotia chapter. I am currently working towards a PhD in Political Science at York University, studying child care and other critical social policy. Though originally from Kelowna, BC, I received my BA from Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, and have stayed connected to progressive organizing in the province since. I feel so fortunate to be a small part of this system-building work as part of the national Child Care Now team, pushing governments to follow through on the plan to make universal child care a reality! I am a child care advocate because I believe in the radically transformative potential of a public, non-profit system of early learning and child care—for children’s learning and development, for the opportunities it would provide mothers and caregivers, and for those early childhood workforce working on the ground ground in a historically undervalued but critically important sector. If done right, this system could have profound and far-reaching impacts on Canadian Society.