About Us

About Embodied Learnings

Embodied Learnings was established in the fall of 2019 by a mother and daughter duo who are passionate advocates of arts education, have a deep love and affection for the natural world for health and healing, and believe in educational opportunities that are holistic, experiential, creative and transformative.

Dr. Traci L Scheepstra (CEO/Founder) has thirty years of expertise as an elementary and arts education specialist, teacher mentor, educational researcher, and writer. Rachel Belliveau (COO/Founder) has five years of financial expertise working for a major Canadian bank and has been a singer, song writer, and musician for the greater part of her life. Together they bring the knowledge, skills, dedication, and love required to operate a holistic and heart-centred organization.

Embodied Learnings started from a commitment to educate students from the inside out through dance education and movement integration. This quickly grew to developing teacher resources and workshops that integrated holistic curriculum, experiential learning, and Indigenous knowledge with the arts. Additionally, we became increasingly aware of the support teachers needed to get through a pandemic while maintaining their well-being. With ten years of experience working in teacher education and mentoring new teachers, Traci felt called to add mentoring services to the Embodied Learnings offerings.

Embodied Learnings is innovative, inclusive, and evidence-based. We provide educational offerings that are based on scholarly research and best teaching practices.

 

Our Vision

Our vision is to establish Embodied Learnings as an educational leader in mentoring for teacher well-being, and a trusted source for holistic, experiential, and arts-based teaching resources and professional development opportunities.

Our Mission

Our mission is to nurture and inspire conscious-minded teachers to reach their full potential in their life and career so they can effectively teach and emotionally reach the students in their care through meaningful, collaborative, creative, and transformative experiences.

Our Board of Directors

About Our Leaders

Traci L. Scheepstra, Ph.D., CEO

Traci L. Scheepstra, Ph.D., CEO/Founder, is an award winning teacher educator with teaching experience at three top tier Canadian universities in education and dance. She is also an educational researcher, teacher mentor, and elementary arts specialist. She received her Ph.D. from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) in Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning. Her doctoral research focused on school-related gender-based violence in elementary contexts. She also completed her Master of Arts in Dance, and an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts Studies and Dance at York University. With a career that spans three decades, Traci has taught in a variety of educational settings with learners of all ages. Her work focuses on curriculum, pedagogy and research in the fields of holistic curriculum, experiential learning, arts-based education, Indigenous knowledge, mental health and wellness, restorative practices, conflict resolution and communication, safe school initiatives, and equity and inclusion. Traci lives in Guelph, Ontario, with her husband and dog Molly. She loves spending time with family including her children and grandchildren. Traci spends much of her free time writing, exploring the great outdoors, practicing yoga, and dancing.

 

Rachel Belliveau

Rachel Belliveau, COO/Founder, has always been passionate about the arts and arts education. She grew up in her mother’s creative arts studio where she was able to sing, dance, and express herself from a very young age. She also attended dance classes, learned to play the piano, and taught herself how to play the guitar and ukulele. Rachel completed her Grade 8 Royal Conservatory exam in Voice and played the tuba throughout high school at O’Neill CVI Performing Arts School. She was also in the Applied Music Program as a vocal performance student at the University of Guelph during her undergrad. After university, Rachel began working with Scotiabank as a Financial Advisor. Finance and operations is an aspect of business that Rachel is passionate about, which she brings to Embodied Learnings. In her spare time, Rachel sings, writes and records her own music, practices meditation and reiki, and goes out for nature hikes in her Guelph, Ontario home with her husband and two young children.

 Contributors

Embodied Learnings is a collaborative not-for-profit that relies on teacher education and academic interns, and community volunteers. The following people have contributed to various stages of our growth in the areas of research, resource development, workshop creation, grant writing, newsletter and/or blog content, editing, formatting, and/or website design. 

  • Aline McQueen

    Alyse Takacs

    Averil Novak

    Barbara Spencer

    Danielle Laforet

    Elisabeth DuBois

    Emma Hutchinson

    Erica Swan

    Hannah Perdu

    Jaimee Gregoire

    Jen Doyle

    Jerrica Hakker

    Julie Harber

    Karelyn Ryckman

    Katie Chiasson

    Katie Pottekkat

    Kelsey Cummings

    Kristen Ciechanowicz

    Laura Seminara

    Maddy Brown

    Marissa Ryan

    Maryam Mohammad

    Meghan Drummond

    Elyssa Catanzaro

    Nathalie Lauriault

    Nick Herlinger

    Oendrila Banerjee

    Randi Fields

    Robyn Israel

    Rochelle Hunt

    Samantha Rock

    Sara Wang

    Shyen Top

    Taylor Simpson

    Tristan O’Connell

    Priscilla Yang

    Erika MacNeil