Dr. Nan Stevens enjoyed a fifteen-year teaching career working with marginalized populations, including street-entrenched youth and adults, within inner city schools of Toronto and Vancouver, Canada. Presently, as a teacher educator at Thompson Rivers University, Nan brings her experience in alternate education to inform pre-service and in-service teachers’ thinking regarding diversity and social justice. When Nan’s first son was born with a severe developmental disability, her lived experiences as the primary caregiver steered the course of her career. She has focused her life work on research, teaching, and advocacy, specifically, advancing innovative practices for educators, designing personalized programming for a high quality of life for self-advocates, and serving families in need whose children live with disabilities. Nan embraces and celebrates the shift in educators’ identities as they grow into capable and knowledgeable leaders. Her teaching approach encourages learners to dig deeply into personal biases and assumptions, and to critically assess one’s personal limitations. Nan’s identities are varied and numerous: mother of a child with high needs, a teacher, a postsecondary educator, a scholar, a community advocate, and a writer. This unique combination has established her as a change agent on local, provincial, national, and international stages.
