Early Childhood C.a.r.e. Conference 11th June 2022

Sarah Mason is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist specialising in personal and career development. She has been working with individuals and teams from C-level to young professionals for over 18 years. Her experience is multicultural and spans private, public and non-profit sectors. She equips her clients to understand the impact of their motivations, styles and needs on their work and relationships. She supports them to leverage their strengths, mitigate their potential de-railers, and develop their career in line with their motivations and preferred environment. An experienced Senior Birkman Professional and Learning Partner for The Birkman Method® plus an experienced Action Learning Set Facilitator and Group Facilitator, Sarah uses Birkman assessment data to build a foundation of self-awareness, and to introduce a framework for understanding the broad spectrum of individual differences and perspectives that leaders encounter in their work contexts.

Dr Denise Lai Chua leads and manages CAPE as Managing Director and Head of Programmes. An experienced early childhood professional, leader and researcher, Denise is skilled in early childhood education, the treatment of children with additional needs, entrepreneurship and organisational development (including non-profit organisations) and leadership development. Denise has trained and equipped trainee teachers in higher education, serving as an external examiner and curriculum developer in Singapore, and as a professor/lecturer in higher education institutions in Singapore and Hong Kong. She is an experienced and certified Birkman® professional and has applied Birkman insights regularly over the past decade to improve teacher recruitment and retention in schools around Asia.

Eileen Boey oversees new initiatives and curriculum development at Presbyterian Preschool Services (PPS). Recently, she helped lead a curricular transformation, called MEI (Making Environment Inspiring), for all eleven centres within the PPS Group. In addition to this main role, Eileen’s heart is for the wellbeing of staff at PPS. Her goal during the Conference will be to share how active listening can improve the mental health of teachers in early childhood settings. Incorporating the experiences of PPS Principal (Jenny Lim), PPS HQ member (Joanna Yong), and PPS Mandarin Teacher (Wang Suping), Eileen will describe the use of an Art Journal as part of a group engagement process to listen to teachers and staff during a recent PPS Corporate Learning Day.

Soh Wan Keem is Principal Dietitian of Nutrimaxx Consultancy, an international member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, U.S.A., as well as PR Chairperson of the Singapore Nutrition and Dietetics Association. She has considerable experience in lifespan nutrition from early childhood to adults and the elderly. She has conducted many educational sessions on mood and food, and her expertise includes emotional eating, food allergies, gastro-intestinal disorders, pregnancy and post-partum nutrition and weight management. She has a private clinic which provides medical nutrition therapy for cancer, dementia, diabetes and other chronic diseases. Her focus is on personalized nutrition using an integrated approach involving emerging nutrigenomics, whole foods and mindfulness. She is an adjunct lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic and various other institutions.

Christine Tan is the founder of Kintsugi Companions and has been a therapist since 2013.

Prior to founding Kintsugi Companions, she was the Executive Director of a Singapore-based not-for-profit organisation. She is a registered clinical member of the Singapore Association for Counselling. Her counselling credentials include a Post-Graduate Diploma in Counselling from the University of Wales and a Master of Arts in Counselling from TCA College (Singapore). She also holds Bachelor degrees from the University of Texas at Austin (USA) in Psychology and Business Administration, and a Master of Arts in International Relations from Baylor University (USA). Christine’s approach to counselling is integrative. She uses frameworks to provide an approach that best suits each client. In doing so, she has included Person-Centered, Cognitive-Behavioural and Solutions-Focused approaches in her engagements. Her experience in counselling includes areas of trauma, substance abuse, mood disorders, depression, gender identity and relationships. She believes that healing and the ability to move forward for the most part lies within a person.