Instructor Profiles
Care About Childcare
Ingrid Brouwer
Ingrid loves working with children and has done this for a long time. She also loves working with adults and has been enjoying teaching for USU Eastern and UVU Care About Childcare.
Continued education is a passion of hers, and she has been continuing her education. She loves learning new things that help improve her as a person, which she says is an ongoing process.
Nature helps Ingrid rejuvenate herself, so she goes for runs, walks, and hikes to help gain peace in this hectic world. Family helps her stay grounded, and she loves spending time with them.
Joan Cranney
Joan has been teaching for CAC since May 2019. She is also a headteacher for the USU Little Aggies 3 to 5-year-old preschool class and has been teaching there since January 2014. Prior to teaching preschool, she ran a home daycare for eight years. She has a dual degree in Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education and is pursuing a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction. She loves learning and participating in early childhood conferences and training. She loves working with young children and the joy they bring to the classroom.
Joan has five children and four grandchildren. In her spare time, she loves reading, camping with her family, and spending time with her grandchildren.
She grew up in Vernal and currently lives in Roosevelt.
Valerie Jones
Valerie Jones has been teaching Care About Childcare classes for ten years. She loves to teach other early childhood professionals. She is strongly committed to the idea that all of us that work with children are entitled to professional respect. Valerie has a dual Bachelor’s in Early Childhood and Elementary Education and a Master’s in Human Development and Family Studies.
She started her career as a founding member of the Open Classroom Program in the Salt Lake City School District. When Valerie moved to the Oregon Coast she was hired as a Program Director at an Early Childhood Program in a Community College where she taught pre-school, as well as, students working on their CDA. When she moved to Moab, she became an instructor at the Multicultural Center.
Valerie is the mother of six.
Alisa Morley
Alisa Morley grew up in Blanding Utah and loved the people and her time there. She has lived in Price, Utah for 16 years, has six children, 2 grandchildren and loves spending time with her family.
Alisa first attended college at College of Eastern Utah in Price on a scholarship to play basketball. Alisa later went to school at USU Eastern on both the Blanding and Price campuses. She got her Bachelor's and Master’s degree in Social work and loves her current job as the Afterschool Director for Carbon School District. Alisa is an LCSW and really enjoys meeting and working with many different people in her personal and professional life.
She loves playing sports, creating music, and going on adventures with her husband and children.
One of Alisa's favorite sayings comes from her father. "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime!"
Lisa Mortensen
Lisa has a bachelor’s degree and a Master’s of Education in Special Education from the University of Utah, and has been working with children and adults with autism for more than 15 years. She teaches professional development courses for Care About Childcare, and is a certified Master IEP Coach and co-founder of Confidently Prepared. Lisa homeschools some of her children and cheers when the others make it out the door on time for school. She enjoys singing, playing piano, embroidery, reading, and dragging her family around to visit historical sites together. She lives with her husband and 7 children near Cincinnati, Ohio.
Stephanie Pehrson
Kristen Remington, MOT OTR/L, CAS
Kristen works for USU Eastern as a CAC instructor. She has been teaching childcare classes for 5+ years. She welcomes the opportunity to get to know childcare providers. Some of Kristen’s accomplishments include undergraduate degrees in German & Humanities (Associate degree) and European Studies (Bachelor’s degree). She also studied occupational therapy at the University of Utah, graduating with a master’s degree in Occupational Therapy.
Kristen has worked at Uintah School District as a pediatric school-based occupational therapist with students from preschool to high school for 18+ years. Her areas of specialty are in sensory processing and autism. She is also a Certified Autism Specialist.
She is married and has four children, ranging from high school to preschool. She enjoys spending time with her husband and children, traveling to new places. While traveling, Kristen collects children’s books. Each vacation means a new children’s book for the family library.
She also has a passion for soccer. She has played soccer and coached it for many years. Her favorite soccer team is her little AYSO Playground 3-4 year old soccer team. She and her husband volunteer by training others on how to develop this motor skills soccer program for little 3-4 year-old soccer players.
Kristen considers herself an avid learner – learning from books and formal settings, as well as just learning from others and life. She loves to share what she has learned with others.