Our Team

Executive Team · Gilbertine Institute Board of Directors

Kenneth Noster

Head of School
Phone: 866-361-3650 x 101
Email: kenneth.noster@gilbertineinstitute.com

Kenneth Noster and his wife, Marlane, were compelled by their firstborn child to begin home schooling in the late 1980’s.  They began with no support network, and their home schooling mirrored the institutional learning they had themselves experienced.  They soon recognized that learning is much bigger than schools.

Within a year, Ken was helping neighbours begin home schooling, and in 1992, he was hired by a nearby school board to organize a home schooling administration.  Recognizing that support for home schooling families requires a very special approach to administration, Ken and Marlane began WISDOM Home Schooling in 1995.

Travelling across Alberta, Kenneth began to serve families, conduct workshops, and provide keynote addresses.  Constantly researching more effective ways to support learning at home, he found himself called upon to make presentations in other areas of Canada and support the work of national home school organizations.  Meanwhile, however, Ken’s primary mission remained in Alberta.

He has been a tireless advocate for the freedom of parents to home school without interference or pressure to conform, and he participated in negotiations of the Alberta Home Education Regulations of 1994, 1998, and 2006.  The persistent negotiations by Kenneth, allied with Paul Jeffrey, then a board member of HSLDA Canada, spanned three Ministers of Education and finally produced the 2006 Regulation.  This Regulation was a landmark that secured the freedoms home schoolers enjoy to this day.  Other home schooling leaders have since joined the advocacy, and the 2019 Home Education Regulation is practically unchanged from that of 2006.

In the summer of 2020, twenty-five years after WISDOM began, Kenneth became the Head of School of The Gilbertine Institute, providing secure support for the home education of over 5,600 WISDOM students and leadership for programs that support home schooling parents in the education of their own children.

In all this, Ken remains the same person who stepped out of the classroom and into the world of home schooling over 3 decades ago.  He continues to strive daily to encourage and empower parents to achieve the best education possible for their children while they fortify the precious relationships within their family.

Vic Wiens

Secretary Treasurer
vic.wiens@gilbertineinstitute.com

Vic Wiens first became acquainted with home schooling in Alberta when he moved to this province in 1998 to take on the role of principal at Newell Christian School in Brooks, the associate private school for a fairly large homeschool organization. It did not take long for him to appreciate the good work that parents were doing in educating their children. Since that time he has been the principal of three other schools with homeschool administrations, and also homeschooled one of his own children.

Over time, Vic, who had initially been very committed to private education, came to realize that homeschooling was another very legitimate option for parents. It look a few more years for him to understand just how good homeschooling could be and now for over 20 years he has been a strong supporter of homeschooling. Over this same timeframe he has also come to appreciate how significant a strong homeschool organization is in supporting parents to enable them to do a great job of homeschooling their children. He counts it a privilege to be part of an organization that operates the best homeschool administration in Alberta.

TobyLauren Burgess, GDM

Chief Operating Officer
tobylauren.burgess@gilbertineinstitute.com

TobyLauren is one of Alberta's first home education graduates. Her parents instilled in her a love of learning, and her own personal experience granted her a life-long passion for supporting choice in education.

TobyLauren worked in home education administration for the bulk of her career until 2020, when she was hired as Chief Operating Officer of The Gilbertine Institute. Her own educational experience proved that individualized education and academic fit results in excellent outcomes, and she is a strong supporter of parents as primary educators.

Other Members of the Executive Team

Mark Ingham
Associate Principal of Holy House of Our Lady & St. Benedict
mark.ingham@gilbertineinstitute.com

Bonnie Allen
Programme Director, Holy House
bonnie.allen@gilbertineinstitute.com

Board Members

Chair: Fr. Robert-Charles Bengry
vice-Chair: Cameron Regehr
Director: John Armstrong
Director: Francis Fast
Director: Sean Hedley
Director: Michelle Leigh
Director: Jason Reid
Director: Patrick Sontrop

Contact the Board: board@gilbertineinstitute.com