Our Team

Stuart Shanker

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Stuart Shanker (D.Phil) is a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Psychology and the CEO of The MEHRIT Centre, Ltd.. His latest books “Reframed: Self-Reg for a Just Society” (University of Toronto Press 2020) and “Self-Reg Schools: A Handbook for Educators” (Pearson 2019) co-authored with Susan Hopkins is a follow-up to “Calm, Alert and Learning: Classroom Strategies for Self-Regulation” (Pearson 2012). His book, “Self-Reg: How to Help Your Child (and You) Break the Stress Cycle and Successfully Engage With Life” (2016), still garners enthusiastic reviews and media attention throughout North America and has been published in the UK, the US, Poland, Germany, China, South Korea, The Netherlands, and the Czech Republic.

In 2012 Dr. Shanker founded The MEHRIT Centre as a Self-Reg learning and information centre. Stuart commits considerable time to bringing the research and science of Self-Reg to parents, early childhood educators, teachers, educational leaders, health practitioners and communities through his writings, presentations, online courses, webinars, social media and a blog entitled, “The Self-Reg View”. Read more about Dr. Shanker here.

Susan Hopkins

Executive Director

A passionate advocate for children, families, schools and communities, Dr. Susan Hopkins is the Executive Director of The MEHRIT Centre. Over Susan’s two decades of experience in education, she has worked in roles in the early years, K-12 and post-secondary across contexts from Italy to the Northwest Territories (NWT) including classroom teacher, program support teacher, vice-principal, district coordinator for inclusion, researcher, curriculum developer, and post-secondary instructor. Susan led the NWT implementation of the Early Development Instrument in kindergarten, co-authored the 10-Year Early Childhood Framework, developed the NWT play and culture-based kindergarten curriculum and led the Planning, Research and Evaluation division for the Department of Education. Under 5+ years of Susan’s leadership, The MEHRIT Centre has evolved into a highly respected, accessible, and successful center for teaching and learning Self-Reg. Susan recently co-authored the Self-Reg Schools Handbook for Educators and developed the online resources for the Principal’s edition with Stuart Shanker (Pearson, 2019).