Thank you for this opportunity to share with you why I should be the next Governing Board Member at Large of NAEYC.

The first thing you should know about me is that I am a proud graduate of Head Start, born and raised in NYC. There is not a day that goes by where I do not think of how my Head Start teachers, Yolanda and Ramona, inspired me to learn voraciously despite being born into and growing up in poverty. Not only did they teach me how to speak English (I grew up in a household that only spoke Cantonese), they also sparked in me an undying passion to learn and to explore the world through reading and observation. In combination with the loving care I received from my parents, my Head Start teachers fundamentally changed my life trajectory through their developmentally appropriate and emotionally responsive care. Out of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, I emerged a graduate of Brown, Harvard, Columbia, and Cambridge Universities, arduously fighting poverty and advocating for quality early learning as my chosen profession.

I am presently the director of the Fund for Early Learning (FUEL) at the Robin Hood Foundation, which is NYC’s largest poverty-fighting organization. Focused on the youngest children (ages 0 to 3) living in poverty, FUEL is a five-year, 50 million dollar plus initiative rooted in the science of early brain development. Its goal is to identify and support science-informed, effective, cost-efficient, and scalable early childhood interventions and approaches. To get there, we need to translate the science of early neurological development into actions by parents, caregivers, practitioners, and policymakers to optimally build the brains of over 100,000 New Yorkers ages 0 to 3 who are living in poverty and to change their life trajectories in the process. Under my direction, I expanded the investment strategy for FUEL to focus on discovering pathways to sustainability for each investment. In this way, the impact of the fund may be felt for years to come: through partnerships with government agencies to fundamentally change how public agencies expend their state’s allocation of the Child Care and Development Fund and how public hospitals will coordinate women’s health, pediatrics, and behavioral health services with a multigenerational approach.

Immediately before joining Robin Hood, I was the director of early childhood development at the NYC Health Department. In this role, I crafted a new regulatory approach that goes beyond focusing on health and safety issues—one that holds the early care and education system accountable for promoting healthy early childhood development. This includes the development of regulatory innovations that support licensed early childhood educators to provide emotionally responsive and developmentally appropriate care to all children served in NYC’s center-based child care system, irrespective of their socioeconomic status, race, and gender. Through this work, I built a deep understanding of the systems, policies, and practices that affect critical outcomes for the more than 600,000 children ages 6 and under in NYC. The success of this work is further catalyzed by my commitment to promoting social justice and equity, especially for the most vulnerable children.

My intensive engagement with the key stakeholders in early childhood education—both locally in NYC and nationally—has also established me as a respected leader in the field of early learning. In addition to having served previously on the New York State Board of Regents Blue Ribbon Committee on Early Learning, I was recently invited to speak, alongside Chelsea Clinton, at the launch of a policy lab at Yale, Elevate, that is focused on studying the relationship between mental health, early childhood development, and poverty. I also regularly present at high-profile professional conferences in early childhood, including the US Administration for Children & Families National Research Conference on Early Childhood and the annual conferences of NAEYC, Zero to Three, and the National Association for Regulatory Administration. Many in the national and international philanthropic communities turn to me for expert guidance and consultation on issues pertaining to early childhood development and learning and strengthening the workforce in early childhood education.

I am awed and galvanized by the mission of NAEYC. In addition to my technical abilities, my fit for the role of Governing Board Member at Large is underscored by the fact that I am creative, approachable, enterprising, gregarious, versatile, articulate, effective under pressure, highly diplomatic, and blessed with a good sense of humor. Vote for me. I look forward to serving you and young children everywhere as the next Governing Board Member at Large of NAEYC.