My work aims to reduce individual, interpersonal, and institution bias, prejudice, and racism. When working with organizations, much of the anti-bias work focuses on helping leadership understand best practices in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. This aspect of the work can be exhausting, frustrating, and quite frankly traumatic. Working with the Early Care & Learning Cafe has differed from any collaborations I have experienced. Their team is highly knowledgeable, humble and open to learning, professional and flexible, and continues to help me expand my expertise. It has been my honor and privilege to partner with them.

The Early Care & Learning Council provides leadership and support to the 35 Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) organizations throughout New York State. As a CCR&R Executive Director, I am excited about the work that ECLC has done to elevate our work, expand our impact and strengthen our services to the child care community. The network has become a critical piece of the child care infrastructure and launched new innovative programs over the past several years and I look forward to the opportunities still ahead of us.

Advocacy work takes coordination, engagement, expertise and, of course, PASSION. ECLC's strong presence both on the state and federal level speaks to the agency's dedication to lifting the voices of a broad coalition in service of better outcomes for NY's children and families. The early learning and care community is grateful to be able to rely on such great leadership in public policy and advocacy.

The New York Center for Child Development (NYCCD) has been privileged to partner with the Early Care & Learning Council in supporting and building the capacity and competencies of Infant Toddler Mental Health Consultants within the CCR&Rs throughout NYS. They are true partners and through their long history and well-established relationships with the CCR&Rs, they have actively collaborated with NYCCD, drawing on our expertise in the area of infant and early childhood mental health, to build the capacity of the caregivers to address the social emotional needs of infants and toddlers under their care. It is a strong partnership drawing on the core expertise of the ECLC and NYCCD to address the mental health and social emotional health of infants and toddlers.

Having been at the Early Care & Learning Council for 22 years, I am happy to share that it is a wonderful place to work. Over the years, my colleagues here, as well as the CCR&R Membership, have been like a second family to me. As I continued to grow professionally and take on new positions with increased responsibilities at ECLC, I have had the pleasure of getting to know and working with a myriad of people, both ECLC staff and CCR&R leaders, who demonstrate tremendous dedication to the early childhood providers and programs as well as the parents across the state of New York. Many of the CCR&R Directors have been a part of this work at their own organizations for even longer than I, and I continue to learn more management, leadership, and advocacy skills from them as each year passes.