Wonderschool convenes advisory board of ECE experts

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wonderschool, a network of modern early childhood education programs, today announced the development of The Wonderschool Early Childhood Education Advisory Board. The Advisory Board is comprised of experts in early childhood education, education policy, and entrepreneurship.

The Advisory Board members include:

Ashley Beckner - Venture Partner, Imaginable Futures
Ashley oversees Imaginable Futures' U.S. education strategy and investments, with a particular focus on early care and education. Prior to joining Imaginable Futures, Ashley built and ran all non-instructional organizational functions at Bricolage Academy, an innovative, socioeconomically diverse, charter elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana, as its founding director of finance, strategy, and operations. Ashley was co-president of the Wharton Social Venture Fund and spent a summer as an Education Pioneers fellow with the Silicon Schools Fund. She is also an Observer on Wonderschool's Board of Directors.

Kai-leé Berke - Former CEO, Teaching Strategies
Kai-leé Berke is the Vice Chair of the Board and former CEO of Teaching Strategies. Prior to her appointment as CEO, Kai-leé held roles as Teaching Strategies' Vice President of Curriculum and Assessment, Chief Product Officer, and Chief Academic Officer, during which time she authored the GOLD® assessment system and all editions of The Creative Curriculum®. She is a lifelong early childhood educator and administrator, having taught and cared for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and Kindergarteners in public, private and Department of Defense programs. Kai-leé is also a proud mother of two.

David Fleishman - Executive Director, 4Cs of San Mateo County
David is Executive Director of Child Care Coordinating Council (4Cs) of San Mateo County, the  county's Resource and Referral Agency. His previous work includes educational funding with First 5 San Mateo County; local and national non-profit leadership; research and evaluation with San Francisco State University; teaching young students with learning disabilities; and policy development.

Bill Hudson - Former CEO, National Association for Family Child Care
Bill has over 25 years of nonprofit leadership experience and brings a deep commitment to family child care to the Wonderschool advisory board. In addition to his previous role as CEO for the National Association for Family Child Care, Bill served as a member of the core task force for NAEYC's Power to the Profession initiative.  He was also a member of the National Academy of Medicine's Birth to Age 8 Workforce committee, and their Early Care and Education Innovation Collaborative. He currently serves as a board member for the Main Street Child Development Center,  the Virginia Family Child Care Alliance, and is a founding board member of a state-level staffed family child care network in Maryland.

Fran McIntyre - Founder, CCLC & Pendulum Dependent Care Solutions
Fran McIntyre founded Childrens' Creative Learning Centers (CCLC) in 1992, inspired by her passion for providing working parents and employees with the best possible benefits and ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance with their families. Fran is dedicated to developing both corporate child care programs and working alongside HR professionals to help them create the most valuable benefits for their employees, and furthered this work by founding her own consulting firm, Pendulum Dependent Care Solutions, in 2015.

Jim Shelton - Former President, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Jim was most recently the head of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's Education division. He was formerly the Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Education and Assistant Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Education, overseeing the Office of Innovation and Improvement. In this role, Jim managed a portfolio that included most of the Department's competitive programs, such as the Investing in Innovation Fund (i3), Promise Neighborhoods, and other initiatives focused on teacher and leader quality, school choice, and learning technology.

"We are honored to draw from the depth of knowledge each member brings to the Advisory Board and, after our launch in late  2019, the members are looking forward to a great 2020 tackling a variety of issues facing families and childcare providers across the country" said Mia Pritts, Wonderschool Head of Early Childhood Education. "The Board's help in understanding how to improve access to quality early learning, subsidies, and professional development has been transformational."

The Advisory Board meets three times per year at the Wonderschool headquarters in San Francisco and is helping the company to explore topics such as developing and maintaining high quality standards, ensuring curriculum best practices, and building effective trust and safety policies for our Wonderschool child care providers. In addition, the Board will help advise Wonderschool on expansion with a goal of increasing supply of high quality programs in areas of the country that need greater access. The Board has also been exploring developing public and private partnerships, and other relevant issues in early childhood education.

For more information please visit www.wonderschool.com. For media inquiries, please contact Stephen Rodriguez at [email protected].

About Wonderschool
Wonderschool is building the largest network of high-quality early education programs. Wonderschool offers a diversity of options and combines engaged teachers and thoughtful education with the warmth of a family program while maintaining standards that go above and beyond state requirements. By providing dedicated support, technology, training, mentorship, and community, Wonderschool lets teachers focus on what they do best -- teaching -- and allows them to earn a sustainable living in the field they love. Named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in Education in 2019, Wonderschool is based in San Francisco and venture-backed by Andreessen Horowitz, First Round, Omidyar, Unusual Ventures, and Gary Community Investments, among others. www.wonderschool.com.

SOURCE Wonderschool

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