nafcc.org -

  Term: 2012-2015

Election Bio — My passion is to help, nurture and educate children, as well as advocate for the needs of family child care providers. I love to listen, mentor, support and help providers in my local area and throughout the state of Florida. Now, I am looking forward to expanding that passion by working with the NAFCC Board of Directors, Family Child Care Associations and professional providers as Region 4 Representative. I believe we can make a difference if we stand for what we believe in and work as a team.

As a mother of three grown children and proud grandmother of nine, I have always had a passion to be an educator. My early career was in Corrections, however in 1998, I decided to pursue my passion and became a licensed family child care provider. Then three years later, I expanded to a large licensed family child care home. As I learned about the NAFCC standards and guidelines for quality, my program began to change. In 2002 my program became NAFCC Accredited and has been for the past 10 years. It has been such a privilege and a great opportunity to experience being a NAFCC Accredited Provider. I feel it is important to continue to grow as a professional by attending training and providing high quality child care with the guidelines established by NAFCC. I earned the Florida Director Credential in 2003, AA in Business Management in 2006, BS in Human Services in 2008 and AS Degree in Early Childhood Education in 2009.

I have leadership experience on a local level, serving as President of the Marion County Family Child Care Home Association. This includes planning, networking and collaborating with other community partners and child care organizations. Locally, I also serve on the Board of the Early Learning Coalition of Marion County and a member of their Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program Committee. On a state level, I am serving the last of a four year term as the Public Relations Officer for the Florida Family Child Care Home Association – a state Affiliate of NAFCC. My goal will be to serve and support NAFCC by representing family child care providers in Region 4.