Joel Ryan
Executive Director
WA State Assn of Head Start and ECEAP
I've been the Executive Director of the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP for the past 15 years. I've worked on everything from state funded preschool, special education policy, child care, housing, food insecurity, and most recently supporting families during COVID. I'm probably most proud of my work last legislative session where I successfully advocated with lawmakers, the Governor, and coalition partners to secure more than $400 million in new investments in early learning through the passage of the Fair Start for Kids Act.
Before coming to Washington State I was the Government Affairs Director at the National Head Start Association where I served as the Head Start community's voice in DC. I worked closely with members of Congress and the White House. I travelled all across the country and had the opportunity to teach grassroots organizing to low income communities which I really enjoyed.
I have a law degree from American University in DC where I focused on constitutional law and a BA degree from Brandeis University in History and Politics. I'm an Americorps alumni—serving as a City Year Corps member in Boston where I was a literacy coach and helped to set up a community wide volunteer program and educational spring break camps.
My most important job is that of a husband and dad to a 15 year old. I coached her basketball team for 7 years and have coached track as well.
www.wsaheadstarteceap.com
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Executive Director
WA State Assn of Head Start and ECEAP
Katy Warren
Deputy Director
WA State Assn of Head Start and ECEAP
Katy Warren has been working at WSA Head Start and ECEAP for 15 years after wandering the world in her 20’s. After college at William and Mary she served as legislative assistant and Press Secretary for Rep. Sid Morrison, (R, Zillah) and then went travelling off to central and South America. She has worked as a cafeteria dishwasher, a public engagement consultant, an insurance adjuster assistant, a database developer and quasi-interpreter for a weatherization program, a waitress in a pancake house, a census taker, a focus group facilitator, an English as a Second Language teacher in Vietnam, a bookkeeper back when they wrote things on ledgers, a title company clerk, and a Spanish drill instructor. She loves to travel and have been to 34 countries and has lived in Mexico, Spain and Vietnam. Now she tries to make the world a better place for children and families by hassling elected officials and bureaucrats. She writes children’s books for her niece Eliza, who is also the person upon whom she experiments with all the CLASS instructional support strategies she learns while walking through the trainings she arranges for early learning staff.
www.wsaheadstarteceap.com
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Deputy Director
WA State Assn of Head Start and ECEAP
Rachel Nemhauser
Community and Family Support Program Manager
The Arc of King County
Rachel has been an active member of the disability community since 2009, and is passionate about supporting families through all the joys and challenges of raising their children. She is a former two-term member of the Washington State Developmental Disabilities Council, and has worked at The Arc of King County since 2015. She is currently the Community and Family Support Program Manager at The Arc, and has worked with hundreds of families as they navigate complex systems, advocate for their sons and daughters, and learn to support their children as people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Rachel is also the parent of a 18 year old autistic son, and feels strongly about self-determination and the importance of amplifying the voices of marginalized and underserved people.
https://arcofkingcounty.org/
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Community and Family Support Program Manager
The Arc of King County
April Messenger
Director of Family Engagement and Advocacy
WA State Assn of Head Start and ECEAP/ Washington State Parent Ambassadors
April is our first full time staff person for the Parent Ambassador program. April was a Parent Ambassador in PA 2- 2010 where she was involved in the creation of the WA-Kids program and the 12 month subsidy authorization. Head Start and ECEAP played significant roles in all of her children’s lives, but most importantly the diagnosis of a hearing loss in her middle daughter at the age of 3. In cohorts 3 and 4, she served as a Parent Coordinator. She left our program upon getting hired at the Department of Early Learning, where she led the work for the re-establishment for the Parent Advisory Group. April has worked in various capacities in early learning over the last decade with the League of Education Voters, the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges and the Children’s Alliance. April most recently managed the work of the Early Learning Action Alliance, a statewide coalition of early learning organizations focused on early learning advocacy and policy. April’s passion and commitment to parents and family advocacy has always been first and foremost in every position she’s held.
April lives in Olympia with her husband and their blended family of 7 kids, (3 bio, 3 bonus and a foster) and two grand daughters! April is excited to work with creating the Parent Ambassador 2.0 program and getting back to what she really enjoys, working 1 on 1 with parents to empower them to engage in advocacy.
https://wsaheadstarteceap.com/parent-ambassadors/paoverview/
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Director of Family Engagement and Advocacy
WA State Assn of Head Start and ECEAP/ Washington State Parent Ambassadors
Sharonne Navas
Executive Director/Co-Founder
Equity in Education Coalition
Sharonne Navas is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Equity in Education Coalition.
The first American-born child of immigrant parents from Guatemala and El Salvador, Sharonne understands, and values, the complexity of being multi-lingual and multi-cultural in America. A native of New York City, Sharonne moved to the Seattle area in 2009.
Past professions include being a community organizer with Stand for Children, Executive Director of Para Los Niños, Assistant Director of Development for NARAL Pro-Choice America, Deputy Executive Director for Ayuda, Inc., and Development Coordinator for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
In 2010, she was appointed as Commissioner for the Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs.
In 2016, she was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Green River Community College.
Sharonne was an advisory member for the Thrive By Five‘s “Talk, Love, Play” initiative, a cohort member of Thrive by Five’s “Advancing Racial Equity Theory of Change in Early Learning,” a committee member of the WA State Education Opportunity Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee. Sharonne is currently a member of the advocacy caucus, community network steering committee, and sponsors group of the Road Map Project of CCER.
She also volunteers for the South King Council on Human Services and was a Board member of the League of Education Voters and is on the Steering Committee of the Southeast Seattle Education Coalition. Sharonne holds a BA in Psychology and Sociology from St. John’s University.
She spends her off-time exploring the various foods and wines of WA State with her husband Steve and their tweenie dachshunds, Manny, and Porter.
https://eec-wa.org/
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Executive Director/Co-Founder
Equity in Education Coalition
Geraldine Wynn
Professional Development Consultant
Lakeshore Learning
Geraldine “Gigi” Wynn is dedicated to excellence in early childhood education—with 15 years of experience in fostering children’s learning and supporting teachers’ growth. As a professional development specialist, she calls on her rich background to provide meaningful, outcome-based trainings in person and online.
Gigi has served the early childhood community in a variety of roles—from teaching and training in the classroom to acting as assistant director and director of early childhood centers. Gigi has more than 20 years of experience as a trainer, mentor and coach. She has served as QRIS coach and trainer for 30 preschools in the Las Vegas area, using ITERS-R, ECERS-R, CLASS and ECERS-3. She has also
acted as a center-based site assessor, using ITERS-R and ECERS-R.
In her role as coach and mentor for the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, Gigi trains staff, conducts observations in pre-k classrooms and creates and implements community trainings. As a CCP supervisor for Lakeshore, Gigi supports the needs of teachers and directors by providing them with Complete Classrooms®. Gigi holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood administration and a master’s degree in special education. She is currently pursuing a PhD in organizational development and leadership with an emphasis in e-training
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Professional Development Consultant
Lakeshore Learning
Tim Andrews
Consanltant, Coach and Trainer
Teacher Tim Andrews
I earned my M.S. in Early Childhood Special Education from Portland State University in 2000. Fresh out of graduate school, I took a position in a ‘behavior’ or therapeutic classroom – my brother was the speech and language pathologist – I thought he would help me with paperwork! I didn’t have any idea what I signed up for. For seven years I taught in this classroom; my first three years were very challenging. I was putting out fires, feeling badly about my teaching skills, and not sure where to go for support. It was then that I found Early Childhood Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports…and my world changed. My classroom became a peaceful place, children were learning, and families were empowered and supported. I finally knew what to do to help these children and families.
Now, I’m out of the classroom, and since 2007 I’ve spent my time consulting, training, and working with families in their homes. I’m passionate about this work and believe that with the principles of Early Childhood Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports we can help to transform people’s lives for the better.
I’ve provided numerous trainings to various agencies over the years including Head Starts, Community Preschools, and Early Childhood Special Education Programs. I’ve coached classroom teachers on PBIS implementation and serve as an external coach to other agencies.
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Consanltant, Coach and Trainer
Teacher Tim Andrews
Nigel Lawrence
Tribal Council
Secretary at Suquamish Tribe
About Nigel Lawrence
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Tribal Council
Secretary at Suquamish Tribe
Janice Deguchi
Executive Director
Neighborhood House
Janice Deguchi has served as the Executive Director of Neighborhood House since September 2019. Janice is a Seattle native and has worked for over 25 years helping people gain access to vocational training, early learning, senior care, and youth mentorship. She is a tireless advocate for social justice and in 2013, was selected as a Parent Map Superhero for her early learning advocacy.
Having assumed her role just prior to COVID, Janice led Neighborhood House’s response to increased community need for rental assistance, vaccinations, diapers, jobs and unemployment assistance, early learning, youth development and other essential services. Janice successfully advocated with Employment Security Department to add more language accessibility and improve responsiveness to marginalized communities. During the 2021 legislative session, Janice secured $2.1 million in funding from Washington State’s Capital Facilities Budget to increase early learning capacity at four existing locations and one new location. Under her leadership, Neighborhood House refreshed its mission, vision, values, and strategic plan – and renewed its commitment to becoming an anti-racist organization.
Janice currently serves on the boards of 501 Commons, Washington State Community Action Partnership, and is co-chair of the Seattle Human Services Coalition Wage Equity Leadership Committee. Janice served as President of the Washington State Association of Head Start/ECEAP mobilizing Washington Head Start programs to educate their Members of Congress to oppose block granting Head Start to the states.
For over 100 years, Neighborhood House has been creating opportunities for people facing language, cultural, and systemic barriers to live longer happier and healthier lives. Neighborhood House serves over 14,000 people each year, living in Seattle and King County, building community and increasing access to housing, health, education, and economic opportunity.
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Executive Director
Neighborhood House
Ramona Hattendorf
Director of Advocacy
The Arc of King County
Serving since 2016
Ramona Hattendorf came to disability rights after a decade advocating to close education gaps in Washington schools. Her first career was in journalism, working for newspapers large and small in Idaho, California, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Illinois. More recently she has worked in marketing, government relations and civic engagement, specializing in helping people develop and analyze policy proposals and engage with elected leaders.
She was an active parent volunteer for years, serving as president of the Seattle Council PTSA, where she helped mentor Parent -Teacher Association/Parent-Teacher-Student Association leaders across the city, and helped found the Washington Family Engagement Trust. She teaches the public policy sequence for the Parent Leadership Training Institute at Everett Community College.
She serves on the public policy committee for the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, and served as governor appointee to the Career Education Opportunities Task Force, as well as on the state steering committee for Washington’s Teacher and Principal Evaluation Project, and the state’s Ready and Successful School Work Group.
She first started working on disability issues as a government relations coordinator working with parents statewide to implement social emotional learning; positive behavior interventions and supports; equity, access and opportunity for students with disabilities; and ending use of restraints and isolation.
At The Arc, she oversees Community Change Champions, an activist program for people with disabilities, and the King County Parent and Family Coalition. She also produces news and education materials to help people understand and engage in public policy. She studied journalism and international relations at the University of Southern California, earning her bachelor of arts degree in 1987.
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Director of Advocacy
The Arc of King County
Lisa Brouwer-Thompson
CEO
The Nakedwall
Lisa Brouwer-Thompson received a BA in Fine Arts from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. She completed studies online through the Trauma-Informed Practices and Expressive Arts Therapy Institute. For the past 30 years she maintained her own mural painting business while working in education. She paints indoor and outdoor murals of all sizes for commercial and residential clients throughout the USA and Canada. She often employs students to help paint with her in an effort to pass on the trade. Lisa currently lives in Richland, WA where she continues to run The Nakedwall, her mural painting company, and also serves as a Co-Administrator for the Educational Service District 123 leading their Early Childhood Education Assistance Program serving 691 students in over a dozen different school districts across Eastern Washington.
About Lisa Brouwer-Thompson
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CEO
The Nakedwall
Becky Thompson
Director of Student Financial Assistance
WSAC - Washington Student Achievement Council
About Becky Thompson
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Director of Student Financial Assistance
WSAC - Washington Student Achievement Council
