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Sandra Laguna
Program Assistant
408.299.1719
slaguna@wested.org
Program Assistant Sandra Laguna helps support the work of WestEd's E3 Institute: Advancing Excellence in Early Education, which has become a model of increasing community access to high-quality early education.
The E3 Institute plans and designs professional development systems for early childhood educators in collaboration with the four community college districts in Santa Clara County. Laguna's Institute responsibilities include processing staff travel and reimbursements, overseeing major office purchases, supporting on-site facilities management, establishing vendor relationships and accounts, evaluating spacing needs and office reconfigurations/conversions, and maintaining office appearance and organization.
A member of WestEd's staff since 2005, Laguna also provides human resources support to the Institute's Operations Manager, coordinates events — including two health fairs — and supports project staff. She contributed to E3 Institute's processing of more than 800 California Child Development Permits for early educators in 2006-2009. In addition, as part of WestEd's Power of Preschool Project, Laguna coordinated the purchase of more than 70 book titles for classroom use as well as for teachers as a resource.
Laguna has 17 years of office administration experience in the early education field at the Santa Clara County (CA) Office of Education as Operations/Family Support Services Clerical Supervisor. There she developed a system to monitor the receipt, assignment, and status of more than 2,000 applications received yearly and multiple documents required for enrollment in the Head Start program. While at the county office, she also helped develop the Santa Clara County Office of Education Style Guide.
She has 15 years of banking experience in administration and customer service at Bank of America, and served as assistant to the high school principal in the Montebello Unified School District.
A commissioned notary and authorized loan-signing agent, Laguna completed courses in management, accounting, and general education. She also completed a management program provided by the Santa Clara Office of Education.
Kimmy Nguyen
Research Assistant
408.299.1724
knguyen@wested.org
Kimmy Nguyen is a Research Assistant for WestEd's E3 Institute: Advancing Excellence in Early Education, which has become a model of increasing community access to high-quality early education.
A member of WestEd's Center for Child and Family Studies (CCFS), Nguyen primarily assists with the implementation of the E3 Institute's Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards (CARES) project in Santa Clara County, California. CARES is designed to promote, reward, and encourage educational attainment among child care professionals in Santa Clara County through a system of financial incentives and rewards.
Nguyen also assists with the Power of Preschool (PoP) initiative, also in Santa Clara County. The PoP initiative expands access to preschool for Santa Clara County's 3- and 4-year-old children and provides additional resources for families and early educators. Nguyen's work on this initiative has resulted in quality data collection for program evaluation.
Previously at WestEd, Nguyen worked for the CCFS's Evaluation Team. Nguyen acted as the lead recruiter, lead data collector, and lead coordinator for multiple CCFS assessment projects. She was one of the data anchors to maintain high inter-rater reliability with the early childhood environment assessors in Los Angeles County using the Environmental Rating Scales.
Prior to joining WestEd in 2007, Nguyen worked as a Research Assistant for the University of California, Los Angeles Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. As the Northern California Program Representative, Nguyen conducted observational assessments for more than 50 early education centers and direct assessments to more than 100 children in Alameda County, California.
Nguyen received a BA in sociology from the University of California, Irvine, and an MA in education with a special interest in counseling from San Francisco State University.
Kazuko Smith
Research Associate
408.299.1710
ksmith@wested.org
As a Research Associate for the WestEd E3 Institute – Advancing Excellence in Early Education, Kazuko Smith supports and strengthens early childhood professional development.
Smith provides data analysis and consultation in areas critical to the Institute's goals of advancing professional development for early childhood educators. Her work has resulted in the Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards (CARES) project becoming firmly established in Santa Clara (CA) County. As of 2009, nearly 86 percent of the estimated early education workforce in Santa Clara County working in licensed programs has participated in CARES. Smith also contributed to bringing together an unprecedented collaboration of Santa Clara community agencies and college representatives at a monthly roundtable. She has collaborated extensively with these agencies and colleges to support early educators in this county.
In addition, Smith collaborates with the WestEd Interactive team to manage two areas of rapid expansion — online data collection and the E3 Institute's website. The online data collection system has been used to assess demographic information, such as whether CARES is serving a representative portion of eligible early educators and whether it is attracting recipients whose ethnicity and language skills mirror the population of Santa Clara County. This quantitative and qualitative data have provided data snapshots of early educators in the county for the first time. Smith's development work with the E3 Institute website has given visibility to the field and created a tool for online dissemination of critical and time-specific information for early educators and other community members involved with early education.
Prior to joining WestEd, Smith was a senior office administrator in the start-up venture capital division of a major high-tech corporation. She handled all aspects of operations, accounting, special projects, and event coordination.
Smith is Japanese-English biliterate and began her professional career as a translator/interpreter in the television, animation, and video game industries. As her 15-year experience in visual media grew, she coproduced a feature-length documentary film, which was screened in a commercial theater in Los Angeles. It showed the struggle of the Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian people who fled their own country to start a new life in San Francisco.
Smith received a BA in American and English literature from Shoin University, Japan, and an MA in film from San Francisco State University.
Mimi Munoz
Research Associate
408.299.1706
mmunoz@wested.org
Research Associate Mimi Muñoz assists with the quality improvement of WestEd's Power of Preschool (PoP) locations serving family child care and center-based early education programs in Santa Clara County, California.
Muñoz performs her work as part of WestEd's E3 Institute: Advancing Excellence in Early Education. She is a member of the PoP Quality Enhancement Support Team (QuEST) aimed at enhancing quality in PoP classrooms through environment rating scale assessments, ongoing technical assistance, and individualized professional development solutions for teachers in the PoP classrooms. As of 2008, nearly 800 children attended preschool through the PoP initiative.
A member of the E3 Institute since 2003, Muñoz worked on the Institute's Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards (CARES) Program, which promotes and encourages educational attainment among early childhood professionals through a system of financial incentives and rewards. As of 2009, nearly 86 percent of the estimated early education workforce in Santa Clara County working in licensed programs has participated in CARES. Muñoz also contributed to bringing together an unprecedented collaboration of community agencies and college representatives into a monthly roundtable. She has collaborated extensively with these agencies and colleges to support early educators in Santa Clara County.
She has coordinated the CARES international education credential translation and evaluation project and the California Child Development Permit application services, which have benefited more than 1,000 early educators. Muñoz also coordinated the collaborative development and implementation of the online CARES Professional Development and Education Plan (PDEP). Colleges in Santa Clara County have used the PDEP to help more than 3,000 early education students create plans to support their educational goals.
Muñoz also has served as student cohort coordinator for the E3 Institute - San Jose State University (SJSU) Child and Adolescent Development BA Degree Program, which meets the specific educational needs of students in the early childhood educator workforce with the same high standards expected of all SJSU students. In 2010, 30 students are expected to graduate with a BA, which they earned through this program while working full time in early childhood settings.
Muñoz led the IBM-CARES Early Care and Education Quality Improvement Project, an unprecedented collaboration between the early education field and a large, for-profit corporation. IBM Corporation sought to develop an innovative strategy to improve the quality of care available to its employees' families. The training program offered inclusion of children with special needs, college credit for qualified early educators for completion of the WestEd Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) training, environment rating scales training, and enrichment grants upon project completion. The project offered supports to 38 early educators from 35 early educator programs, who otherwise would not have had access to such training opportunities. More than 600 children and their families benefited from this training.
Prior to joining WestEd in 2003, Muñoz worked at the Santa Clara County Office of Education and the Mission College Child Development Department and Center. In 2002, Muñoz was recognized by the Mission College Academic Senate for her exemplary contributions to the college and was presented with a City of San Jose Smart Start Family Child Care Program Award for her service to the community.
She was Vice Chair and Chair of the City of San Jose Early Care and Education Commission, a member of the Santa Clara County Inclusion Collaborative, and, in 2006, was selected as a fellow for the Children's Defense Fund Emerging Leaders Project.
Muñoz received a BA in social science from the University of California, Irvine.
Rick Leon Jr
Financial Analyst
408.299.1708
rleon@wested.org
Esperanza Cadena
Program Assistant II
408.299.1723
ecadena@wested.org
Esperanza Cadena joined WestEd’s E3 Institute in 2004 as an Administrative Assistant with the Operations and Infrastructure Team. Her responsibilities include scheduling of appointments, subcontractor and consultant invoice and contract logging, transcribing of meeting minutes, and implementing event logistics.
Esperanza also assists the CARES (Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards) Initiative by facilitating the California Child Development Permit application process. Specifically, she helps CARES participants apply for their Santa Clara County Office of Education "Temporary County Certificates" for first-time, upgrade and renewal applicants.
Prior to joining the E3 Institute, Esperanza worked in the real estate industry.
She received an AA in business administration from San Jose City College and a BA in business administration from San Jose State University.
Maria Munoz
408.299.1728
mmunoz2@wested.org
Phuong Pham
Administrative Assistant
408.299.1725
ppham@wested.org
Phuong Pham joined WestEd’s E3 Institute in 2006 as an Administrative Assistant. She provides administrative support to the Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards (CARES) program and Power of Preschool (PoP).
Prior to joining the E3 Institute, Pham worked as an Administrative Assistant in various professional environments, including the Asian Americans for Community Involvement, the Santa Clara County Office of Education – Head Start, Kay’s Sterling Inc., and Minh Man Jewelry.
Pham received a BS in information resource management from San Jose State University and holds a credential in the California Family Development Program (FDC) from Cornell University. She is certified by the Gemological Institute of America in both diamonds trading and selling, and in diamonds and diamond grading.
Jessica Mihaly
Senior Program Associate
408.299.1720
jmihaly@wested.org
As Senior Program Associate for WestEd's E3 Institute Advancing Excellence in Early Education, Jessica Mihaly supports and strengthens early childhood professional development through education, recruitment, and financial incentives in California's Santa Clara County.
She facilitates the CARES (Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards) Roundtable, which brings together representatives of Santa Clara County's six community colleges, San Jose State University, National Hispanic University, and four community-based organizations to coordinate approaches to early childhood workforce development in the county.
In addition, Mihaly chairs the Bay Area Early Childhood Professional Development Collaborative, a group of educators and staff from community colleges, state universities, First 5 Commissions, and community-based organizations. This group supports early childhood education (ECE) postsecondary education efforts and develops a systems-wide approach to improving ECE professional development.
Mihaly has worked in early childhood education for the past 15 years. Prior to joining WestEd, she served as the Preschool for All Coordinator and Early Childhood Program Specialist for First 5 San Mateo County. As Coordinator, she helped launch the state of California's first universal preschool demonstration site, which currently provides high-quality preschool to 800 children per year in San Mateo County. In 1997, she helped draft California CARES legislation. The legislation served as the framework for successful CARES programs throughout the state, providing incentives to tens of thousands of early childhood professionals to pursue higher education and professional development.
She has served as an adjunct faculty member in the Child Development Departments at City College of San Francisco and the San Mateo Community College District.
Mihaly is the author of Caring for California’s Children: A Career Guide for Students, Job Seekers and their Counselors (a project of The Peninsula Articulation Committee of Advancing Careers in Child Development, 2000) and coauthor of The CARES Initiative in California: Pursuing Public Policy to Build a Skilled and Stable Workforce, 1997-2000 (Center for the Child Care Workforce 2001).
Mihaly received a BA in dance/movement studies from the Naropa Institute and an MA in early childhood education and a multiple subjects teaching credential from Mills College.
Regina Garcia
Program Assistant
408.299.1709
rgarcia2@wested.org
Maia Connors
Research Assistant
408.299.1727
mconnor@wested.org
As a Research Assistant at WestEd's Center for Child & Family Studies E3 Institute, Maia Connors researches, develops, implements, integrates, and evaluates programs and resources to support the development of young children and their teachers.
As part of the Power of Preschool (PoP) initiative, Connors' work expands access to high-quality preschool for Santa Clara County's 3- and 4-year-old children and provides additional resources for families and early educators.
Connors collaborates closely with preschool administrators to ensure quality services for children, collection of quality data for program evaluation, and a collaborative partnership between E3 Institute and preschool providers.
She also facilitates arts and science enhancement programs that bring local artists and scientists into PoP classrooms to lead weekly hands-on workshops.
Connors is also part of the WestEd team coordinating and facilitating the development of California's Early Childhood Educator Competencies, a statewide evidence-based set of competencies that addresses the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that early childhood professionals need in order to support the development and learning of young children.
Prior to joining WestEd in 2008, Connors was a teacher at a child care center in downtown San Francisco. She also conducted a research study on supporting the social development of 3- and 4-year-old children. The study reported on observations of child and adult play, and its findings have strong implications for both environment design and adult behavior that promotes peer play among young children in public play settings.
Connors received a BA in education and sociology with a focus in human development from Brown University.
George C Philipp
Senior Program Associate
408.299.1720
gphilip@wested.org
Tina Zapien
Operations Manager
623.547.0221
tzapien@wested.org
Tina Zapien is the Operations Manager for WestEd's E3 Institute: Advancing Excellence in Early Education.
Zapien has been a member of WestEd's Center for Child and Family Studies since joining the agency in 2002. She monitors subcontracts and consultant agreements, supervises support staff, and conducts facilities management and human resources for the San Jose WestEd office. She also is responsible for the development and submission of annual and quarterly FIRST 5 Santa Clara County reports.
Zapien leads all aspects of event coordination for the E3 Institute for audiences and participants ranging up to 500. She has coordinated a variety of events including the FIRST 5 Santa Clara County/WestEd; E3 Institute Launching, WestEd; E3 Institute Open House; Early Literacy Conference; National Association of Bilingual Educators Reception; and California Association for Bilingual Educators-Institute for researchers and practitioners.
Previously at WestEd, Zapien secured office space, staffing, equipping, and furnishing for the San Jose office.
Zapien has 26 years of experience in the early education field as an office administrator. In her role as Support Services Supervisor for the Santa Clara County Office of Education's Head Start Program, she designed data systems, office operations, and supervised a 22-person administrative and technical staff. Other administrative positions include working at Evergreen Valley College's Instructional Services Department and the Superintendent's Office of Farmersville (CA) School District.
Patricia Jordan
Senior Program Associate/Program Manager
408.299.1704
pjordan@wested.org
As Senior Program Associate/Program Manager for the WestEd E3 Institute: Advancing Excellence in Early Education, Patricia Jordan develops key publications, presentations, and articles.
A writer who has spearheaded award-winning publications, Jordan works on E3’s Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards (CARES) and Power of Preschool projects. She is also one of the WestEd team members facilitating the development of the California Department of Education’s Early Childhood Educator Competencies, a statewide evidence-based set of competencies that will address the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that early childhood professionals need in order to support the development and learning of young children.
A WestEd staff member since 2005, Jordan has served as lead writer on a number of publications including Preschool for All, 5-Year Master Plan: 2006–2010, 5 Years of Learning: A Report on the First Five Years of Santa Clara CARES 2002–2006, CARES Rounds 6, 7, and 8 Handbooks, and Great Expectations: The E3 Institute-San Jose State University Bachelor's Degree Cohort Program for CARES Participants in Santa Clara County.
Jordan became familiar with WestEd's E3 Institute and FIRST 5 when she served as a technical writer, editor, and researcher for the FIRST 5 Santa Clara County High-Risk Design Research and Development Team. The team's research findings have since been incorporated into the FIRST 5 Santa Clara County Community Service Plan, which provides services and high-quality preschool to children and families who are least likely to receive them. This service plan, codeveloped by Jordan, is unique in its delivery of three elements — high-quality preschool, home visitation, and community service/family supports — thus reaching all domains of a child's life.
Jordan has over 20 years of experience as a technical writer, speechwriter, editor, project manager, managing editor, and lead researcher. She has worked for Hughes Space and Communications Satellite Division (now Boeing), Atlantic Richfield Oil Corporation (ARCO), National Association for Critical Care Nurses, EMQ Children and Family Services, and, most recently, the University of California, Los Angeles’ Graduate Division.
She received a BA in journalism from California State University at Northridge and an MA in family studies from Azusa Pacific University.
Sandy Baba
Professional Development Manager
408.299.1718
sbaba@wested.org
A Professional Development Manager for WestEd's Center for Child & Family Studies (CCSF) E3 Institute, Sandy Baba provides leadership in early childhood education.
Baba creates strategies to help early childhood education (ECE) practitioners and the public heighten their awareness of ECE issues affecting children and families. One such strategy was the planning and development of an E3 conference in California that presented the most up-to-date information about promising practices in early education and policy related to literacy. Baba led the conference collaboration of more than 45 regional and local organizations. Her leadership efforts resulted in more than 2,000 early education practitioners and families attending this conference, further strengthening the connection between parents and early educators.
She also conducts research and product development for a number of CCFS projects, including Young Readers, Future Leaders Early Literacy Initiative, Arts Enrichment Initiative, Santa Clara County Partnership for School Readiness, and Santa Clara County Power of Preschool (PoP). Baba's leadership work in PoP, a research-based and data-driven project, led to Santa Clara County (California) in 2008 serving close to 800 children who might have been exposed to high-risk factors, such as drugs before birth, poor nutrition, family poverty, and domestic violence. Baba also leads the design and implementation of a Quality Enhancement Support Team (QuEST) to individualize professional development needs for the various PoP sites.
A WestEd staff member since 2003, Baba is a certified trainer for CCFS's Program for Infant/Toddler Care. She helps early educators become sensitive to infants' cues, connect with their family and culture, and develop responsive, relationship-based care.
As a national Early Head Start consultant, Baba supports programs in areas of family and community partnerships, fiscal development, universal health and safety precautions, program management, facilities development, and transportation.
Prior to joining WestEd, Baba directed a homeless child development program for a nonprofit agency. There she implemented a relationship-based and modified anti-bias curriculum to counter the adverse effects of homelessness in young children.
In 2005, Baba was selected to participate in the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s Supporting Teachers, Strengthening Families National Leadership Program, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, to engage early childhood professionals in preventing child abuse and neglect.
Baba is literate in English, Chinese, and Japanese, conversant in Mandarin and Japanese, and a native speaker of Cantonese. A frequent presenter on early childhood issues at conferences, Baba has served on the Board of the California Association for the Education of Young Children. She has experience in developing English and Chinese language early literacy curriculum for early childhood programs and language schools in the United States and overseas.
She also is a community liaison for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Diversity and Equity forum, which brings early care educators together for dialogues on related topics. In 2008, Baba led a group of early childhood experts worldwide founded the NAEYC Asian Interest Forum to guide discussions with practitioners on early childhood issues that are related to children and families of Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander descent around the globe.
Baba received a BA in Asian studies from the University of California, Davis, and an MA in education (with an emphasis in early childhood education) from San Francisco State University.
Ilene Hertz
Assistant Director
408.299.1703
ihertz@wested.org
Ilene M. Hertz is the Assistant Director for WestEd’s E3 Institute. She leads all aspects of E3's infrastructure, including program administration, contracts development, technology development, and the E3 Roundtable Collaborative. Hertz also provides leadership in regional forums and oversees the implementation of E3's major initiatives: Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards (CARES), Power of Preschool (PoP), and the Arts Enrichment Initiative (AEI).
Since the inception of Santa Clara CARES in 2002, Hertz has managed the distribution of more than $14 million in annual stipends to early educators in Santa Clara County as an incentive to improve quality in early childhood programs. CARES, a FIRST 5 funded program, is based on national research that links quality in early education programs to the educational levels of child development professionals. E3's emphasis on the use of technology enables it to shape, plan, and implement its policies, programs, and initiatives based on the data it collects. The E3 Institute has been recognized statewide as both an innovative and successful model, due largely to its data-driven approach.
A longtime advocate for the child development field, Hertz has worked in early education policy development for 26 years. She began her career in the Executive Office of Human Services in Boston and went on to serve as Manager of Child Care and Family Services for the city of Palo Alto, CA before joining WestEd in 2002.
She received a BS in social science from Hampshire College and an MA in human services administration from Lesley College.
Yolanda Garcia
Director, E3 Institute
408.299.1701
ygarcia@wested.org
Yolanda Garcia serves as Director of WestEd's E3 Institute, Advancing Excellence in Early Education, which has become a model of increasing community access to high-quality early education.
The E3 Institute plans and designs professional development systems for early childhood educators in collaboration with the four community college districts in Santa Clara County.
A member of WestEd's Center for Child & Family Studies, Garcia directs the advocacy and communication function of the E3 Institute, which supports and strengthens early childhood educator professional development. Serving California's Santa Clara County, the Institute reaches new recruits, family-based early educators, center-based programs, programs for children with special needs, employers, faith-based providers, and the corporate community.
Garcia and her E3 Institute colleagues leverage local resources for early educators, especially through the Institute's Comprehensive Approaches to Raising Educational Standards (CARES) program, which promotes, rewards, and encourages educational attainment among early educators in Santa Clara County through a system of financial incentives and rewards. Garcia coauthored the WestEd-published 5 Years of Learning: A Report on the First Five Years of Santa Clara CARES 2002–2006.
As part of her E3 work, Garcia coauthored the WestEd-published Great Expectations: The E3 Institute-San Jose State University Bachelor's Degree Cohort Program for CARES Participants in Santa Clara County. The E3 Institute supports the research showing that children are better prepared for school when taught by educators who are equipped with the necessary theoretical knowledge and education to improve the quality of preschool services for the county's youngest children. Evidence of the bachelor's degree program's benefits is presented in this report, specifically in the voices of the bachelor's degree cohort members, whose lives have been irrevocably changed by their participation and successes.
Garcia is also responsible for the implementation of a state demonstration called the Power of Preschool that enhances the quality of services to approximately 800 children served by three school districts, the county office of education, and community-based programs.
In recognition of her E3 Institute leadership, Garcia received the 2007 Paul D. Hood Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Field.
For 20 years, Garcia directed the Children's Services Department for the Santa Clara County Office of Education. While in that role, she served on the national Head Start Quality Committee that recommended the development of Early Head Start. Her previous experience also includes analyzing public policy as a Fellow with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and developing a grant-making strategy for early education and family support at the Charles Mott Foundation, as a Senior Program Officer.
She served as Public Policy Chair for the Child Development Policy Institute in California from 2004 to 2008. In 2007, Garcia was elected to the Governing Board for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in a national election. NAEYC is the world's largest organization working on behalf of young children with nearly 100,000 members, a national network of over 300 local, state, and regional affiliates, and a global alliance of like-minded organizations.
Garcia also has served on the NAEYC Quality and Compensation Committee and on the American Academy of Sciences' Committee on the Integration of Sciences in Early Childhood Education, contributing to the academy's seminal report, From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development (2002). She also served on the Early Childhood Mathematics Committee with the National Academy of Sciences, which published the report, Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood: Paths Toward Excellence and Equity, in 2009.
Garcia received a BA in political science, history, and sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara; an MS in social services administration with an emphasis on public policy and child welfare from the University of Chicago; and an MA in education administration from San Jose State University.
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