We are delighted to announce that our Executive Director, Taran Schneider, is stepping into the role of Board President for Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA), the nation’s leading voice on early care and education. Taran has been a member of CCAoA for nearly a decade and has served on the State Network Council representing Colorado Child Care Resource & Referral work. She was elected to serve on the CCAoA Board in January 2018 and served as the Co-Chair of the Membership Committee until being elected to this new role.
Taran will succeed Dr. Walter Gilliam, nationally-renowned early childhood intervention and policy expert and Director of The Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy and the Mears/Jameson Professor of Child Psychiatry and Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center.
“We’re thrilled and incredibly fortunate to have Taran as our Board President during this critical time,” said Lynette M. Fraga, Ph.D., CEO of Child Care Aware of America. “Taran’s passion and expertise for building connections between partners and her deep understanding of local and state systems will be an invaluable guide for our organization as we help create an equitable, transformed child care system in 2021 and beyond.”
“Taran will be a terrific President to lead the nation’s foremost voice for child care. She is incredibly passionate about children, families, and those who serve them, and she possesses the steady hand and reassuring voice of a leader. She’s exactly who we need right now.” – Dr. Walter Gilliam
In her new role, Taran will guide and inform national best practices and policies in early care and education, along with bringing her learning and influence back to Colorado and Healthy Child Care Colorado. Taran’s leadership of HCCC and our unique position working to build bridges across sectors and between policy spaces and early childhood professionals and families on the ground makes her well-poised for this role. HCCC is eager to have our leader in a role as the Board President of such an important organization at this critical time in our history for the child care industry.