Data Driven Decisions:
Separating Fact from Fiction in Building Early Care and Education Systems
August 25 -27, 2010
Alex Haley Farm
Knoxville, TN
Presenter Biographies
MaryLee Allen
MaryLee Allen is Director of Child Welfare and Mental Health at the Children's Defense Fund. Ms.
Allen is responsible for defining and advancing CDF's agenda to keep children safe in nurturing
families and communities. Her work focuses on improving policies and practices to better
support families in order to prevent problems from occurring and family crises from intensifying
and to promote permanent families for children. Her work addresses child abuse and neglect,
substance abuse, mental health, domestic violence, foster care and adoption. Ms. Allen has played
a leadership role in the development, passage and implementation of major child welfare and
children’s mental health reforms over the past two decades. Ms. Allen has served on many
boards, task forces and advisory committees, Ms. Allen received her B.A. from Marquette
University and her M.S.W. from the National Catholic School of Social Service at the Catholic
University of America.
Leigh Bolick
Leigh Bolick (BA, University of South Carolina) is the Director of Child Care Services within the
South Carolina Department of Social Services. She has 29 years of experience in providing
services to families, having begun her career as a Child Welfare caseworker, working in the Child
Protective Services and Foster Care programs. Leigh Bolick has 22 years of state-level
management experience, and was the Director of the State’s TANF (Family Independence)
program. She was instrumental in the design of South Carolina’s welfare reform effort, having
worked with the state legislature on passage of the Family Independence Act of 1995. As the
State’s Child Care Administrator, Leigh Bolick is responsible for management of all child care
programs at SCDSS, including the ABC Voucher Program, Child Care Licensing, and the Head Start
Collaboration Office; she also administers the Social Services Block Grant.
Micheline Casey
Micheline Casey is the Chief Data Officer (CDO) and Director of Identity Management in the
Governor’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) in the State of Colorado. As CDO, she is
responsible for developing and executing the State’s enterprise data strategy, and developing the
strategic plan for implementing a data governance and data management framework across the
State’s Executive Branch agencies. She coordinates OIT legislative and policy actions as
necessary for this strategic effort. In this role, Ms. Casey also chairs the Government Data
Advisory Board, a legislatively mandated, Governor-appointed Board which was established to
advise the State Chief Information Officer on matters related to enterprise data management and
service delivery. Ms. Casey also serves on the Governor’s Early Childhood Leadership
Commission in an advisory capacity for helping the state create a unified, interagency data
system to promote sharing and use of common data for planning and accountability.
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Dr. Cathy Grace
Dr. Cathy Grace serves as the Children's Defense Fund's Director of Early Childhood
Development where she is responsible for developing and implementing early childhood
development (ECD) policy recommendations and serves as lead advocate for enhancing ECD
policy to elected officials and policy makers. With more than 35 years of experience, Dr. Grace
has worked as a classroom teacher, directed a university-based early care and education
program, served as the early childhood coordinator for the Mississippi Department of Education,
and served as an advisor to state legislators, governors and policy makers.Dr. Grace received her
undergraduate degree in elementary education from the University of Arkansas, her master’s in
early childhood education from Arkansas State University and her doctorate from the University
of Mississippi in Curriculum and Instruction with a major in early childhood education and a
minor in special education.
Elizabeth Groginsky
Elizabeth Groginsky is the Director of Head Start Collaboration in Colorado which is part of the
Lieutenant Governor's Early Childhood Team. Ms. Groginsky has 13 years of experience in early
childhood including evaluation, direct service, administration and policy development. Prior to
joining the Lieutenant Governor's Early Childhood Team, Ms. Groginsky successfully led Adams
County Head Start from an unlicensed, part-day program to a licensed program with part-day,
full-day, full-year and home-based options. As Head Start director, Ms. Groginsky founded the
Early Childhood Partnership of Adams County, a local early childhood council, raising millions of
dollars to expand quality services for young children and their families. She is currently co-chair
of Colorado's Early Childhood Leadership Commission and is leading the subcommittee on Data,
Insights and Needs Assessment. Ms. Groginsky has a Master's degree in Social Sciences and a
Bachelor's degree in Criminology with a Certificate in Women Studies.
Lisa Kaufman, Ph.D.
Lisa Kaufman is the Director the Early Learning Services Department at the Santa Clara County
Office of Education (SCCOE). This department is the largest preschool provider in the county and
leads county-wide strategic planning efforts, including the newly developed Early Learning
Master Plan (which focuses on children birth through age 8). Prior to joining SCCOE, Lisa served
as the Chief of Early Childhood Education for San Francisco Unified School District where she led
the district’s PK-3 strategic planning effort and oversaw the largest early education program in
the city. Lisa received her Ph.D. and A.M. in developmental psychology from the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Elizabeth A. Kelley, MA
Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Kelley is the Director for the Maryland State Department of Education’s Office of
Child Care, which is located within the Division of Early Childhood Development. In this position,
Ms. Kelley oversees all aspects of the provision of child care services for the State of Maryland.
Responsibilities of this position include child care licensing, non-public nursery school approval,
child care subsidy, the child care credentialing program and related quality enhancement grants.
Ms. Kelley holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Intermediate Education and a Master of Arts
degree in Early Childhood Education. She has over 25 years of experience working with young
children and child care programs.
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Elizabeth Laird
Elizabeth Laird, Program Manager for the Data Quality Campaign, manages and conducts policy
analysis on emerging areas of focus, including connecting state and district data systems,
establishing early childhood data systems, and linking longitudinal education data with other
critical information systems. Her professional background includes working at the Council of
Chief State School Officers on several projects focused on improving the quality of information
available to education stakeholders. Ms. Laird holds a master’s degree in public affairs from the
University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and a baccalaureate
degree in mathematics with a minor in Spanish from Vanderbilt University.
Dawn D. Perry
Dawn D. Perry holds a B.S.W. degree in social work and a Master’s degree in child development.
Dawn manages the Early Care and Education (ECE) Services Unit for the City of San José, CA, a
city of over 1 million residents. The ECE Services Unit oversees Smart Start San José, a childcare
facility development and quality improvement program, a family child care training program,
Books for Little Hands early literacy programs and supports the City’s Early Care and Education
Commission. She has taught child development workshops throughout the State of California.
She has held leadership positions in several local and state early education organizations
including State President of the California Child Development Administrators Association
(CCDAA).
Elliot Regenstein
Elliot Regenstein is a Chicago-based partner of EducationCounsel, Elliot Regenstein also is Chair
of the Illinois Early Learning Council’s data work group. He also held the positions of Council CoChair for over four years and as Director of Education Reform for the State of Illinois from 2004
to 2006. At EducatonCounsel, Mr. Regenstein has worked with and presented to early childhood
work group and advisory councils in numerous states, as well as presented on the topic of State
Advisory Councils for several national organizations. His background includes extensive
experience working with state education leaders on a variety of policy initiatives, including early
learning and college and career readiness.
Tonja Rucker
Tonja Rucker currently serves as the Principal Associate for Early Childhood Development in the
Institute for Youth Education and Families at the National League of Cities. She is responsible for
providing primary program support for the Institute’s work in areas related to early childhood
success. Some of her primary duties include providing technical assistance for NLC member cities,
state municipal leagues, and other organizations related to early care and education initiatives; and
planning, organizing, and leading audio conferences, conference calls, and site visits designed to
engage NLC member cities on specific topics related to early care and education. She has a
doctorate in Human Development from the University of Maryland College Park and a Bachelor
of Arts in Psychology from Spelman College.
Nina Sazer O’Donnell
Nina Sazer O’Donnell is United Way Worldwide Vice President for Education. She leads the
cross-cutting Education work by helping United Way deepen collaboration with national partner
organizations and initiatives, and spearhead development of an education strategy that maps
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how UWW and local and state United Ways can leverage partners, the national system and
advocacy capacity to meet national education goals.
Tom Schultz
Tom Schultz is Project Director for Early Childhood Initiatives at the Council of Chief State School
Officers (CCSSO) in Washington, D.C. where he works with states to improve learning
opportunities and outcomes for young children. Prior to joining the Council, Dr. Schultz worked
on early childhood policy and school reform issues at the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Head Start
Bureau, the U.S. Dept. of Education, the National Association of State Boards of Education, the
Region V, Office of Child Development and the Chicago Public Schools.
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Coaches Biographies
Kirsty Brown
Kirsty Brown is special assistant for research, policy and evaluation at the Office of Child
Development and Early Learning in Pennsylvania. She has been engaged in policy issues at the
state, and in developing the Early Learning Network, the state's data collection system for early
childhood programs. She has been working on early childhood education policy issues for the
past 15 years, including several years as the assistant director at the National Institute for Early
Education Research.
Kathy Glazer
Kathy Glazer recently joined the national Build Initiative as Director of State Services. In this
capacity, she provides technical assistance and strategic advice to eight states in support of their
early childhood agendas. In addition, she works in partnership with researchers, other national
partners, and federal representatives on policy priorities to assist states in their service to young
children and families. Prior to Build, Kathy served in Virginia state government in positions
including Executive Director for Governor Tim Kaine's Working Group on Early Childhood
Initiatives and Director of the Office of Early Childhood Development. Before her tenure in state
government, Kathy served as Vice President and Director of Strategic Communications for Voices
for Virginia's Children. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia and her
master's degree in Public Administration at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Elliot Regenstein
Elliot Regenstein is a Chicago-based partner of EducationCounsel, Elliot Regenstein also is Chair
of the Illinois Early Learning Council’s data work group. He also held the positions of Council CoChair for over four years and as Director of Education Reform for the State of Illinois from 2004
to 2006. At EducatonCounsel, Mr. Regenstein has worked with and presented to early childhood
work group and advisory councils in numerous states, as well as presented on the topic of State
Advisory Councils for several national organizations. His background includes extensive
experience working with state education leaders on a variety of policy initiatives, including early
learning and college and career readiness.
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