How Does the Leadership Gap Impact You?

Sim Loh is a family partnership coordinator at Children’s Village, a nationally-accredited Keystone 4 STARS early learning and school-age enrichment program in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, serving about 350 children. She supports children and families, including non-English speaking families of immigrant status, by ensuring equitable access to education, health, employment, and legal information and resources on a day-to-day basis. She is a member of the Children First Racial Equity Early Childhood Education Provider Council, a community member representative of Philadelphia School District Multilingual Advisory Council, and a board member of Historic Philadelphia.
Sim explains, “I ensure families know their rights and educate them on ways to speak up for themselves and request for interpretation/translation services. I share families’ stories and experiences with legislators and decision-makers so that their needs are understood. Attending Leadership Connections will help me strengthen and grow my skills in all domains by interacting with and hearing from experienced leaders in different positions. With newly acquired skills, I seek to learn about the systems level while paying close attention to the accessibility and barriers of different systems and resources and their impacts on young children and their families.”
Teri Talan, our Senior Policy Advisor, spoke recently at New America in Washington D.C. at an event called The Power of Leaders in Early Learning. As part of the panel, she shared her insight into how states and organizations can better prepare leaders through policy for the early childhood workforce.
Watch below to hear from Teri about her experience and how she believes the early childhood landscape can be improved using efforts such as the L.E.A.D. Clearinghouse to change policies and grow leaders in the field.