Article Link: http://stage.exchangepress.com/article/looking-ahead-to-a-national-strategy-an-interview-with-joan-lombardi/5020466/
Joan Lombardi served as Deputy Assistant Secretary and Inter-Departmental Liaison for Early Childhood Development for the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2009 through fall of 2011. Over the past 40 years, Dr. Lombardi has made significant contributions as an innovative leader, a pioneering public servant, and an advisor to national and international organizations including the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and UNICEF. She was the founding chair of the Birth to Five Policy Alliance, the founder of Global Leaders for Young Children, among other initiatives, and is the author of Time to Care: Redesigning Child Care to Promote Education, Support and Build Communities (2001).Karolak: You started out in an early childhood program, and you recently left the Administration as its top early childhood official. Do you see those different parts of your career as connected and what’s next?
Lombardi: My background as an early childhood classroom teacher and program administrator provided a foundation for my work in government. I’ve had multiple experiences in the field �" as a Head Start teacher, child care administrator, in a community college and at the University level, as a mother ...