Staff
Muffy Grant
Science tells us that children are learning from the earliest days of their existence. In fact, a child enters kindergarten with 85% of their total brain volume. This means that all the exciting opportunities for building solid foundations for life long health and learning, begins with babies. At NCECF, we believe that sustained investments in young children is the tide that lifts all boats. Healthy beginnings, supported families, and communities, and high-quality early learning environments are at the nexus of a healthy economy and most importantly, a healthy society.
Lisa Finaldi
Community matters. It’s where dynamic change happens. That’s why I help strengthen the ability of communities to collaborate and accelerate – so they can accomplish what they set out to do. At NCECF, I support community collaboration and business and faith leaders to build a strong foundation for lifelong success for North Carolina’s children.
I’ve also worked with communities around the world, on environmental justice health issues, across Europe and here at home in places like Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana and Stanly and Bladen counties, North Carolina. I have fostered healthy and safe communities through many lenses – from changing policy with a focus on prevention of environmental health threats to enhancing what’s working.
Crystal Folmar
I believe that the key to achieving a more equitable future begins with expanding access to quality education. Having worked for several years in the classroom as a teacher, I have witnessed first-hand the impact that early childhood has on a child’s future. I also understand that sustainable change is only possible through multi-faceted initiatives and community collaboration. For this reason, I am excited to have the opportunity to support NCECF’s vital work creating strong foundations for children across the state.
Dr. Micere Keels
I am blessed to have a mother for whom writing is everything, she paid much of her way through college by winning poetry scholarships. For me, reading is everything; one of my favorite childhood memories is the first time I was allowed to go by myself to the mobile library and then spending the day curled up on my back veranda reading through my newly discovered treasures.
I emphasize the importance of early reading by reminding people that from birth to third grade children are learning to read and then from third grade on they are reading to learn. I will never forget Dr. Carol D. Lee’s statement (one of my former professors): “this is not a technological issue, we know how to teach children to read.” No child should fall behind in school or in life because we haven’t invested the time and resources to ensure that they know how to read to learn.
Lindsay K. Saunders
When I was riding with my taxi driver, as he was taking me from the US Embassy to a doctor’s appointment, we passed by the University of Zambia. I thought of how Mr. Mwale put his kids and family first. “Why do you think education is so important?” I asked. He smiled and said, “for the future.” That’s how I’ve always felt, too. Early childhood is the beginning of children’s dreams for their future. When I was nine years old, I drew a picture of my plans for my own future: to be an actress, a teacher, and a writer. As it so happens, I’ve done those things, and it’s become my passion to use storytelling to educate, entertain, and inspire people about the issues impacting families all around the world and in my dear home state.
Having grown up in Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, I got my undergrad and graduate education at East Carolina in Greenville, and have now called Raleigh my adopted hometown for 12 years. My husband, a Zambian immigrant, and I are excited to be starting our family, relishing in all the adventure, arts and natural magic our great state has to offer.
Kaylan Sloane
As a child growing up with a parent who worked in the Wake County library system, I was privileged to be able to spend many, many hours inside libraries, wandering around stacks of books and seeing the inner workings of a library. Admittedly, I was really just intrigued by illustrations more than actual reading, but the constant exposure to literature led me to love reading now and to be curious as an adult.
Knowing that this quantity of exposure to books is not a usual childhood experience (or adulthood for many), I am happy to be able to contribute to the inner workings of NCECF, in hopes that the joy and adventure of reading can be opened to many children in our mission to build a supportive, effective, and equitable early childhood foundation.