A Strategies for Children Reunion

From the 1990s — when Margaret Blood created a small nonprofit called Strategies for Children and asked Paul O’Brien to serve as president of the board — to now, more than a dozen policy professionals have worked for Strategies, continuing and expanding our efforts to create the best system of early education and care for young children. 

Last month, we were thrilled to welcome many of them back for a Strategies for Children reunion where Amy O’Leary, Strategies’ executive director, and Sally Fuller, president of Strategies’ board, recognized Blood and O’Brien for their decades of work — and caught up with past and present Strategies’ staffers.

In addition to its decades of advocacy for children, Strategies has also been a place from which staff have gone on to work in government, foundations, business, policy, and the nonprofit world both on behalf of children and to meet a diverse range of human needs.

“It was such a special night and wonderful to see so many SFC staff and Board members in the same room,” O’Leary said. “Each person has helped to shape the organization we are today. I am so grateful to Margaret Blood and Paul O’Brien — personally and professionally — for their inspirational leadership. It is important to honor our past as we continue to think boldly about the future.”

It was great to see former staffers, including (in alphabetical order): 

Kyle DeMeo Cook, who started as a Strategies intern during her senior year at Boston College, became our early childhood field director, and is currently a professor in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department at the Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development

Amy Kershaw, who was the second person hired at Strategies as well as our first research and policy director, and now serves as commissioner of the Department of Early Education and Care

Kelly Kulsrud, our former director of reading proficiency, who was most recently the executive director/co-founder of the consulting firm Lectio

Emily Levine, our former research and field associate, who is now the chief of staff at 2Life Communities

Carolyn Lyons, Strategies’ former executive director and currently president of the consulting firm CL Strategies

Chirs Martes, a former schools superintendent, a past Strategies board member, and a past executive director at Strategies

Coleman Nee, a former public relations professional who worked with Blood, served as the Massachusetts Secretary for Veteran Affairs, and is now the CEO of Triangle, Inc.

Joan Wasser Gish, Strategies’ former director of research and policy, and currently the director of systemic impact at the Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children at Boston College’s Lynch School for Education and Human Development

Among those who, sadly, couldn’t come to the reunion, but sent their best regards were: 

JD Chesloff, a former Strategies legislative director, and, now the president and CEO of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable 

Tom Weber, our former legislative director as well as a former commissioner of the Department of Early Education and Care, and currently the executive director of the Massachusetts Business Coalition for Early Childhood Education

Chad d’Entremont, former research and policy director, and now the executive director at the Rennie Center.

Other former staffers couldn’t attend but were there in spirit. Please stay tuned for more information about our staff alumni — and more about our future.

“As we look ahead,” O’Leary says, “we’re excited about how much potential there is for Massachusetts to strengthen and deliver a world class system of support and resources for young children and families. And we look forward to welcoming the future Strategies staffers who will help us accomplish this work.”