Moderator

Jamie Bonczyk is the Executive Director of Hopkins Early Learning Center in Hopkins, MN. She has over 20 years in the Early Childhood Profession. Jamie started her career as a Pre-k teacher. Along her journey from classroom to director Jamie earned a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Leadership (Roosevelt University, Chicago) and completed an Early Childhood management Fellowship at UCLA. Jamie sits on several statewide committees and is part of a national Early Childhood Leadership initiative. In her personal life, she is a student and performer of improvised theater and storytelling. Jamie uses these skills daily to avoid power struggles while helping her daughter get ready for bed and/or get to the bus on time.

Panelists

Erin Bailey has been a lifelong advocate for children and health care for underserved communities. She currently serves as the Assistant Commissioner and Executive Director of the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet, housed at Minnesota Management and Budget.

She began her career in Washington, D.C., working in federal health policy including advising the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Erin also launched and served as the inaugural Executive Director at the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute, which is dedicated to raising national attention to the issues facing Native American youth. More recently, Erin served as the Director of Executive Initiatives at Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare in St. Paul. As a member of the senior team, Erin worked on a variety of strategic initiatives, including advocating for children who have disabilities and complex medical conditions.

Erin has a Bachelor of Science from Georgetown University and a Master in Public Health from the University of Minnesota. She is a recipient of the Daniel K. Inouye Indigenous Spirit Award and has been awarded the Outstanding Congressional Staff Award from the American Diabetes Association and the National Impact Award from the National Council of Urban Indian Health. She currently serves on the boards for the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute, National Alliance for Grieving Children, and the Friends of the Saint Paul Library.

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Debra Ren-Etta Sullivan is the cofounder and president of the Praxis Institute for Early Childhood Education-a new, racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse college that provides graduate and undergraduate education and professional development for people who work with young children. Prior to beginning the Praxis Institute, she served six years as the dean at Pacific Oaks College Northwest. Dr. Sullivan has worked in higher education for the last twenty-three years as a teacher, researcher, curriculum developer, and administrator. She earned her doctorate in educational leadership and her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Seattle University. Currently, Dr. Sullivan serves on Washington State’s Early Learning Council, the Foundation for Early Learning Advisory, the Families and Education Levy Oversight Committee, the National Association for the Education of Young Children Professional Development review panel and nominating panel, and the ParentMap Magazine editorial board. Publications: Cultivating the Genius of Black Children: Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap in the Early Years (Redleaf Press, 2017), Learning to Lead: Effective Leadership Skills for Teachers of Young Children (Redleaf Press, 2003) Dr. Sullivan teaches undergraduate and graduate-level leadership classes and has over ten years of experience providing consultation, workshops, presentations, and addresses on topics such as leadership development, cultural relevancy, organizational change, and school readiness.

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Heidi Hagel Braid is the Chief Program Officer at First Children’s Finance, a nonprofit organization focused on increasing the sustainability and supply of high quality child care businesses. Hagel Braid leads efforts to create, implement and communicate early care and education business strategies that lead to a well-paid workforce, more sustainable and accessible high quality care, and improved outcomes for children. She specializes in increasing states’ capacity to address early care and education business needs and opportunities for alignment of resources.

Hagel Braid joined First Children’s Finance as the Regional Director, Minnesota and the Dakotas, in 2012, bringing over 15 years of nonprofit experience and a strong history working on the behalf of children and families. In 2013, Heidi launched the Rural Child Care Innovation Program, an innovative effort linking rural economic development and child care. She has also led the development of national child care business analysis tools that assess the financial operations of family child care businesses.

Presenter

Lauren Hogan is the Managing Director of Policy and Professional Advancement at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), with responsibility for a portfolio that includes federal and state policy and advocacy, higher education accreditation, professional recognition, and applied research. She has developed and led NAEYC’s bi-partisan early childhood policy agenda with a keen focus on centering the voices of educators, shared leadership, innovation, diversity, and equity. She previously served as the Vice President of Programs and Policy at the National Black Child Development Institute. Lauren began her career working with an after-school program in Louisville, Kentucky and later served as the director of an early literacy and family support program in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She also served as a Rappaport Public Policy Fellow in the Department of Social Services in Boston, MA. Lauren earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a Master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Presenter

Lisa Thompson is an educator, trainer and RBPD specialist. She earned her elementary teaching degree from St. Catherine’s University, but she found her passion in early childhood education. She has worked in various direct care environments, including 25 years as a family child care provider and as a trainer for other ECE professionals. She has invested much of her career to collaboratively developing support services for family child care providers, with an emphasis on building cultural competency and advocating for the profession. After completing a master’s program in advocacy and public policy, she joined the Think Small team helping new child care businesses get off to a great start.

Presenter

Dana Ellingson has been in the early childhood field for over 25 years investing herself in many roles as an Early Childhood Educator and Business Owner, Accreditation Program Manager, Trainer Mentor and Coach. Her recent focus has been on supporting adults that work with children, to build quality in the early childhood education field. She is currently obtaining her Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education. Her other interests are exploring new ideas and spending as much time as she can with her family.

Presenter

Andy Johnsrud has been teaching and training in Minnesota and the Midwest for over 20 years. He brings a unique perspective to early childhood as a veteran public-school teacher. It may just be that the skills and mindset needed for loving, firm limits for a young one vs. a teen are not all that different. His presentations emphasize a practical and realistic ideas and skills to help loving adults give kids the very best example possible. That example may be the greatest gift we have to offer our children. He lives in Rochester with his wife, three children, and their dog named Vivian, a hamster named Chicken Nugget, and a beta fish named Shrek.

Presenter

Tom Copeland is the nation’s leading expert on the business of family child care. He is an independent consultant, trainer, author, and family child care advocate. Since 1981 he has helped hundreds of thousands of people understand complex business and tax issues.

From 1981 – 2009 Tom worked for Resources for Child Caring (RCC), a non-profit Child Care Resource and Referral Agency in St. Paul, Minnesota. From 1992 – 2009 he was director of Redleaf National Institute, the national center for the business of family child care, a division of RCC.

Since 2009 he has been an independent consultant. He offers a variety of workshops and webinars on business issues for family child care providers, trainers, and tax preparers. Each year he teaches thousands of family child care providers through live trainings and answers more than a thousand questions via email and phone.

In 2017 his blog was chosen as one of the top Child Care Blogs in the U.S. In 2014 his blog was chosen as one of the top 50 Money Management Blogs in the country by Direct Capital. 2004 he won the Advocate of the Year Award from the National Association for Family Child Care. In 1998 he won the Child Care Advocate of the Year award from the Minnesota Licensed Family Child Care Association. He has represented numerous child care providers in IRS audits and has won six US Tax Court cases.

He is the author of eleven books on the business of child care, all published by Redleaf Press.

Tom graduated from Macalester College (BA) in 1972 and from William Mitchell College of Law (JD) in 1980