I write you today to share the latest arrival to the Early Education grantmaking team at the Heising-Simons Foundation. Last month, Rebecca Gomez joined us as a program officer for the program. She’s an incredible addition to the Foundation, and will be working with many of our grantees on early education policy and on improving programs and systems.

Rebecca comes to us with expertise on early childhood policy and government systems. She has worked at Rutgers University’s National Institute for Early Education Research, where she was an assistant research professor and led the State of Preschool Yearbook data collection and analysis team. She is a former research fellow at the National Center for Children and Families at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she conducted domestic and international research on early childhood systems, with a particular focus on governance and professional development. She also served on the board of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. But her experience with early childhood education isn’t limited to research—Rebecca began her career as a preschool teacher.

We look forward to working with Rebecca and welcome her to the Early Education team!