MDA: Turning Challenges into Opportunities
Hundreds of Head Start leadership teams traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, last week for NHSA’s 2018 Manager and Director Academy. Over the four-day conference they learned new tools, strategies, and procedures to help ensure that their programs run as effectively as possible, and are making the impact on children and families that the new Head Start Performance Standards are intended to drive. Experts in everything from fiscal management and grant-writing to professional development and data analysis led trainings and interactive workshops in a collaborative, supportive environment.
Kadejah Pearson, Associate Event Planner at NHSA, said of the exciting event: “It’s a place for managers and directors to come together; for them to be inspired and to inspire each other… take the skills they learn from our presenters back to their programs and really become pioneers and game-changers.”
Belinda Rinker, Senior Policy Analyst at the Office of Head Start, presented at the Academy on fiscal operations and the Uniform Guidance, drawing on her 30 years of Head Start experience. Belinda said of the value of the Academy, and Head Start conferences in general:
“We do start to get the consistency of understanding, the consistency of message and the ability to move forward in a way that really is reflective of the expectations of the Office of Head Start, the requirements of the Performance Standards, and also reflective of the kinds of best practices that NHSA is good at highlighting.”
Also presenting at the Academy was Chaka Booker, the managing director for The Broad Center, a national nonprofit focused on leadership development in public education. Chaka spent seven years working on recruitment and selection, five years leading a team focused on professional development, and currently leads the team which supports the continued development of the center’s alumni.
Like Belinda, Chaka recognizes the value of NHSA events for Head Start practitioners: “This kind of work that the National Head Start Association is doing with these types of events is critical. We have to bring people together, to learn from each other, to keep getting refreshed on new ideas and new ways to approach our work. Because otherwise we can become stagnant.”
The 2018 Manager and Director Academy was a collective effort to turn the critical challenges that Head Start programs face into opportunities to come up with creative solutions. Sound like something you or your staff would benefit from? Visit our website to learn about upcoming training events hosted by NHSA and sign up to be notified when registration begins!
