Reflection on the Life of MaryLee Allen

Honoring a Children’s Champion

By Yasmina Vinci, Executive Director of the National Head Start Association, with assistance by Giannina Garcia, NHSA intern

Earlier this month, MaryLee Allen, policy director at Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) and lifelong Head Start champion passed away. MaryLee was an adamant supporter of Head Start throughout her career, and the impact of her work will be felt for decades by millions of children and families.

From the first time I met her, MaryLee was the untiring champion for the most vulnerable of children, and this of course meant that Head Start children had a special place in her heart.

My colleagues and I who had the honor to know her greatly respected her voice, which balanced her passion for justice with her uncanny understanding of just how to be effective in getting better policies adopted by Congress. We all learned a great deal from MaryLee about the craft of working patiently toward important goals with allies on both sides of the aisle. And that is another portion of her legacy that will live on in all of us who were guided by her example.

MaryLee joined Children’s Defense Fund in 1973 and worked with them until her passing. She dedicated her career to furthering policies to end child poverty, ensure comprehensive mental and physical health coverage for all children, promote equitable education, and keep children safe in permanent, loving homes.

Allen helped make major progress in child welfare with her work on the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, and the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018. She also co-chaired the National Child Welfare and Mental Health Coalition and served on the Board of Directors of Generations United. In 2017, she was awarded the Child Welfare Leadership Prize from the Juvenile Law Center.

MaryLee Allen was a champion of children and a champion of Head Start. I echo the words of John Sciamanna, vice president of public policy for the Child Welfare League of America, who recently wrote of MaryLee, “In her dedication and work she sent forth, in the words of Robert Kennedy, ‘a ripple of hope’ that did make a difference. She will be missed by us all.”