Katrina Boykin

Katrina has a Masters of Arts Degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of Colorado at Denver and a BA in Early Childhood Education from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.  She holds a Level V Early Childhood Professional Credential and an Infant Toddler Endorsement.

Katrina provides ongoing early childhood professional development guidance to early childhood educators through meetings, presentations, trainings, and visits to college classrooms.  She helps educators navigate collegiate coursework in order to advance from one level to another within the Smart Start Colorado Office of Professional Development’s early childhood credential career lattice.

Katrina is a long-term member and volunteer of a mothers’ organization named Jack and Jill of America Inc. and is also very involved in the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority here in Denver. Katrina is a native of Denver and enjoys spending time with her husband and four children.

Nancy Burdic

After receiving a Bachelor of Science in Communication Disorders from Colorado State University and a Master of Arts in Speech from Washington State University, I began my career as a speech/language pathologist working in the states of Washington, Arizona, and California.  I served the needs of elementary school aged students presenting with a variety of handicapping conditions for sixteen years.  I found the experience very rewarding and enjoyed working with families, students, and educators. 

Luckily, ten years ago, my family relocated again (hopefully for the last time!) to Colorado where I got involved in the preschool program in the Douglas County School District.  For nine years, I served on a transdiciplinary team addressing the needs of significantly impaired students enrolled in fully integrated classroom programs, most recently specializing in students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. I found the work environment and the administrative guidance to be the most supportive, innovative, and professionally rewarding of any of my previous settings.

When an opportunity became available to be a part of the Leadership team that would continue to chart the course of early childhood education in DCSD, I leapt at it.  As a Preschool Resource Teacher, I am responsible for thirteen classrooms providing staff training, specific consultation, technical support, facilitation at meetings, and help in seeking out appropriate resources. 

I live in Centennial with my husband, Brad.  Our son, Kellen, graduated in May from CU and our daughter, Mackenzie, will begin her sophomore year there in August.

Mary Byrd

Mary DeLamar Byrd is currently employed as a Preschool Resource Teacher with Douglas County Schools, and serves as a member of the Leadership Team within the Early Childhood Department.  She also works with a district literacy committee. Her twenty two years of experience in the Early Care and Education field has included Speech Language Pathology and classroom work with transdiciplinary teams in public schools, hospital/rehabilitation centers, community center board settings and in private practice. 

In 1997, she was recognized with a Children’s Champion Award from CAEYC for her work initiating and coordinating community activities for families.  She has participated in and collaborated with CDE pilot sites for inclusion programs for 0-5 aged children in community and public school settings. Mary is an alumnus of Baylor University where she received her B. S. Ed. and M. S. Speech Language Pathology degrees, and is an active member of the Colorado Speech Language Hearing Association, the American Speech Language Hearing Association, the Colorado Association for the Education of Young Children, the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the International Reading Association.  Mary is excited to be a fellow in the DU-Buell EC Leadership Program!

Wendie Edwards

I was born in Dickinson, North Dakota and raised in Denver, Colorado. I earned a B. S. degree in Early Childhood Education at Langston University. I have over 24 years of experience in the field of Early Childhood Education. I have taught infants through 5th grade for more than 20 years. Of those, 13 years include supervisory/administrative experience. My current position is Education Director of Creative Options Center for Early Education; a program of Cerebral Palsy of Colorado. I am a blessed mother of an amazing, intelligent, 16 year old son. I enjoy spending time with my family and volunteering for various community organizations.

Sofia Esteve-Sychla

I was born in Cuba and came to the United States in 1960. I attended the University of Puerto Rico where I graduated with a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology.

For the past twenty-three years, I have been active in early care and education for children.  My experience includes being a home provider, a preschool teacher and a center director. Currently, I am employed at Clayton Early Childhood Resource Institute, as a Quality Improvement Coach.

Nitchka Felix

My name is Nitchka "Nikkie" Felix.  I am currently an ESL Spanish Resource Teacher at Florida Pitt Waller K-8 School.  I have recently completed the Ritchie Leadership Program for School Leaders. 

My BS is in Elementary Education, with a minor in Spanish.  My current studies include the completion of my MA in Education Leadership at the University of Denver.  I am an advocate for providing access to a quality education for all children.

Cathrine Floyd

Cathrine has been in the field of Early Care and Education since 1989.   She has worked as a teacher, director, curriculum coordinator and multi-site manager.  She is currently working for Denver Public Schools as a Community Specialist.  Her main duties include working with the 46 classrooms throughout Denver centers that are contracted with DPS to provide Colorado Preschool and Kindergarten Program services to kids who are considered at-risk for early school failure.  Through her position with DPS, these Community Sites are provided staff development, curriculum training and quality improvement materials.

She has, also, been accepted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children as an assessor for the reinvented Accreditation system and will begin her training in the fall.

Cathrine earned her Bachelor’s degree in Developmental Psychology from the University of California at Irvine in 1991 and her Master’s in Early Childhood Education from the University of Colorado at Denver in 1998.

Joni Goodwin

My experience in the early childcare field includes having been a licensed family childcare provider for fifteen years and a center director in a preschool program.   Currently I am employed as a program site coach for childcare programs.  I work with early childhood teachers to enhance the quality of their programs and guide the teachers along their professional development path.  I co-chair our local AEYC and am the professional development coordinator for our early childhood council.  I am looking forward to this opportunity of gaining new insight, knowledge, and skills through this leadership program.

Sheila Groneman

Sheila has been the director of the Head Start program in Summit County since it’s inception over 4 years ago.  Previously, she was the early childhood coordinator for the Youth and Family Department with Summit County Government overseeing the implementation of a continuum of home visitation and child abuse prevention programs.

Sheila’s  years of experience in the field of early childhood have also included working as a public and private school classroom teacher, child care center director, resource & referral director, parent educator, teacher mentor/coach, and Community College early childhood adjunct instructor. Sheila has held advocacy roles in early childhood locally, regionally, and at the state serving on councils and task forces. Recent involvement has been with the state Early Childhood School Readiness Commission and the Colorado Association of School Boards Early Childhood task force. She is currently serving as a Vice President for the Colorado Head Start Association and is a member of the Summit School District Board of Education. Sheila earned her bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Lenita Hartman

Lenita Ashley Hartman currently serves as the Associate Director and Fisher Inclusion Team coordinator at the University of Denver/Fisher Early Learning Center. In August of 2007 she will complete her Masters Degree in Leadership and Organizational Change. She has been active in the field of early childhood education for the past fifteen years. Lenita is passionate about educating young children and advocating for children with special needs. She resides in Englewood with her husband and two teenaged children.

Terry Hotz

I have been with Delta County School District for 30 years.  I have a MA in Education with a Educationally Handicapped endorsement (K-12).  I am preschool director qualified and PAT trained. I spent my earlier years with the District teaching children (K-12) with perceptual difficulties and emotional behaviors. I then taught kindergarten for many years. The last 14 years, I have been the program facilitator for the Preschool Backpack Program, a strong parent involvement program. In addition, in the last five years, I currently serve as the executive-director for the Backpack Early Learning Academy and the Colorado Preschool and Kindergarten Program, coordinator.  

Kristy Johnson

Kristy Johnson has worked at Denver-based non-profit, Invest in Kids, as the Child/Teacher Program Specialist, for the past five years. Invest in Kids works statewide in local communities to identify, support and sustain two evidence-based programs, The Nurse-Family Partnership and The Incredible Years.  Kristy works with 20-25 preschool – second grade classrooms around the state each year to train teachers in Social and Emotional foundations and then to help teachers prevent and address challenging behaviors and to implement the Incredible Years with fidelity to the program model. Kristy has recently been selected to coach classroom teachers in the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning’s Pyramid approach as well. Before joining IIK, Kristy had been working in public and private schools with children ages 2-8 for seven years. She has a Master’s degree in Education with an emphasis on working with culturally and linguistically diverse students and has also worked with teachers around Summit County on their English Language Acquisition program. She is immediate past President of the Summit County Board of Education and was the Executive Director of the Family Center in Summit County working with parenting and other family programs.  She is the only authorized trainer for the Incredible Years Child/Teacher program in Colorado.

Vangi McCoy

I currently work as a Child/Teacher Program Specialist for the Incredible Years, a social/emotional program.  I provide TA to classrooms implementing the program.  1/2 of my time is with The Pinon Project in Cortez (a family resource center) and 1/2 of my time is with Invest in Kids (a non-profit serving the state of Colorado.)  I also teach Incredible Years parenting classes.  I have taught everything from Head Start to college classes, having varied experience such as being an Early Reading First literacy coach, and Project Wild and Learning Tree statewide facilitator.  I received my bachelors from Arizona State in 1984 in elementary education.  I am a wife and mother of four, ranging from age 13 to 27.

Patricia Mitchell

Since August 2002, I have been employed as an Early Childhood Education teacher at Philips then at Barney Ford Elementary Schools.  Prior to that, I was employed as the Human Resources Assistant with the Clayton Foundation for five years.

My long-term employment included working with various agencies within the Federal Government.  My last position with the Government was as a Personnel Management Specialist/ System Analysis for the Department of the Interior.  I completed my bachelor’s degree in English with an endorsement in Early Childhood Education at Metropolitan State College in Denver, Colorado.  I consider myself fortunate to be employed as a teacher in my endorsement area at Barney Ford.  I currently serve as chairperson of the CSC (Community and School Collaboration) committee.

 I am honored to be a participant in the Buell ECE Leadership Program.

Cynthia Neale-Downing

I am currently the Director of Child Care Services for Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs. I oversee the Child Development Centers at two campus locations. The sites have a dual mission of providing care and educational services for children of college students and are lab and observation sites for academic programs including Early Childhood Education, Nursing and Psychology. For the last several years I have also served as adjunct faculty for the PPCC Early Childhood Education Department. I have been in the ECE field for over 31 years. My experience includes classroom teacher, program director, trainer, consultant, family child care, child care resource and referral and child care food program administration.

Jennifer Rodriguez

Born and Resides:
· Born in Denver, Colorado
· Currently lives in Highlands Ranch, Colorado (8 years)
Education:
· B.A. in English Literature, Emphasis in Elementary Education
· B.A. in Multicultural Studies
· Colorado Teaching License/Certificate
· M.A.- Elementary Education
Experience:
· Private In-Home Nanny/Child-Provider (4 years)
· Elementary Teacher Grades 3 + 4 - Denver Public Schools (2 years)
· Early Education Department - Denver Public Schools (3 years)
· Director of Early Excellence Preschool Program - Wyatt-Edison Charter School (5 years)
· Mother of two daughters - 5 years old and 11 years old
Activities/Interests:
· Spending time with my family visiting the mountains, reading, hiking, running, swimming, and skiing.

Sheryl Shushan

I graduated from Naropa University with a degree in ECE in 1994. In 1996 I founded the C Lazy U Ranch Preschool in Granby, CO. I opened the door with only seven students.  Today the preschool has over 30 students each year. I have been the director of this program for the passed 11 years.

Jane Walsh

Jane Walsh has worked in the field of Early Care and Education for 25 plus years. She brings an understanding of current early childhood issues that is based on her experiences in program implementation and public policy development. Ms. Walsh’s work spans the private and public sectors as well as city government. As coordinator of the Denver Joint Council’s Goals 2000 project, she was actively involved in the development, field testing, and piloting of the Denver Early Childhood Standards and the Early Childhood Standards Assessment of Readiness Tool (ESTART). Initially representing Denver Public Schools (DPS) Early Education Department and then the Mayor’s Office for Education and Children (MOEC), she was a member of the task force that wrote the Denver/Triad Licensing Model to reform the state’s child care licensing monitoring system. As Director of the Office of Child Care Initiatives in MOEC, she oversaw Denver’s Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) activities. Striving to increase the quality of care available to all children, she wrote and had funded a State Quality Improvement Grant through which exempt child care providers became licensed. Currently, Ms. Walsh is a Project Specialist overseeing the coordination and implementation of an Early Reading First Grant project for DPS.

Becky Ward-Smith

I am a full time faculty member at Aims Community College in the ECE  program.  My formal education includes a BS in Early Childhood Education,  an MA in Human Development and Family Studies, and an MS in Early  Childhood Special Education.  I am the president of the Weld District of  CAEYC.  I live in Fort Collins with my husband, baby daughter, and our  three dogs and volunteer with Larimer Animal People Partnership, bringing  animals and people together for therapeutic and recreational activities.